SHABWA — Locals sources said that a number of oil companies in Shabwa governorate, in Yemen's east, told the government that their work is threatened due to recent repeated attacks on oil pipelines by anonymous armed men.

The sources said that Yemen's Liquefied Gas Company in the Belhaf area of Shabwa governate is facing a continuous threat as a result of bombing the gas pipeline which extends 320 km from Marib governorate to the port of Belhaf.

For their parts, the governor of Shabwa and head of the Yemen Liquefied Gas Company are still holding a number of meetings with some locals who set up their own security checkpoints near the damaged gas pipelines.

A source from Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), an international oil and gas exploration and production company, said that the company in Shabwa is facing security risks after unknown armed men imposed a blockade on some of the company's construction works demanding construction contracts.

The sources called on the local authority in the governorate to do its part to protect the company's oil and construction works.

Oxy has invested in Yemen’s petroleum industry since 1987, and has interests in both of the country’s major oil- and gas-producing regions. Oxy has interests in the Masila Basin – Block 10 (East Shabwa Field) operated by Total. In the Ma’rib-Shabwah Basin, Oxy is the operator of Block S-1 ( Nagyah Field).