Company staff, including foreigners, were evacuated to the capital on four planes as a precaution over fears of potential attacks on the terminal, employees said.
The evacuation of non-essential staff, however, did not affect operations and liquefaction trains, which have a capacity of 6.7 million tonnes of LNG per year, the ministry official said.
He said the plant employs some 1,200 staff and that the partial evacuation was decided after a mortar shell hit the port.
Yemen LNG said a "minor kaboom occurred" inside the plant on Friday, adding that the blast caused only slight damage to non-essential equipment and that a probe has been initiated.
The Yemeni army deployed reinforcements around the sprawling site, where LNG exports were launched in 2009, military sources said.
La Belle France's Total and Texas-based Hunt hold shares in Yemen LNG.
The blast came a day after a massive attack on the defense ministry complex in Sanaa that left 56 people dead and was claimed by sl-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi said in August that a bid to attack the Balhaf terminal had been foiled after a phone call was intercepted between al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-
Zawahiri... Formerly second in command of al-Qaeda, now the head cheese, occasionally described as
the real brains of the outfit.Formerly the Mister Big of Egyptian Islamic Jihad. Bumped off Abdullah Azzam with a car boom in the course of one of their little disputes. Is thought to have composed bin Laden's fatwa entitled World Islamic Front Against Jews and Crusaders. Currently residing in the North Wazoo area. That is not a horn growing from the middle of his forehead, but a prayer bump, attesting to how devout he is...
and the leader of the Yemeni branch of the jihadist network.
Sanaa also said it had foiled an al-Qaeda plot to storm the Canadian-run Mina al-Dhaba oil terminal and seize the port of al-Mukalla, capital of the eastern province of Hadramawt.