A $ 1.4-billion Huge Oil Refinery in Yemen [Archives:2000/14/Front Page]

Prospects are high that a project of huge oil refinery is planned to be built in Yemen at Ras Issa site on the Red Sea, along with building a townsite, schools, health clinic and power station and requires a workforce of 1,400. First production of processed crude is not expected before 2005. The Egyptian-born Ottawa citizen engineer Monem Khair has recently said that he has managed to get commitments for $ 500 million for a $ 1.4 billion oil refinery project in Yemen and that he expects not have much difficulty in getting the remainder financing from U.S. and European interests. Engineer Khair is also quoted as mentioning that the main challenge he is being faced with now is to find Canadian companies specialized in engineering, construction and management so that he could have this project working. An immediate comment on the news came from Yemen’s ambassador to Canada Mustapha Noman who had expected that formal announcement of the deal was scheduled to be during Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s visit to Ottawa. He added that could the project be built it would be an ” enormous boost for Yemen and will ease the poverty of my country. It will also be very good for Canadian companies and Canadian workers.”
Mr Khair was also quoted as saying that as part of the deal regarding the refinery project was that the government of Yemen would supply 50% of the crude and buy 50% of its production.
There are good reasons for choosing Ras Issa as a site for construction of the refinery project. First of all it is located on the Red Sea and secondly it is close to pipelines that carry millions of barrels of crude oil out of Yemen and also that potential customers in Djibouti and a U.S. naval base are close by.
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