Sale of Oil at Low Price Reveals Corruption of Yemen Government

An agreement between the Aden-based Yemeni government and an Emirati oil company has infuriated multitudes of Yemenis, including members of the parliament. 

A document began circulating on social media yesterday, illustrating that the Oil Ministry in June 2023 agreed to offer a massive discount to the Dubai-based EMO company for buying 18 million barrels of Yemeni oil. The deal cost Yemen about a half billion US dollars, Ali Ashal, aYemeni parliamentarian, said. 

The document, dated June 18, 2023, was sent from Prime Minister Muaeen Abdulmalek to the head of the Presidential Leadership Council, Rashad al-Alimi. It stated that the government had agreed to offer the discount because the Emirati company would buy and protect the Yemeni oil and bear the consequences during the exportation process. 

In June, the quantity of oil was 3.5 million in Hadramout and Shabwah, and the UAE-based company was given a 35-percent discount on that quantity, according to the official document. Besides, the company was granted a 30-percent discount on 14.5 million barrels of oil that will be produced. 

Ashal said, "The deal is disastrous and unprecedented, with the country's oil being sold for this [low price]. The government was in a hurry to finalize the deal despite the well-known arrangements for establishing a permanent truce that could allow the resumption of oil exports." 

He added that the Presidential Leadership Council is responsible for stopping this corruption, and if the council does not combat such corruption, it is involved in it. 

EMO was established in Dubai in 2019 and began to work in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Morocco and Oman.

In October last year, the Houthi group began launching drone strikes on oil exportation ports in South Yemen. The attacks led to a halt in oil exportation. The oil shipping companies began finding it risky to send their oil vessels to Yemeni ports in the south.