Second Sabotage Attack in a Month Against the Gasline Linking Block 18 to the Balhaf LNG Terminal

摘要

Yemen LNG reported on 26 April that a sabotage attack had been perpetrated against the gasline linking Block 18 to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at Balhaf, on the Gulf of Aden. It was the second attack in the space of a month against this pipeline, which is 320 kilometers long and 38 inches in diameter, since the company had confirmed an earlier attack at the end of March (AOG, 16 April, 2012).Like the earlier bombing, the one that took place on 26 April did not cause any injuries. Yemen LNG explained that it happened at 10.20 pm in a desert area about 260 kilometers north of the Balhaf gas liquefaction plant. The sabotage attack carried out the month before took place about 40 km north of the liquefaction plant. The company had then indicated that it would result in only a very limited loss of production, since the plant was due to be shut down for maintenance work on 15 April. It had been suggested that four cargoes of LNG would be lost. A week earlier, on 19 April, Yemen LNG had indicated that it had had to cancel six LNG shipments as a result of the first attack but that it expected to abide by the loading schedule for the month of May. The company intends to step up its production in order to supply its customers with as much of the volume lost in those six cargoes as possible.