A gas pipeline supplying Yemen’s Balhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden has been sabotaged shortly after it was repaired following an earlier attack,

A gas pipeline supplying Yemen's Balhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden has been sabotaged shortly after it was repaired following an earlier attack, state news agency SABA reported on Friday.

Citing the Yemen LNG company, the agency said the pipeline was sabotaged on Thursday evening in a desert region 260 kilometers (160 miles) from Balhaf, without specifying whether the flow of gas had been interrupted.

The 320-kilometer (200-mile) pipeline linking Marib province to Balhaf, in Yemen's mostly lawless south, has been repeatedly sabotaged, most recently at the end of last month by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants.

The March sabotage, which came shortly after two US drone attacks in eastern Yemen targeted Al-Qaeda suspects, forced the Yemen LNG company to halt exports for three weeks at the multi-billion-dollar plant.

Attacks on Yemen's oil and gas pipelines by Al-Qaeda militants or tribesmen seeking to put pressure the government into meeting their demands are common.

Yemen began exporting liquefied natural gas from Balhaf in 2009. French group Total has an almost 40 percent interest in the liquefication plant.

Al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen has exploited the decline in central government control that accompanied Arab Spring-inspired protests that eventually forced president Ali Abdullah Saleh to cede power in February.