Yemen’s oil minister Dr Rashi Saleh Ba-Raba’a told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that Sinopec had beaten 28 other international firms to invest in the two blocks.

The minister said the deal would “open up further avenues of bilateral cooperation between two countries” and he was confident more deals would be signed with other firms very soon.

Other agreements would be inked with KNOC, a South Korean company and OMV, an Austrian company, he said.

Meanwhile, in another Saba report, the Yemeni government confirmed it was negotiating with South Korea’s Korea Gas Corp (Kogas) to sell Yemeni LNG internationally.

According to Saba, citing an anonymous source, officials from Kogas were in Yemen recently to “foster an agreement” which will see the Korean firm selling gas on Yemen’s behalf to the tune of 1.5 million tons of LNG per annum for 20 years starting 2008.

While no further details were provided, it is understood the Yemeni government has encouraged “global gas exporters” in the country to market LNG to “international firms”. One of the first to do so is Total.