Yemen oil revenues drop almost $1 billion in 2014

Yemen suffered a drop of around $1 billion, or 37 percent, in revenue from oil exports last year due to nose-diving crude prices and the sabotage of pipelines, the central bank said Saturday. Revenues amounted to $1.673 billion (1.468 billion euros), compared with $2.662 billion in 2013, Saba state news agency quoted the bank as saying.
"The main reasons behind the decrease were the drop in Yemen''s production capacity and in oil prices as well as the attacks on the pipeline" linking production fields in Marib with coastal Hudayda, it said. Yemen is a minor producer but relies on oil and gas exports for 90 percent of its foreign currency earnings. Attacks on infrastructure cost the impoverished country $4.75 billion over the two years from March 2011 to March 2013, according to government figures.