Yemeni government forces intercept Houthi drones attacking southern oil terminal

(Reuters) - Yemeni government said on Friday its forces had intercepted armed drones launched on a southern oil terminal in Hadhramaut province by Houthi fighters as an oil tanker was preparing to dock.

A Yemeni government official said Houthi drones attacked al-Dhabba oil terminal, located in the southern town of al-Shihr, as Nissos oil tanker was preparing to enter the terminal.

Nissos was scheduled to load 2 million barrels of crude from the terminal, the official said, adding that there was no damage to the port and the tanker. The office of Hadhramout’s governor Mabkhout bin Madi confirmed the attack to Reuters.

The incident is the first major escalation since the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed government failed to renew a U.N.-brokered truce earlier this month, amid differences over payment of salaries for civil servants in Houthi-controlled areas.

Yemen’s oil output has collapsed since 2015 when a Saudi-backed military coalition intervened in Yemen’s war to try to restore the internationally recognised government to power. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates Yemen has proven oil reserves of around 3 billion barrels.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said it was aware of reports of an incident in the vicinity of al-Shihr and that vessel and crew are safe.

Nissos KEA oil tanker was moving “within zone” on Friday outside al-Dhabba in the Gulf of Aden, Refinitiv data showed.