EN 
AR Dr. Abdullah Abdulaziz Abdulrahman Al-Amir
MINISTER OF OIL & MINERAL
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful (A land good and a Lord Oft-Forgiving), the good land of the Republic of Yemen stores massive oil and gas wealth. We are talking about a Yemen that has not yet been explored, and a country with wealth that has remained mysterious for a long time until the eighties (1980s) launched its first decade with the discovery of oil and gas in Marib – Al-Jawf… The exploration and production history, (in Marib, Al-Jawf, Shabwa, Hadhramaut, the Red Sea, and others) indicate the presence of promising petroleum capabilities, confirming that the Yemeni homeland was and still is promising and promising goodness and hope for the future is greater, which will require a lot of sincere work and dedication to achieve….
Dear Friends:
It is really a great pleasure to address all competent decision making circles as well as economic, scientific and political institutions in the oil and gas industry from all over the world.
First, I would like to give you a very brief background about Yemen, its people, history and infrastructure.
The Republic of Yemen, which proclaimed in May 1990, is situated in the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Saudi Arabia to the North, the Red Sea to the West, Oman to the East and the Arabian Sea to the South. Sana’a is the Capital, Aden the commercial capital and Al-Hudaidah is the main port on the Red Sea. Yemen has a coastline of about 2,200kms and a vast mountain range of the Southern Arabian Peninsula runs through Yemen with its highest peak, Hadur Shu’ayb at 3,760m. Topographical variations in this region give rise to a wide range of climatic conditions, with fertile highland plateaus interspersed with wadis. The population of Yemen is just over 25 million, and Arabic is the official language. English is utilized in communication amongst business circles.
The history of Yemen stretches back over 3,000 years, and its unique culture is still evidence today in the architecture of its towns and villages. From about 1,000 BV this region of the southern Arabian Peninsula was ruled by three successive civilizations Minean, Sabaeen and Himyarite. Many foreigners knew Yemen as the land of Sheba. Those three kingdoms all depended for their wealth on the spice trade.
Oil is vital to our development and our current production is around 135,000 bbl/d provides the main source of national income. Yemen contains oil in place of 10.95 billion barrels and had produced 2.97 Billion barrels till 2015. With natural gas reserves of 18.2 trillion cubic feet, Yemen has considerable potential as a natural gas producer and exporter. The bulk of Yemen’s gas reserves are concentrated in the Marib-Jawf fields.
Yemen currently has a crude refining capacity of 120,000 bbl/d from two local refineries. The refinery in Aden operated by Aden Refinery Company with a capacity of 110,000 bbl/d, while the other refinery at Marib operated by Yemen Refinery Company with a capacity of 10,000 bbl/d. However, Ministry of Oil and Minerals (MOM) is trying to upgrade the current capacity as well as to build new refineries at Hadhramaut and the Red Sea.
The licensing of exploration opportunities in Yemen is neither new nor unfamiliar to us as we have long experience in Yemen in promoting oil and gas.
As early as the 1920’s and 1930’s, the discovery of several oil fields in the Arabian Peninsula and the gulf promoted oil companies to expand their efforts to seek for new locations. Many companies began to look to Yemen as possible new source of oil.
The first search in Yemen took place in 1938 when the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC), at that time a British-owned company, concluded geological surveys in Hadramout and Mahara. The IPC collected seismic data, but no wells were drilled at that time.
Further attempts for oil exploration took place between 1952 and 1954 by the German Company, Prakla Deilmann, which conducted geological and geophysical surveys near the Tihama plains in the Western part of the country. The company also concluded a survey of the salif region of Yemen but no wells were drilled in either of these sites. However, gravity and magnetic studies were conducted at that time.
The first exploratory well in the Republic of Yemen was drilled in the Salif Peninsula area in the Red Sea Basin by John Mecom Company in the early 1960s, and it is considered the first actual exploratory work with the aim of exploring for oil and gas.
From the early 1960’s until the mid-1980’s, several foreign oil companies conducted similar studies to further identify’ possible onshore and offshore oil exploration sites. These efforts led to the first major oil discovery in the summer of 1984, when Hunt Oil Company successfully drilled the wildcat well in the Marib Al-Jawf basin (Block 18). After the unification in 1990, many foreign oil companies have conducted exploration activities over an area of 235.000 sq km both onshore and offshore. More exploration wells were drilled during the early 1990’s, which led to successful oil field discoveries, by Canadian Occidental over Masila (Block 14).
By May 1990, there were six foreign oil companies operating in Yemen. Following the reunification of Yemen in 22 of May 1990, Yemen has become more attractive to many international oil companies seeking access to oil-rich concession areas. This ultimately led the MOM to study and evaluate those areas more fully, and to divide them into separate concessionaire blocks. The MOM received more than 86 proposals from different oil companies during the first three years. The MOM signed about 89 PSAs (1990-2015).
The MOM and PEPA continued to give more attention to exploration for additional reserves by offering more attractive contract terms to international oil companies. As a result 60 new PSAs have been signed and ratified during the years 1997 until mid-2004 plus many MOUs with other companies.
Finally, the MOM and PEPA offer the International Oil Companies (IOC) an opportunity to become a significant producer of oil and gas for the worldwide market, since most of Yemen yet to be explored and still much room for more exploration.
Thank you all.