No respite in Yemen

The oil price collapse dims hope of an energy sector revival, while civil war grinds on

Few would have bet on conflict in Yemen, which began in March 2015, lasting more than a year. Now few are betting that it will come to an end in 2020. And any hope that, when the fighting does finally cease, bumper revenues from oil and LNG exports might help the country out of its current morass has been severely dented by the collapse of global oil prices. Yemen was never a major oil exporter, but the regeneration of its energy sector is regarded as a key element in the country’s gradual return to something approaching normal life. Oil production fell from 316,000bl/d in 2008 to 153,000bl/d in 2014, a year before the outbreak of war. It then dropped away completely as international oil com