A gas pipeline feeding Yemen’s only liquefied natural gas export terminal will take about one week to be repaired following an attack on it last week, Reuters quoted the country’s oil minister as saying.

The 320-kilometre gas pipeline that links Block 18 to the Belhaf terminal on the Gulf of Aden was attacked on 31 October.

According to Reuters, Yemen’s oil and minerals minister Ahmed Dares told the state news agency Saba on Saturday that technical teams were immediately sent to repair the damage after the blast. He believed the work could be finished in about a week.

“The government is working to take a series of measures to secure the oil installations and to prevent any future acts or risk,” Dares told Saba. He did not elaborate on the new steps.

Yemen’s oil and gas pipelines have been sabotaged repeatedly since anti-government protests last year created a power vacuum which armed groups exploited, causing fuel shortages and slashing export earnings in the impoverished country.

The 96.5-centimetre pipeline supplying the $4.5-billion plant has been attacked several times by suspected al Qaeda-linked gunmen after military strikes on Islamist militants.

The Balhaf facility, which opened in 2009, has the capacity to supply up to 6.7 million tonnes and delivers LNG under long-term contracts to GDF Suez, Total and Korea Gas.