Mohammed Abdul Malik - Al Jazeera Net

The governor of Hadramaut, eastern Yemen, Faraj al-Bahsani has taken a final decision to stop oil exports from the province, following several warnings he said he had sent to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi and Prime Minister Moin Abdul Malik during the past periods, but they did not care about them, he said.

The governor of Yemen's largest city has put three demands to re-allow oil exports from Hadramout:

Pay the salaries of all members and members of the armed forces in the second military zone, which has been suspended for nearly five months.

2- Payment of electricity bills.

3 - resumption of payment of the province's share of its wealth, which is estimated at about 20% of the proceeds from the sale of oil.

Negative effects
This decision raised many concerns among Yemenis and economists because of its negative effects on the budget of the legitimate government of Yemen, which depends mainly on oil revenues from Hadramout, where a number of companies work, most notably the state oil company Petromsila, which owns four oil sectors.

According to the researcher in the economic affairs Abdul Wahid al-Oubali of the island Net, Hadramout exports more than 80% of Yemen's oil exports with an estimated production of 40 thousand barrels per day.

At a time when Awali pointed out that the production of Shabwa province does not reach a quarter of this quantity, as well as production from the province of Marib, which is used in domestic consumption.

According to the researcher, Yemen will lose due to halting the export of Hadramout oil more than 30% of its revenues, according to figures reported by the Yemeni government in its budget announced at the beginning of this year.

The budget project had expected that the revenues of oil and gas exports will constitute 32% of the total public revenues for 2019, and approved the budget price of a barrel of crude oil exported at $ 50 per barrel.

According to al-Obali, halting the export of oil from Hadhramaut will lose Yemen and its markets the most important sources of foreign currency, which will lead to an expected decline in the price of the Yemeni rial against foreign currencies.

According to the same spokesman, the devaluation of the Yemeni rial will result in an increase in the already high inflation, and a new rise in the prices of food and oil products, and thus increase the suffering of the Yemeni citizen.

Despite all these fears, the sons of Hadramout went out in large demonstrations in support of the decision of the Governor, and renewed the demand to provide services, especially electricity and oblige Petromsila company to provide all the requirements of electricity Hadramout of fuel on a daily basis, in addition to the recruitment of three thousand personnel to maintain security in the city, and pay the salaries of the Armed Forces in arrears months ago.

Government position
To know the government's position, Al Jazeera Net communicated with an official source at the Ministry of Finance.

The source said that the government deposited more than 190 million dollars in the accounts of the authorities of the province of Hadramout since the restoration of export from the province.

He pointed out that the government is already keen to arrange and coordinate the process in order to meet the legitimate demands of the people of the province, especially to ensure the availability of basic services such as electricity and water, and involve them in the oil jobs in the province.

Yemen is a small oil producer despite the availability of many fields and wells (Al Jazeera)

This comes at a time when Prime Minister Moein Abdul Malik, the newly appointed Minister of Finance, Salem bin Brik, to transfer the shares of the provinces of revenue and work to develop, and rationalize expenses.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net by phone, and described a government official in the authorities of the province of Hadramout government statements with the ugliest excuse of guilt.

"If the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are serious about respecting the directives of the presidency and the government, they will grant Hadramout's share and meet the demands of citizens on the ground instead of talking to press releases and directives on paper," he said.

It should be noted that the Yemeni Oil Ministry announced by the Minister of the beginning of this year, its intention to increase the country's crude production to 110 thousand barrels per day in 2019, with exports to reach about 75 thousand barrels per day.

Oil is the main engine of Yemen's economy, accounting for 70% of budgetary resources, 63% of exports, and 30% of GDP. Its revenues also represent a large proportion of foreign exchange resources.

During the war years, Yemen's oil production fell to less than a third (Al Jazeera)