Saboteurs Monday blew up a main pipeline linking oil fields between Yemen 's eastern Marib province and the capital Sanaa, "partially" interrupting the flow of crude, a local government official said.

"Unknown saboteurs blew up the pipeline at dawn at kilometer 35 in Wadi Abida" in Marib province, the official said, requesting anonymity.

As a result "oil flow was partially interrupted from the pipeline" that runs 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the Safer oilfields in Marib to an export terminal at the Red Sea , said the official.

The explosion caused a fire and plumes of smoke could be seen over the explosion site from many kilometers away, according to residents reached by telephone.

Attacks on oil and gas pipelines by Al-Qaeda or by tribesmen seeking to win concessions from the central government are common in Yemen , an impoverished country that produces about 300,000 barrels of oil a day, mostly for export.

According to official figures, lost production due to pipeline attacks in the east cost the government more than $1 billion in 2012, while oil exports fell by 4.5%.

In July, Petroleum and Minerals Minister Hisham Abdullah said Yemen had lost more than $4 billion in revenues since February 2011 as a result of such attacks.
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