A Manufactured Crisis: How Saudi Arabia Uses Oil to Bring Yemen to its Knees
By manufacturing an oil crisis in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is able to foment
political chaos in the country and stir up popular discontent against
domestic oil companies, many of which are run by the Houthi-led resistance
by Ahmed Abdulkareem
January 08th, 2021
By Ahmed Abdulkareem
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HODEIDA, YEMEN - Yemen's oil is in thrall to a complex, intertwined network
of elites that control the smuggling of fuel imports and new, thriving black
markets. Starving Yemen of petroleum products has always been a conspicuous
feature of Saudi Arabia's nearly six-year-long war on the country, however,
the most recent blockade is significantly more extensive than previous ones
and comes at a time when a pandemic, diseases, and hunger are spreading
rapidly across the country. The most recent byproducts of that blockade: the
spread of schistosomiasis, a faltering economy in areas outside of Saudi
control, and a dangerous new black market.
Known colloquially as snail fever, schistosomiasis is a rare disease caused
by flatworms that thrive in untreated water, something now abundant in Yemen
as the diesel fuel needed to power many of the country's water treatment
facilities, especially those in rural areas far removed from any electric
grid, has dried up amid the blockade.
In a remote village in the Al-Marawa'ah district, Khalid Abdu looks at his
thin daughter, 12-year-old Jamilah, with heartbreak as she lies still in the
family's hut. Jamilah is suffering from abdominal pain, diarrhea, and blood
in her stool. Khalid said she has worms in her stomach, now distended and
bloated in stark contrast to her otherwise meager frame. Jamilah was later
diagnosed with schistosomiasis according to her family, leaving her with
just three to ten more years of life if she doesn't receive proper medical
care, a luxury in her war-torn country.
Yemen Famine
Hammadi Issa | AP
Near the family's hut, hobbled together from a hodgepodge of mud, bamboo
sticks, thatch, and reed, sits an old Toyota Hilux, its low tires and thin
coating of dust a testament to the fact that it hasn't moved for weeks.
Khalid blames the lack of fuel for the family's endless problems. "I can't
drive my daughter to the hospital in Aden or bring water to my family, even
the treatment plant that I used to go to is closed because there is no
diesel," he said. "Now, we drink, wash our clothes and cooking utensils, and
do everything using that old well." You see the result," he said, pointing
to Jamilah.
Another grim milestone
As the war in Yemen closes in on yet another grim milestone, the end of its
sixth year in March, oil-rich U.S. ally Saudi Arabia continues to prevent
oil tankers from delivering much-needed fuel to hospitals, water pumping
stations, bakeries, cleaning trucks, and gas stations, plunging the entire
nation into an unending fuel crisis.
The CEO of Yemen Petroleum Company (YPC), Ammar Al-Adrai, told MintPress
that at least nine tankers have been trapped in Saudi Arabia's Jizan Port,
which sits on the Kingdom's western seaboard painfully close to the Yemeni
border. The tankers, Al-Adrai says, have been held despite being checked and
issued permits by both the Saudi-led Coalition and the United Nations. He
confirmed that the vessels are loaded with oil derivatives and that some of
them have been detained for over nine months, leading to the suspension of
more than 50% of the operational capabilities in the service, health,
industrial and commercial sectors.
Shocking New Figures Show How Just Much the US is Fueling the Violence in
Yemen
Figures from the UN and NGOs show that since the war in Yemen began, the US
has sold over $13 billion in high-tech weapons to Saudi Arabia.
MintPress News | Alan Macleod | Dec 7, 2020
That lack of fuel has caused an acute shortage of even the most basic goods.
Khalid told MintPress that "the price of fruits, vegetables, and medicine is
skyrocketing and my farm is defenseless against desertification." Like many
farmers, Khalid, who like his daughter Jamilah shows symptoms of
malnutrition, is unable to power the pumps needed to irrigate his fields,
leaving him unable to grow his own food with which to feed his family and
the desert sands encroaching on his now derelict fields. At least 80% of
Yemen's 28 million-strong population is reliant on food aid to survive in
what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis and
the decimation of the remaining agricultural sector is likely to increase
that figure.
"The [Yemeni] government is indifferent and apathetic to the suffering of
citizens, even in areas under their control," Khalid said, accusing the
Saudi-backed government of Aden of deliberately compounding the suffering
through the proliferation of the black market. "Fuel shortages in the
northern provinces are caused by the blockade, but in Aden, we don't
understand what's going on."
A manufactured oil crisis
By manufacturing an oil crisis in Yemen, Saudi Arabia is able to foment
political chaos in the country and stir up popular discontent against
domestic oil companies, many of which are run by the Houthi-led resistance.
As a sort of grim bonus, the manufactured oil shortages also to incapacitate
the Houthi-run port of Hodeida, increasing poverty and unemployment rates
and siphoning cash out of the market, according to the Yemen Petroleum
Company (YPC).
YPC released a statement placing the estimated economic damage caused by
Saudi Arabia's refusal to allow tankers to unload their cargo at billions of
U.S. dollars. The company also said that demurrage fees are now at an
unprecedented level of nearly $107 million and that Saudi forces have
illegally impounded 72 Yemen-bound oil tankers last year, resulting in an
approximately 45% drop in the amount of desperately-needed fuel shipments
arriving at Yemeni ports.
The fuel blockade has not only forced thousands of Yemenis to wait for days
in lines as far as the eye can see, but it has also left water pumps and
treatment plants, and hospital generators without fuel. Most drinking water,
particularly in rural areas, is extracted using diesel-powered pumps, while
the country's sizable refugee population survives on water brought in by
diesel-powered trucks.
