"Gunmen belonging to an alliance of Hadramawt tribes blew up the oil pipeline linking Masila oilfield to Al-Daba port in the town of Shahr" on the Gulf of Aden, a local government official announced on Saturday.

  
According to the official, the gunmen had planted an explosive device under the pipeline in Hadramawt province, causing a halt in the flow of oil.

This is while an oil industry official further confirmed the attack and interruption of the operation of the pipeline.

  
The pipeline, the official noted, usually pumps around 120,000 barrels per day.

Authorities also said that it may take several days to repair the pipeline and resume crude pumping.

Tribesmen also bombed the country’s main oil pipeline in the central oil-producing province of Ma’arib on December 25.

The attack halted oil flow from the Ma’arib fields to the Ras Isa oil terminal on the Red Sea.

The blast in Ma’arib was the seventh such attack on the pipeline this month and happened only hours after workers completed repairs following a previous attack.

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