Yemen Restarts Main Oil Export Pipeline

Yemen resumed exports from its main oil pipeline on Saturday, one day after an attack by tribesmen temporarily halted flows, industry sources said.

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 Friday when tribesmen blew up the pipeline which transports crude from Marib oil fields in central Yemen to Ras Isa on the Red Sea.

Yemen has said that 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.

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 Maha El Dahan; Editing by Stephen Powell)