QUITO (AP) – The operation of Ecuador’s two largest oil pipelines, one state-owned and the other private, was suspended on Wednesday, after a bridge collapsed due to the advance of the erosion of the Coca River and its tributaries, which generates, together with the rains, the detachment of parts of the mountain.
State-owned Petroecuador said in an official statement that the operation of the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline (SOTE) system and a polyduct through which crude oil is transported for export has been paralyzed as a “preventive” measure. , due to the collapse of the bridge. on the Marker River in the Amazon province of Napo, about 200 kilometers southeast of the capital.
The Ecuadorian state company is evaluating with a technical team the physical conditions of the oil transport infrastructure, while the private company Oleoductos de Crudo Pesados (OCP) specified in a press release that, within the framework of the emergency response, in the face of heavy rain, he “stopped the pumping of crude oil”, closing the block valve located about 800 meters from the collapsed bridge.
The OCP clarified that “there was no rupture in the pipeline”, as on previous occasions, they are therefore working to empty the hydrocarbon present in the pipeline.
Footage circulating on social media captured the moment the bridge gave way, seconds after a person rode across it on a motorbike.
The two pipelines transport oil from major fields in the Ecuadorian Amazon to maritime terminals in the Pacific Ocean for export.
The SOTE covers 497 kilometers of pipeline and crosses the coastal, Andean and Amazonian regions of the country, while the OCP covers 485 kilometers, with an underground pipeline, with a transport capacity of 450,000 barrels per day.
Ecuadorian crude oil production reached 401,000 barrels on Wednesday, according to the Petroecuador daily report. The two paralyzed pipelines mobilize the bulk of national production: SOTE, 275,000 barrels of oil and OCP, 110,000.
Since February 2020, the Coca River has been showing a natural erosion process that has generated landslides and subsidence on its banks, due to the speed and direction of the flow that affects the side slopes.
According to the Ecuadorian Risk Management Secretariat, this is due to the fact that the area is made up of “volcanoplastic” embankments or boulders and sandy-type rubble whose compaction varies between “loose and firm”, being easily susceptible to ” water erosion”. ”.
This phenomenon has caused the destruction of highways, bridges and damage to the country’s oil pipelines, as well as to water collection plants and surrounding communities.
In December 2021, the Ecuadorian state declared a “force majeure” emergency in oil exports, due to a 20-day production shutdown that left $600 million in losses. The SOTE and OCP pipelines were affected by landslides and the country had to build variations in the route of the pipelines.
In February 2022, a major rockslide ruptured an OCP pipeline, causing an oil spill. This type of episode was repeated four other times. New pipeline routes are being studied in the face of erosion which is accelerating with the effects of winter.