Canadian energy firm Nexen will with-draw from Yemen’s oil block 51—its only remaining asset in the country—at the start May.It follows UK independent Dove Energy and its partners’exit from block 53 last month as violence escalates and the country hurtles towards civil war.The block is uneconomic,Nexen, part of Chinese state-controlled CNOOC, says.Operations were shut in on 22 December because of security fears. Yemen“is collapsing”,UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says.Iran-backed Shia Houthi fighters from the north, which seized the capital Sana’a in Sep-tember,are spreading across the country. Fighters affiliated with Islamist group al-Qaida in the Arabian peninsula are expanding activities further south.A clash between the groups could ignite civil war if no political settlement is reached.
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