Saudi-led coalition plundered billions of dollars worth of Yemen oil since 2018: Minister
The Yemeni National Salvation Government says the Saudi-led coalition that invaded the impoverished country in 2015, has plundered billions of dollars worth of Yemen’s oil over the past four years.
The government’s Minister of Oil and Minerals Ahmad Abdullah Dares offered the information on Saturday during an interview with Yemen’s al-Masirah television network.
According to the official, between 2018 and July this year, the coalition has stolen more than 130 million barrels of Yemen’s oil. The stolen oil, he added, was worth close to $9.5 billion.
He added that the so-called coalition stole over 18 million barrels of Yemen's oil, which at an average oil price of 72 dollars per barrel, would amount to 1.3 billion dollars.
Dares said the coalition stole over 29.6 million barrels of Yemen's oil in 2019 and more than 31 million barrels in 2021, which respectively amounted to 2.3 billion dollars at an average oil price of 77 dollars per barrel and over two billion dollars at an average price of 49 dollars per barrel.
Last month, Essam al-Mutawakel, a spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen television news network that Yemen had sufficient oil and natural gas resources for both domestic consumption and exports. The nation was, however, has been deprived of its national wealth and its people live under dire conditions amid the Saudi-led coalition’s looting of the crude resources.
“Yemen does not benefit from revenues derived from its crude oil sales, as the petrodollars are deposited in a Saudi National Bank account in Riyadh,” Mutawakel noted.
He stressed that “the coalition of aggression, spearhead by the United States, bears full responsibility for the fuel crisis in Yemen.”
Saudi Arabia launched the devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in collaboration with its Arab allies and with arms, logistical, and political support from the US and other Western states.
The objective was to reinstall the Riyadh-friendly regime of former Yemeni president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, and crush Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement, which has been running state affairs in the absence of a functional government.
While the Saudi-led coalition has failed to meet any of its objectives, the war has killed hundreds of thousands of Yemenis and spawned the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
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