Oil tanks expose Al-Mashat’s lies (information check)

English - Saturday 30 September 2023 الساعة 09:26 am
Sanaa, NewsYemen (monitoring team):

The Houthi militia continues to insult previous Yemeni governments and attempt to fabricate fake media achievements based on misleading data and false and inaccurate information, which has been marketed through the leader of the group, Mahdi Al-Mashat, since the beginning of this September.

In this context, the head of the Supreme Political Council, Houthi leader Mahdi Al-Mashat, claimed that there were no oil tanks when they came to power, in reference to the group’s coup in September 2014.

He claimed in a televised speech on Thursday, September 5, 2023, during an extensive meeting with a number of notables from Sana’a Governorate, that he claimed that there was no oil infrastructure, acknowledging the existence of only two oil tanks, which he said were sufficient for only 20 days.

An examination of the contents of Al-Mashat’s allegations regarding oil tanks, based on official sources in the Ministry of Oil and Minerals, revealed the establishment of the first floating oil tank (Ras Issa Port) in 1986, and according to the open data of the Ministry of Oil, the storage capacity of the port reaches 4 million barrels, and its diameter (24-26 ) inch.

10 tanks in Hadramaut and Shabwa

In the port of Al-Shihr (Al-Dhabah) in Hadramaut Governorate, official data refute Al-Mashat’s allegations, confirming the presence of 5 oil tanks in this port, with a total storage capacity of 25 thousand barrels (5 thousand barrels for each tank). Data from the port, which was established in 1993, revealed the presence of the largest oil tank with a capacity of one million. barrel.

Likewise, data from the Balhaf Oil Port (Bir Ali) in Shabwa Governorate, which was established in 1990, reveal the presence of 5 oil tanks in this port, each with a capacity of 126 thousand barrels.

In its future vision, the Yemeni Oil Company is working to "increase the absorptive capacity of the company's storage facilities by building new storage facilities and expanding existing facilities to suit the expansion of local consumption."

50 oil tanks in the north 57 years ago

According to its open data, the Yemeni Oil Company is a giant company that has multiple assets represented by a transportation fleet, buildings, and oil facilities, and its capital is estimated at (45) billion riyals.

The first oil tanks were established in the port of Hodeidah in 1958, and after that, specifically in 1961, the first steps in forming an institutional framework concerned with the process of storing and marketing petroleum derivatives in northern Yemen began.

In contrast to the claims of Houthi leader Mahdi Al-Mashat, the Yemeni Oil Company’s data indicates that the number of gasoline stations in 1966 in the northern governorates was 25 stations containing 51 tanks with a total capacity of 500 tons, and that was 57 years before Al-Mashat’s misleading talk.