Blasts hit oil, gas pipelines in Yemen

Two bomb blasts struck Yemen's gas and oil pipelines that link central fields with maritime terminals on the Gulf of Aden, officials and a company statement said Tuesday. The first explosion early on Tuesday sabotaged the country's sole pipeline transporting gas from fields in Marib to the southern Belhaf export terminal, Yemen LNG Company said. It went off 35 kilometres (22 miles) north of Balhaf Liquefication Plant, in which France's Total has an almost 40 percent stake, the company said, adding that it "caused no victims." The explosion occurred in the province of Shabwa, where Al-Qaeda militants remain active, and through which the 320-kilometre (200-mile) 38-inch pipeline travels, a security official said. The second blast hit an oil pipeline operated by Korea National Oil Corporation, also in Shabwa, a local official said, adding that suspected Qaeda militants were behind the night time attack. He said the assailants appeared to have planted the explosives underneath the 204-kilometre (128-mile) pipeline which transfers crude oil from Ayad fields in the province of Shabwa which produces around 10,000 barrels per day. Gas and oil pipelines have been a regular target for sabotage attacks in impoverished southern Arabian Peninsula nation, which relies on its modest exports as a main source of revenue.