Also... if anybody seriously threatened to cut off the Suez Canal, they'd have to deal with a very pissed off and heavily armed Egypt.  And Egypt has absolutely no problem killing people from further south on the continent.

Hi the stormy present,

JMHO but you might want to review the latest data of the oil reserves of Yemen. IMHO you will find that they have more than 3 Billion Barrels of Oil reserves. Please see the Yemen web site below and I think you will see that your numbers may be outdated. JMHO...

Please see the web site:
http://www.pepa.com.ye/Concession/concession.htm

Section fron the site:

More over, the oil reserves of the Republic of Yemen estimate at 9,718 billion barrels. It is worth noting that fresh information on sedimentary basins in Yemen indicates that there are many promising concession areas located at 12 sedimentary basins. At the time being, Yemeni oil production is only from 2 sedimentary basins out of the above-mentioned 12. Producing oil only from two basins gives us more inspiring and optimistic indicators. Other indicators are the 87 blocks, out of which only 12 produce oil. Yet, the size of a block differs from one to another. The average size of a block is 4 thousand square kilometers unlike Safer block whose area is 8 thousand square kilometer.

In addition, there is an orientation towards exploiting offshore blocks located at the Arab Sea, Aden Gulf, and the Red Sea. Historically speaking, an oil company carried out drilling operations between Al-Mukalla and Sayhout. The result was the discovery of 3 thousand barrels in one of the wells but because of political reasons, the well was closed down. That was a very simple indicator, so now there is an Australian oil company working on block 15. It would start exploration in January 2007. Promoting the offshore blocks would start at the beginning of 2007.

In addition, there is an orientation towards exploiting offshore blocks located at the Arab Sea, Aden Gulf, and the Red Sea. Historically speaking, an oil company carried out drilling operations between Al-Mukalla and Sayhout. The result was the discovery of 3 thousand barrels in one of the wells but because of political reasons, the well was closed down. That was a very simple indicator, so now there is an Australian oil company working on block 15. It would start exploration in January 2007. Promoting the offshore blocks would start at the beginning of 2007.