HADRAMOUT — Al-Mukalla Port in Hadramout, Yemen, has received a grant of Saudi oil derivatives to operate power plants with amounts of 8,000 metric tons of diesel and 13,000 metric tons of mazout.

The grant is part of Saudi Arabia’s continuous support to the Yemeni people following directives by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and in response to a request by the Yemeni government to help it provide oil derivatives to operate more than 70 power generation plants across Yemen.

The new oil derivatives grant is an affirmation of Saudi Arabia’s keenness to achieve security, stability and development for the brotherly Yemeni people, and an extension of previous grants totaling $4.2 billion, the latest of which was a grant of $422 million that was completed over a year.

This contributed to economic stability, enhancing the budget of the Yemeni government, raising the purchasing power of Yemeni citizens and improving security conditions, as well as contributing to improving the utilities sector, developing citizens' lives, increasing the rate of daily service hours for the operation of power plants, and ensuring the self-operation of power plants in Yemen.

The previous grant of oil derivatives provided by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) contributed to the partial reduction of government spending that fuels Yemen's economy by easing the burden of spending on the government, doubling production capacity and reaching the target of 2,828 gigawatts/hour during the operation of the plants.

This is in addition to covering the needs of power plants in Yemen, where the total electricity sales from the Yemeni State Electricity Corporation increased by $81.7 million, a 20% increase compared to previous years, and a 41% increase in total collection compared to previous years.

The grant also contributed to reducing the Central Bank of Yemen's consumption of foreign currency reserves for the purchase of oil derivatives to generate electricity from global markets, reducing the sale price of fuel from world prices for electricity by 79% for diesel, and 94% for mazout between May 2021 and April 2022.

The previous oil derivatives grant provided electricity to 760,000 subscribers of the Public Electricity Company, with an average consumption per subscriber of 37 kilowatts per hour. The number of beneficiaries stood at 9,800,000, between May 2021 and April 2022, where the grant contributed to raising the Public Electricity Company’s revenues and saving some 20% of the Yemeni government’s budget.

The new Saudi oil derivatives grant contributes to the operation of 70 power plants, which directly reflects on the operation of hospitals, medical centers, roads, schools, government institutions, airports and ports.

The Saudi oil derivatives grant is part of the support of the SDRPY, which has offered 224 development projects and initiatives across Yemeni governorates to serve Yemenis in seven main sectors: education, health, water, energy, transport, agriculture and fishery, and building the capacity of government institutions, in addition to other development programs. — SPA