Saudi Arabia has delivered 500,000 barrels of crude oil to Yemen, the fourth shipment of a Saudi oil grant to its southern neighbor, with two more cargoes due to arrive to complete the total pledge of 3 million barrels of Saudi oil to help Yemen cope with a severe fuel shortage.
Official Yemeni news agency SABA said another cargo of Saudi crude was due to arrive at the port of Aden on July 24 and the final cargo was expected on August 4.
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, which considers any adverse developments in Yemen as a threat to its own security, stepped in with an offer to supply crude oil after Yemen's own output was slashed by the bombings of an export pipeline to the Red Sea in March and June.
The pipeline from Marib to the Red Sea port of Ras Issa was repaired at the weekend and output from fields shut in as a result is being ramped up gradually. Yemen produced an average 280,000 b/d in 2010.
But the fuel crisis in the capital Sanaa, which has been rocked by anti-government protests for over six months, and elsewhere in the country persists with eyewitnesses reporting long lines of cars waiting for up to a week to fill up.
