HOUSTON, April 17 (Saba) - The USA Shell Petroleum and other companies on Wednesday expressed their desires to hold enterprises in Yemen.

This came during separate meetings held on the sidelines of the 17th International Conference and Exhibition on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG 17) being taken place in Houston, USA, from 16-19 April, between Minister of Oil and Minerals Ahmed Dares with officials of these companies.

Shell Company's Vice President for business development Andy Caltiz said that the company intends to send a technical team to get acquainted with the available information about the blocks Yemen has announced recently to explore oil and gas.

Caltiz briefed the Minister on the company's activities in the Middle East region, including Yemen, saying that Shell is seriously interested in investing in Yemen's oil sector.

Dares said that there is almost certain information about available oil and gas in many onshore or offshore oil blocks recently announced, adding that any request from shell to invest in Yemen would be taken into serious consideration.

The Oil Minister also held another meeting with some heads and representatives of USA companies working in oil, gas, minerals, information protection and work systems.

Dares briefed them on the available opportunities for investment in areas of oil, gas, minerals and related services as well as the facilities granted to the investment companies in this fields.

The companies' representatives voiced their wills to invest in Yemen in many areas, affirming readiness to create partnerships with Yemeni private sector.

It is expected that representatives from these companies will visit Yemen to continue discussions in the projects they intend to carry out in the country.

AF