Ecuador oil pipeline bursts, spills oil into river
© 2001 Reuters
January 28, 2001
QUITO, Ecuador - Ecuador's only oil pipeline halted crude transport at dawn on Thursday after it burst, possibly due to a bomb attack, and spilled oil into a nearby river, said Rodolfo Barniol, president of state oil company Petroecuador.
"There's outside damage to the pipeline, to define it as a bomb attack, we only have to wait for a partial report to examine evidence from the explosion," Barniol told Reuters.
The rupture occurred at 3 a.m. (0800 GMT) at kilometer 315 (the 195-mile mark) of the tube, near Santo Domingo de los Colorados, about 132 km (82 miles) west of Ecuador's capital Quito.
According to Barniol, about 10,000 barrels of crude spilled into the nearby River Toachi. He said he expects the pipeline to be repaired within 24 hours, adding that the tear isn't big, "but the ecological damage is important, since the Toachi River has a strong current." Technicians worked to clean up the river on Thursday morning.
Ecuador, an Andean nation of 12.4 million people, produces an average of 380,000 barrels of crude daily. The government seeks to finance more than 30 percent of the state budget in 2001 with oil exports.
Barniol said the stoppage would not affect oil exports, since Ecuador has stock on hand.
Ecuador's 311-mile (498 km) pipeline suffered two bomb attacks in December, which stopped crude transport for more than two days. One of the attacks killed five people who were traveling on a bus through the area.
The Army Corps of Engineers has yet to publish the results of the investigation of either of these explosions.
Industry experts consulted by Reuters have expressed concern over the prospect that the recent series of pipeline explosions weren't caused by bomb attacks but a technical problem.
"They aren't going to keep tricking us that this was caused by a bomb. This is poor management of the pipeline, and it's time the government provides an explanation. I'm afraid there's an excess of pumping, of pressure" oil expert Rene Bucaram told Reuters.