Yemen oil revenues fell to 254 million dollars in 3 months

A government report showed last Saturday to Reuters that the proceeds of Yemen's exports of crude oil saw a record drop of 74 percent in the first quarter of this year to reach 254 million dollars, compared with 998 million in the corresponding period of 2008. The quarterly report of the Yemen's Central Bank added that the decline in oil revenues coincided with the shrinking share of the government's total output of crude oil during the period from January to January to March 2009 by 43 percent to 5.9 million barrels, compared with 10.4 million barrels in the same period last year. The report attributed the decline in oil revenues to the erosion of world prices of crude oil to its lowest level in recent months due to the implications of the global financial crisis that hit the world in addition to lower production volumes. The report said the average price of Yamani crude during the first three months of this year calculated at $ 43 dollars a barrel, down from 96 dollars per barrel in the same period last year. The share of exports of crude oil obtained by the Yemeni government to share oil production from foreign companies under production-sharing agreements, about 70 percent of the resources of the State's general budget and about 63 percent of the country's total exports and 30 percent of the gross domestic product.m.e