Tribesmen Blow Up Yemeni Oil Export Pipeline, Halting Flows

Tribesmen blew up Yemen's main oil export pipeline on Friday, halting crude flows, local officials said, less than a week after it was repaired.

Yemen's oil and gas pipelines have been repeatedly sabotaged, often by tribesmen who have feuds with the central government, causing fuel shortages and slashing export earnings for the impoverished country. The last attack was on Oct. 16 and the pipeline was repaired two days later.

The officials said the pipeline, which transports crude from Marib oil fields in central Yemen to Ras Isa on the Red Sea, was blown up in the Wadi Obaida area.

Yemen has said oil flows through the Marib pipeline, one of its main petroleum export routes, at a rate of around 70,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Before the spate of attacks began three years ago, the 270-mile (435-km) pipeline carried around 110,000 barrels per day to Ras Isa.

It was unclear when it would be repaired.

Heavily-armed tribes carry out such assaults to extract concessions from the government such as jobs, settlements of land disputes or the release of relatives from prison.

Most of Yemen's output is from the Marib-Jawf area in the north, with the rest coming from Masila in the southeast.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Andrew Roche)