Marib -
Black pools spread in the middle of the desert of Yemen around the "Safer" oil pipeline, which has many holes and gaps, and hundreds of tanks are filled with crude oil daily, then disappear in parallel markets, and millions of dollars of state resources evaporate, and the perpetrator remains in the unknown-known box.
The Safer oil pipeline extends hundreds of kilometers from the middle of the desert of Yemen, through mountains and valleys, to the coast of the Red Sea. This pipeline represented a major economic artery on which Yemen relied for many years in order to supply its treasury with hard currency and provide development at a minimum, before becoming a source of abundant profit for smugglers. And who is behind them.
In this investigation - in which work lasted for more than 5 months - the author of the investigation documented the systematic sabotage of the main oil pipeline in Yemen, which runs from the Safer area in the Marib governorate to the Ras Issa area in the Hudaydah governorate, with a length of 438 km;
By armed smuggling gangs aiming to extract crude oil and sell it to multiple destinations.
A tank used to transport oil in the Safir desert (Al-Jazeera)
This happens in the absence of the role of the oil companies operating in Yemen, the security agencies in charge of protecting the oil pipeline, the Ministry of Oil and Minerals, and the local authorities.
Oil disappears from the official stations recognized by the Ministry of Oil and Minerals, but it appears largely in the parallel markets.
In a monitoring process carried out by the author of the investigation, these parallel markets spread in several regions;
It extends from inside the city of Ma'rib to the Ma'rib-Al-Bayda road, areas under the control of the legitimate government, and from there to the Al-Bayda Governorate, which is under the control of the Houthis.
The other market is located in the areas of the valley and the Ubaidah tribes near the Safir area, which are areas under the control of the legitimate government. As for large quantities, they are smuggled through mobile tanks to Hadhramaut or Houthi-controlled areas in Sana’a via the Al-Jawf desert and the Al-Bayda road.
systematic sabotage
On January 1, 2020, the main oil pipeline carrying oil in the Ma'rib Governorate (eastern Yemen) was subjected to a sabotage attack, by creating a gap of an average diameter of 30 centimeters, and this gap was later used to extract oil by organized gangs that tend to do so.
Abdel-Fattah Ahmed (the name here is a pseudonym) assisted a group of people in the Wadi area in Marib in breaching the main pipeline at kilo 16 (the number of kilometers indicates the distance between this area and the center of the Safer Company). He also made a hole and welded it to discharge the crude oil, and connected Gaps in plastic tubes that pull crude oil from inside the tube to pools for smugglers, then sell it to people who transport it to Sana’a Governorate, to be recycled in a refinery in the Al-Hatrash area on the outskirts of the capital, and then sold.
Smugglers set up ponds to collect stolen oil (Al-Jazeera)
Abdel-Fattah and his group are not the only ones who sabotage the pipelines. There are other organized gangs that were monitored by the local authorities and the oil companies operating in Yemen, and they found sabotaging the pipelines and stealing crude oil a profitable and profitable business for them.
The author of the investigation obtained a copy of a special report issued by the intelligence cell in the Serwah Front (west of Marib), and addressed to the military command in the Serwah district, to be published for the first time under the title “The sabotage cell in the village of Al-Zour.” The report mentioned the names and descriptions of all the sabotage gangs in the area. .
The report pointed out that the smuggling gangs made 13 holes in the Al-Zour area of Serwah district - which the Houthis took control of recently - and nearly 19 mobile tanks were suctioned, with a capacity of 150 barrels of crude oil (about 159 liters per barrel) in the area where they were located. Under the control of the internationally recognized legitimate government forces.
An intelligence report dealing with the theft of Yemen's oil (Al-Jazeera)
From the campus of the Safer Company, the main operator of oil fields in the Ma’rib governorate, work began on this investigation, and we obtained a report issued by the company that clarified that the sabotage operations in the oil pipeline were systematic.
* The company's data appears - in the report that is published for the first time - specifically in the oil sector No. 18, which includes the entire oil sector in Marib;
The amount of oil that is produced from this sector is estimated at 14,484 barrels, half of which is looted daily, i.e. 7,242 barrels, according to the documents we obtained, with an estimated value of 231 million Yemeni riyals ($290,000).
Accordingly, it is estimated that the looted monthly is about $8.7 million (6.96 billion riyals), or $104 million annually (83.5 billion riyals).
According to the annual reports, the loss continues so far, despite the cessation of export via the pipeline, as it is out of service.
The annual report of Safer Company for the year 2018 stated that the pipeline was subjected to multiple acts of sabotage and repeated thefts of crude oil, especially in the area between km 10 to km 15, as well as from km 41 to km 44 of the line, which resulted in the loss of a large amount of crude oil, at the same time. In which oil exports through the pipeline have stopped since 2015, according to this document.
(The island)
The investigator was briefed on the annual reports of Safer Company from 2017 to 2019, all of which showed that the oil pipeline was exposed to several sabotage acts aimed at suctioning the oil inside the pipeline, whose capacity is estimated at nearly one million barrels when the production and export process stopped in 2014 with the Houthis taking control of the capital Sana'a.
And those mentioned areas are all under the control of the legitimate government and the National Army, as the 10th kilometer means that it is located only 10 kilometers from the center of the Safer Company, and it is assumed that the 107th Brigade of the National Army is responsible for protecting this area, and this brigade did not clash with the saboteurs who They belong to the tribes surrounding the company and the tube.
Oil extraction in Yemen began in 1986 for the first time in the Marib Governorate, in Sector 18, in the Safer region, with 10,000 barrels per day. Until 2010, crude oil production reached 100 million barrels per year.
The Safer pipeline was built in 1987 with a length of 438 km to the port of Ras Issa in the Hodeidah Governorate on the western coast of Yemen at a cost of one billion dollars.
irreparable losses
Although the pumping of crude oil through the Safer oil pipeline has stopped since 2014 after the Houthis took control of Marib, one million barrels of crude oil remained inside it.
Along the pipeline between the Houthi areas and the areas of the legitimate government, everyone benefited from the value of the crude oil contained in the pipeline, as about 400,000 barrels were located in the Houthi section, while 600,000 barrels were located in the areas controlled by the forces affiliated with the legitimate government.
In order to extract this oil, the Houthi group made only two holes to extract crude oil and sell it to the agricultural sector under its control, while in areas of legitimacy it made hundreds of holes by saboteurs and influential people in random ways to smuggle and extract crude oil from inside the pipeline.
A triangular hole from above the ground to extract oil from the pipeline (the island)
As for the most serious of those violations, those that occurred inside the campus of the state-owned Safer Company itself, according to a document we obtained.
This document talks about that half of the lost oil has been lost inside the campus of the Safer Company since the oil pipeline stopped pumping in 2014.
* The value of crude oil lost from pipelines inside the company due to smuggling and theft is estimated at $326,000 per day (260.4 million riyals), and in this case, the monthly loss is $9.776 million (7.824 billion riyals), or $117,312 million annually (93.8 billion riyals).
The looting continues, albeit intermittently, to this day.
While the value of the crude oil looted from the main pipeline within the legitimate areas, whose quantity is estimated at 600,000 barrels, is estimated at about 24 million dollars (19.2 billion Yemeni riyals), and the value of the oil looted from the same pipeline in Houthi-controlled areas is estimated at 400,000. Barrel, about $16 million (13.8 billion riyals).
A document confirming the smuggling of half of the oil production (Al-Jazeera)
Holes everywhere
The author of the investigation documented by secret photography some of these acts of sabotage throughout the tube, which indicated the existence of a major disaster threatening its survival and operation, and that there were successive holes on the body of the tube, and a great neglect by the concerned authorities.
He also obtained exclusive pictures of the newly created holes, which are still linked to plastic pipes through which crude oil is sucked from inside the pipe to the smugglers' pools in the Wadi Marib and Al-Zour regions of Sarwah.
Equipment used to suck the stolen oil before it is transported by tanks (Al-Jazeera)
The investigator monitored 138 holes in the Wadi area in the Marib governorate, from kilometer 1 to kilometer 50 in the Wadi district, and also obtained a document confirming that the Houthis had made breaches in their areas of control and had sold quantities of it to the Agricultural Cooperative Union in Hodeidah Governorate.
Document of the Houthi agreement to sell crude from Pipe 1 (Al-Jazeera)
alternative project
The internationally recognized legitimate government has begun work to extend a new pipeline from the Safer oil fields and through the eastern Shabwa governorate to the Arabian Sea, which is fully controlled by the government, as the former Oil Minister in the legitimate government, Aws Abdullah, confirmed - in a press interview with Reuters - that they are planning To build an alternative pipeline extending to the Arabian Sea to resume crude oil exports, which explains the government’s neglect of the Safer pipeline and its failure to protect it from repeated attacks for years.
The Undersecretary of Ma’rib Governorate, Head of the Oil and Gas Committee, Abd Rabbo Muftah, commented on the Minister of Oil’s words that there is no intention to replace the current pipeline with a new one, but rather the current pipeline will be repaired, and crude oil will be re-exported through it after the return of the state.
Map showing the alternative project of the Safer-Hodeidah line (Al-Jazeera)
He added that the sabotage gangs are linked to the Houthis, and that these sabotage operations are planned in order to destabilize security, stability and the Yemeni economy, and that there are countries behind encouraging the gangs to continue their oil smuggling operations.
According to what he said, after the demise of the Houthis, the pipeline will be maintained and oil production will return, and that Yemen's economy will not thrive unless oil exports and production return to what it was before.
Impunity
When asked about the protection and pursuit of these sabotage gangs, he asked: "Do you want us to leave the fronts and turn to the pursuit of saboteurs in the oil pipelines? Shall we withdraw the armies from the fronts to pursue the saboteurs?"
Adding that this is what the Houthi militias want, as he put it.
He asserts that "these gangs are trying to drag the army to pursue them, leaving the goal of liberating the country from the Houthi militias, noting that there are gangs that want to disturb security and peace in Marib, and these sabotage acts are malicious."
The facts we have come to contradict what the agent said, as the new oil pipeline, which is an alternative to the Safer pipeline, has been working on it for years, as the photos prove, as well as the Minister of Oil’s continuous statements that the new oil pipeline is ready for export.
The alternative oil pipeline from Ma'rib to Shabwa is ready (Al-Jazeera)
Commenting on this, the oil and financial expert Abdul Wahed Al-Aubali said, "As long as the Ma'rib authorities are not interested in protecting the oil pipelines and the company, they may be negligent, and negligence is a major crime, or they are involved and have interests in destroying the pipeline, which is the closest scenario."
According to the oil expert, Marib produces diesel and other oil derivatives, but they are only available on the black markets, noting that if they were not involved or involved in those operations, they would at least be lenient with saboteurs and smugglers, as he put it.
Al-Aubali confirms that there is a deliberate desire to take the pipeline out of service, and that it has actually become "out of service" after being subjected to hundreds of violations, as a result of the attacks for smuggling crude oil from inside.
Deliberate and systematic sabotage has practically taken the Safer oil pipeline out of service (Al-Jazeera)
We returned to the Safer Company, and this time we met “Muhammad Ali” (the name here is a pseudonym for an official who preferred not to be named in the investigation for security considerations), who reported that there is a clear exploitation process taking place from within the Safer Company or the military leaders in the brigades charged with protecting the pipeline, as well as the tribal sheikhs They have close ties to those parties, in addition to unknown gangs.
He adds that these people are taking advantage of the situation the country is going through, and the lack of a central state to protect and maintain the pipeline and to monitor the work of oil extraction and re-injection to implement their goals.
What is a replacement tube?
The alternative pipeline extends from Jannat Hunt in Usaylan, Shabwa, to the west of the Ayyad area and the Al-Alam area, south of Shabwa, with a length of 84 km, to be connected to the old Russian pipeline built by the Soviets in the 1980s, with a length of 204 km, to the port of Radhum. Thus, re-exports will take place from Sector 18 in Marib and Sector Ganeh Hunt and Sector "S1" (S1) to the port of Radhum instead of Ras Issa.
The Chinese company "Sinop" is building the pipeline under the supervision of the Austrian company "OMV", and its extension has not yet been completed, and work was supposed to start at the beginning of 2021.
High repair costs
According to "Mohammed Ali", the costs of repairing one breach range between 25 and 100,000 dollars, depending on the type of vandalism and the distance that will be filtered from dust and sediment inside the pipe.
For its part, the Safer Company's Wells and Pipes Maintenance Unit estimates the cost of repairing a single breach at $20,000, and it may increase or decrease depending on the size of the breach.
Since the number of breaches has reached 153, the cost of repairing all breaches will reach $3 million (equivalent to 2.7 billion Yemeni riyals).
In addition to this, the costs of cleaning the pipe from the inside, as it is filled with dust, replacing parts of it that have been rusted and corroded, and compensating for parts that were destroyed, the cost of which may reach tens of millions of dollars.
The cost of constructing a new pipeline will exceed one billion, and it will take several years (Al-Jazeera)
As for the cost of building a new pipeline, it will be many times the cost of constructing the old pipeline in 1987, which amounted to one billion dollars. The construction process will continue for at least 6 years, and may last longer according to the difficulties and political and economic variables.
Arrested without cases
After that, the investigator went to the Marib Public Prosecution to find out the number of saboteurs who were arrested and referred to the prosecution. We met with the head of the Marib Public Prosecution Judge Aref Al-Mikhlafi, who assured us that until now no defendant has been referred in the case of the attacks on the oil pipeline for reasons that no one knows, according to his expression.
Al-Mikhlafi adds that it is not within the jurisdiction of the Public Prosecution Office to demand the accused to be referred to it, and that its tasks are limited to receiving those referred to it only.
During our research, we obtained a document proving that a number of saboteurs were arrested while they were stealing crude oil with a large tank.
This tank was filled with crude oil from the pipeline belonging to the "Jannat Hunt" company in Marib by the saboteurs on December 16, 2019, and they were arrested by the sector commander, and they were sent to Camp 107 in Safer with their tank, but the company was surprised by their release without Transferring them to the prosecution and the judiciary to hold them accountable, and the commander of the military sector supervised their removal according to a document we obtained.
Document confirming the release of oil smugglers (Al-Jazeera)
According to a letter obtained by the author of the investigation, which was sent from the former director of the Safer Company, Ahmed Kulaib, to the President of the Republic, Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, in which he said, "There are organized thefts of crude oil, under the supervision of the company's security agencies, through one of the security leaders charged with protecting the company."
In the letter, Kulaib added that Safer was being subjected to systematic looting of crude oil by people who were supposed to be protecting the company.
We tried to communicate with the 107th Brigade in charge of protecting the pipeline in the company’s campus and the adjacent areas, but we did not receive any response from them until the publication of this investigation.
Although the message sent to President Hadi was in 2017, sabotage operations continue to the oil pipeline and the extraction of crude oil inside, as well as oil smuggling from the pipelines of the network of fields and wells.
Without a response from the Presidency of the Republic, or the local and military authorities in the Ma'rib Governorate, the black pools of Yemeni crude oil will continue in the heart of the Yemeni desert, in a country whose residents are experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis.
* The figures were calculated on the basis that the value of one barrel of oil is equal to 40 dollars, while the value of one dollar was calculated against 800 Yemeni riyals as a fixed number between 2017 and 2020 during the suction process from inside the pipeline in areas controlled by the legitimate government, and not in Houthi-controlled areas.
__________________
Supervised by: Aseel Sariya, Zuhair Hamdani