Yemen's Maarib oil pipeline resumed operations over the weekend, the pipeline operator said yesterday, ending a nine-month halt due to sabotage which left the Arab country dependent on fuel donations.

Repairs to the country's main oil pipeline have been completed and crude started flowing again, the operator said.

"We are trying to fill the pipeline right now. We still have two to three more hours to start pumping to the floating vessel," the official from the Safer Exploration and Production Operations Company said earlier yesterday.

Among the several oil producing companies in Yemen, Austrian energy group OMV said it had resumed its production in the country on Monday. Oil from the Maarib oilfield is pumped to a terminal on the coast and then carried by sub-sea pipeline to a large oil tanker, which has been converted into a floating oil storage and loading facility.