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UAE mercenaries plundering oil reserves in Yemen’s Shabwah, documents reveal

In this file picture, a Yemeni oil worker looks out at the Aden refinery in southern Yemen. (By AFP)

Shedding more light on the United Arab Emirates’ involvement in looting Yemen’s natural resources, new documents reveal that Abu Dhabi employs allied Takfiri militants to plunder oil reserves in the country’s energy-rich southern province of Shabwah.

The newly obtained records show that the al-Messila Petroleum Exploration and Production Company had highlighted in several bulletins that UAE mercenaries – better known by the nom de guerre the Giants – were ferociously stealing crude oil from Block 5 wells in the province.

The papers, broadcast by the Yemeni al-Masirah television network, also reveal that the bulletins were directed at the Central Command of the Saudi-led military coalition, and disclosed that the Giants were aggressively stealing oil from the wells, which are operated by the Jannah Hunt Oil Company.

The documents also revealed that the fifth, eighth and eleventh brigades of the UAE mercenaries were responsible for the protection of the wells and that the militants’ theft of oil reserves recorded a sharp increase throughout January.

Last December, the minister of oil and minerals in Yemen’s National Salvation Government warned foreign companies against plundering the energy resources of the war-wracked Arab country, stressing that Sana’a will spare no effort to defend its national sovereignty and safeguard public interests and wealth.

Ahmed Dares called on multinational oil and gas companies to enter into negotiations with the Sana’a government before taking any actions to explore and extract crude oil and natural gas in Yemen and cautioned of adverse consequences in case the warning is not taken into serious consideration.

“Sana’a will not remain idle in the face of any escalation of tensions by the Saudi-led coalition of aggression in the economic field,” the Yemeni oil minister noted.

Yemen’s National Salvation Government also issued a warning in late October last year, after targeting a cargo ship off an oil terminal in the country’s south to prevent Saudi-backed forces from using it for oil exports.

In a statement at the time, Yemen’s Foreign Ministry denounced the UN Security Council’s reaction to the “warning strike” at the al-Dubba terminal, where a Greek oil tanker was docked to load oil. The statement came after the council denounced the strike as a serious threat to the peace process and stability of Yemen.

The ministry stressed that Yemen will not hesitate to defend its national sovereignty and safeguard public interests and wealth against any act of looting or abuse.


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