ADEN — The first batch of the Saudi oil derivatives grant, worth $200 million, arrived in Aden on Wednesday and contains 45,000 metric tons of diesel and 30,000 metric tons mazut. The first batch of the grant was received by a number of officials. This grant comes as an extension of Saudi Arabia's continuous support to the Yemeni people under the directives of King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman. It is also in response to the request of the Yemen's government, which asked for help by providing them oil derivatives to operate more than 70 stations to generate electricity. The new Saudi oil derivatives grant to be used in the operation of 70 electricity stations, seeks to be directly reflected in the operation of hospitals, medical centers, roads, schools, government facilities, airports, ports, as well as strengthening the commercial and economic movement. Through its new grant to Yemen, Saudi Arabia aims to achieve security, stability and development for the Yemeni people. It is 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. The grants provided by Saudi Arabia to Yemen have contributed in several fields, such as economic stability, strengthening the budget of the Yemeni government, raising the purchasing power of Yemeni citizens, as well as improving the security situation in Yemen. It also helped to improve several things, such as the service sector, citizens' livelihood, increasing the average daily service hours for the operation of power stations, and ensuring the activation of self-operation for power stations in Yemen. The previous grants of oil derivatives that were provided by the Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) helped to partially reduce government spending. The grants also doubled the production capacity, reaching a target of 2,828 gigawatt-hours (GWh) during the operating period of the stations, as well as contributing to covering the needs of power stations in Yemen. It is noteworthy that the total sales of electric energy from the Yemeni General Electricity Corporation recorded an increase to about $81.7 million, and achieved a 20% increase compared to previous years, and the total increase in collection reached 41% compared to previous years. Moreover, the grants had a role in contributing to limiting the depletion of the Central Bank of Yemen's foreign currency reserves to purchase oil derivatives from global markets to generate electricity. This resulted in reducing the selling prices of fuel from the international prices for electricity generation by 79% for diesel fuel, and 94% for mazut, from May 2021 to April 2022. The previous oil derivatives grants provided electric power to 760,000 people dealing with the General Electricity Corporation, with an average consumption of 37-kilowatt hours for each of them. The number of beneficiaries from May 2021 to April 2022 reached 9,837,044 beneficiaries, through which it increased the revenues of the Yemeni Electricity Corporation and saved 20% of the Yemeni government budget.
