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Yemen’s Oil Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Using SAFER to Blackmail Int’l Community

Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Abdul Salam Baaboud (Photo: Saad al-Dossary)
Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Abdul Salam Baaboud (Photo: Saad al-Dossary)
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Yemen’s Oil Minister to Asharq Al-Awsat: Houthis Using SAFER to Blackmail Int’l Community

Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Abdul Salam Baaboud (Photo: Saad al-Dossary)
Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Abdul Salam Baaboud (Photo: Saad al-Dossary)

Yemeni Minister of Oil and Minerals Abdul Salam Baaboud said that five international oil companies have resumed production after years of halt caused by the coup and the war that ravaged the country.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, the minister noted that major international companies specialized in oil field services, such as Baker Hughes and Schlumberger, have re-launched their operations, which he said was an important indication of the path towards the sector’s recovery.

For the first time since the coup, a number of exploration wells have been drilled over the past three months in Block 9, in addition to the completion of three-dimensional seismic surveys of 269 kilometers in the same sector, according to the minister.

Baaboud also said that the average oil production was around 55,000 barrels per day, adding that work was underway to restore production in Block 5 and export oil through the new pipeline, which means adding an estimated amount of 20,000-25,000 barrels per day in the early production phase.

“The government is deploying exceptional efforts to face many of the challenges produced by the coup. As oil is one of the most important contributor to our national economy, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals is working according to clear plans based on a strategic vision, the most important pillar of which was the completion of the institutional building of the ministry and its units,” he told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“In this context, we have re-activated the Petroleum Exploration and Production Authority (PEPA) in its new headquarters in the temporary capital, Aden. The Authority represents the institutional framework concerned with the supervision and technical monitoring of operating oil companies.”

The ministry has also formed a technical team to assess the damage incurred by the oil sector as a result of the war and to draft an integrated plan for the recovery and development process.

Asked about local and foreign oil companies currently operating in Yemen, Baaboud said: “The Ministry of Oil and Minerals has made great efforts to restore oil production in the different blocks… Block S1 in Al-Uqlah is operated by OMV, while Block 9 by Calvalley Petroleum... and these two are foreign companies.”

“There are also national companies that have re-launched their work, including the Safer Company in Block 18 of Maarib, and the PetroMasila Company in the blocks of Hadramout. Some major international companies specialized in oilfield services that have also resumed their activities, including, for example, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger. This is an important indication that the recovery has already begun for this important vital sector,” the minister remarked.

Yemen’s petroleum sector was the main tributary of the country’s economy. Before the Houthi coup, it contributed to the general budget by about 75 percent.

Asked about the sector’s contribution today, the minister said: “Certainly, Yemen’s production declined due to the coup and the war led by the Houthi militia… The state budget in normal circumstances depends mainly on oil revenues, which cover about 70 percent of the general budget resources, 63 percent of the country’s total exports, and 30 percent of GDP. In the wake of the coup, oil companies were forced to freeze their activities, and their employees left Yemen. Thus, estimating the state’s budget revenues and expenditures has become challenging.”

Baaboud highly valued the Saudi grant in support of the Yemeni government’s efforts to normalize the situation and restore stability in the country.

“Undoubtedly, the Saudi oil derivatives grant, which is the fourth, will have a great impact in supporting development and alleviating the suffering of citizens, as 80 power stations will be operated throughout the liberated governorates,” he underlined.

This will give the government time to devise future solutions to the electricity crisis, reduce the burden on the government’s budget, and contribute to stabilizing the Yemeni riyal exchange rate, according to the minister.

Asked about developments regarding the SAFER oil tanker and ongoing efforts to avert a disaster in the Red Sea, the Yemeni minister said: “The situation is getting worse day after day, as the Houthi militia continues to obstruct the efforts of the UN team. We have warned that these obstacles will lead to a disaster.”

“Unfortunately, the Houthi group is using the tanker to blackmail the international community and the Yemeni legitimacy, without any consideration of the consequences in the event of an oil spill. We call on the international community to assume its responsibilities and take this issue seriously and we appreciate the efforts of the United Nations to address this sensitive problem,” the minister said.

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Interviews

Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
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Goldrich to Asharq Al-Awsat: No US Withdrawal from Syria

US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich during the interview with Asharq Al-Awsat

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Ethan Goldrich has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US does not plan to withdraw its forces from Syria.

The US is committed to “the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with,” he said.

Here is the full text of the interview.

Question: Mr. Goldrich, thank you so much for taking the time to sit with us today. I know you are leaving your post soon. How do you assess the accomplishments and challenges remaining?

Answer: Thank you very much for the chance to talk with you today. I've been in this position for three years, and so at the end of three years, I can see that there's a lot that we accomplished and a lot that we have left to do. But at the beginning of a time I was here, we had just completed a review of our Syria policy, and we saw that we needed to focus on reducing suffering for the people in Syria. We needed to reduce violence. We needed to hold the regime accountable for things that are done and most importantly, from the US perspective, we needed to keep ISIS from reemerging as a threat to our country and to other countries. At the same time, we also realized that there wouldn't be a solution to the crisis until there was a political process under resolution 2254, so in each of these areas, we've seen both progress and challenges, but of course, on ISIS, we have prevented the reemergence of the threat from northeast Syria, and we've helped deal with people that needed to be repatriated out of the prisons, and we dealt with displaced people in al-Hol to reduce the numbers there. We helped provide for stabilization in those parts of Syria.

Question: I want to talk a little bit about the ISIS situation now that the US troops are still there, do you envision a timeline where they will be withdrawn? Because there were some reports in the press that there is a plan from the Biden administration to withdraw.

Answer: Yeah. So right now, our focus is on the mission that we have there to keep ISIS from reemerging. So I know there have been reports, but I want to make clear that we remain committed to the role that we play in that part of Syria, to the partnership that we have with the local forces that we work with, and to the need to prevent that threat from reemerging.

Question: So you can assure people who are saying that you might withdraw, that you are remaining for the time being?

Answer: Yes, and that we remain committed to this mission which needs to continue to be pursued.

Question: You also mentioned the importance of humanitarian aid. The US has been leading on this. Are you satisfied with where you are today on the humanitarian front in Syria?

Answer: We remain committed to the role that we play to provide for humanitarian assistance in Syria. Of the money that was pledged in Brussels, we pledged $593 million just this past spring, and we overall, since the beginning of the conflict, have provided $18 billion both to help the Syrians who are inside of Syria and to help the refugees who are in surrounding countries. And so we remain committed to providing that assistance, and we remain keenly aware that 90% of Syrians are living in poverty right now, and that there's been suffering there. We're doing everything we can to reduce the suffering, but I think where we would really like to be is where there's a larger solution to the whole crisis, so Syrian people someday will be able to provide again for themselves and not need this assistance.

Question: And that's a perfect key to my next question. Solution in Syria. you are aware that the countries in the region are opening up to Assad again, and you also have the EU signaling overture to the Syrian regime and Assad. How do you deal with that?

Answer: For the United States, our policy continues to be that we will not normalize with the regime in Syria until there's been authentic and enduring progress on the goals of resolution 2254, until the human rights of the Syrian people are respected and until they have the civil and human rights that they deserve. We know other countries have engaged with the regime. When those engagements happen, we don't support them, but we remind the countries that are engaged that they should be using their engagements to push forward on the shared international goals under 2254, and that whatever it is that they're doing should be for the sake of improving the situation of the Syrian people.

Question: Let's say that all of the countries decided to talk to Assad, aren’t you worried that the US will be alienated in the process?

Answer: The US will remain true to our own principles and our own policies and our own laws, and the path for the regime in Syria to change its relationship with us is very clear, if they change the behaviors that led to the laws that we have and to the policies that we have, if those behaviors change and the circumstances inside of Syria change, then it's possible to have a different kind of relationship, but that's where it has to start.

Question: My last question to you before you leave, if you have to pick one thing that you need to do in Syria today, what is it that you would like to see happening today?

Answer: So there are a number of things, I think that will always be left and that there are things that we will try to do, to try to make them happen. We want to hold people accountable in Syria for things that have happened. So even today, we observed something called the International Day for victims of enforced disappearances, there are people that are missing, and we're trying to draw attention to the need to account for the missing people. So our step today was to sanction a number of officials who were responsible for enforced disappearances, but we also created something called the independent institution for missing persons, and that helps the families, in the non-political way, get information on what's happened. So I'd like to see some peace for the families of the missing people. I'd like to see the beginning of a political process, there hasn't been a meeting of the constitutional committee in two years, and I think that's because the regime has not been cooperating in political process steps. So we need to change that situation. And I would, of course, like it's important to see the continuation of the things that we were talking about, so keeping ISIS from reemerging and maintaining assistance as necessary in the humanitarian sphere. So all these things, some of them are ongoing, and some of them remain to be achieved. But the Syrian people deserve all aspects of our policy to be fulfilled and for them to be able to return to a normal life.