Yemen LNG Co. said
Wednesday the country's only liquefied natural gas pipeline supplying
its plants was hit by an explosion late Tuesday, which the company
said was due to sabotage.
The attack, the seventh in a
year, hit the 38 inch gas pipeline that links block 18 to the Balhaf
terminal on the Gulf of Aden, the company said in a statement posted
on its website.
It occurred at 2200 hours local time
Tuesday, 295 kilometers north of Balhaf.
The latest
explosion comes only a few weeks after the plants resumed operation
following sabotage in September. It wasn't immediately clear if the
plants would be shut down following the latest incident or if exports
were being halted.
The 320-kilometer LNG terminal has
been repeatedly attacked by suspected al Qaeda-linked
militants.
Yemen began exporting LNG from Balhaf in
2009. French group Total SA (TOT) has an almost 40% interest in the
liquefaction plants.
The $4.5 billion Yemen LNG project
has two production trains with a combined capacity of 6.7 million
tons a year, supplying mainly to Asia, Europe, North America and
South America.