mid 2009 to end the problem of energy shortages and make a developmental milestone, officials at the ministry of Electricity and Energy have said. Muhammad Lutf al-Thowr, director of the Transport Lines and Transformation Stations Project at the ministry said this strategic project will expand electric services in the country through providing necessary energy to set up giant investment projects. Al-Thowr's remarks were delivered after his return from Iran where he held talks with the Persian Company implementing the project that focused on preparations for the transfer of transformers of the project. The project will save $1.5 million a day that Yemen spends as energy expenses for companies which uses heavy fuels, diesel and mazot, al-Thwor said. Furthermore, the project will save further expenses through conversion to gas to generate energy. He made clear that the electricity sector spends almost 60 percent of expenditure allocated for oil derivatives estimated at $ 1 billion a year. "We take into account while installing pipelines and transformation stations that they will produce 1200 megavolt." The $ 49 million project should have been operated in February 2008 but it has been delayed due to embargo Iran faced, al-Thwor said. In November, President Ali Abdullah Saleh inaugurated the first phase of a giant gas project in the Balhaf area of Shabwa province in which the French Total Company is a main partner. And recently the Japan Liquefied Natural Gas Corporation announced its intention to set up a project to export Yemen LNG to abroad.