Sana, Nov 4 (IANS): Suspected Al Qaeda militants blew up an oil pipeline in Shabwa province of Yemen Monday, causing an oil leak and sending black smoke billowing into the sky, an official said.

The powerful bomb explosion ripped through Shabwa's oil pipeline which transports some 10,000 barrels per day to Yemen's Belhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden, a government source told Xinhua.

"Armed terrorists of the Al Qaeda group placed a bomb under the pipeline in al-Saed region in the outskirts of Shabwa. The huge explosion caused a leak in the pipeline," the source said.

The Yemeni official accused militants of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda offshoot of the bombing.

Armed groups have been repeatedly attacking Yemen's oil pipelines.

Yemen's oil production rapidly declined from 400,000 barrels per day at the beginning of the last decade to the current 270,000 barrels per day.

The country's transitional government, which depends on oil exports for up to 70 percent of its budget, has beefed up security measures to protect the pipelines and prevent further attacks.