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Economic loss from Saudi detention of Yemen-bound fuel tankers at over $10 billion in 2020: Official

Thursday, 07 January 2021 5:13 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 07 January 2021 7:16 PM ]

In this file picture, a ship is docked at the Red Sea port of Hudaydah, Yemen. (Photo by Reuters)

The spokesman for the Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC) says the estimated economic damage as a result of Saudi-led coalition’s insistence on preventing dozens of tankers from unloading their essential consignments stands at billions of US dollars.

Essam al-Mutawakel told the Arabic service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency on Wednesday that the arbitrary detention of the vessels off the coast of Yemen for different time periods has increased demurrage fees to an unprecedented level of nearly $107 million.

He went on to say that such measures have dramatically affected livelihoods of ordinary Yemenis, increased their sufferings and are estimated to have caused over $10 billion in damage to Yemen’s national economy during the year 2020.

Mutawakel highlighted that the Saudi-led military alliance is pressing ahead with various acts of maritime piracy in order to prevent ships carrying oil derivatives, natural gas as well as fuel from docking at Yemeni ports.

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The Yemeni energy official said the coalition illegally impounded 72 Yemen-bound oil tankers last year, which resulted in the sharp decline of approximately 45 percent in the amount of desperately-needed fuel shipments arriving at Yemeni ports.

Mutawakel noted that these vessels have acquired necessary UN permits that verify their cargos conform to the conditions stipulated in the concept of verification and inspection mechanism operations.

He said the coalition of aggression is still holding nine ships, emphasizing that the vessels are loaded with oil derivatives and some of them have been detained for more than 9 months.

The Saudi-led coalition has been enforcing a tight naval blockade on Yemen, particularly on the strategic western port city of Hudayda, which acts as a lifeline for the impoverished nation, since August 2015, five months after it started the war.

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Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crushing the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.

Last month, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) put the death toll from the Saudi war on Yemen at 233,000.

The popular Ansarullah movement, backed by armed forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of the atrocious war.

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