A landslide broke the pipeline, and the OCP is now building a variant to restore operations.
After the breakdown of the main pipeline of the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (OCP), an alternative pipeline is being built that would allow service to resume on May 4.
The OCP management reported that a landslide at the height of the San Rafael waterfall, between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos, caused the pipeline to break, so the variant that is now being built will have a length of 1,700 meters and will allow to restore the crude oil transportation service as soon as possible.
Operations manager OCP Ecuador, Roberto Grijalva, indicated that the alternate pipeline is necessary, because the natural phenomenon of erosion remains active and service must be restored.
Grijalva explained that 140 tubes will be used in the process of laying the new structure and to meet the times, the contingent will work 24 hours not only to resume service on May 4, but to clean and remediate the affected areas. .
In a statement, OCP clarified that for this reason oil exports, the country’s main source of income, were suspended.
The break was registered in sections of the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System (SOTE) and the OCP, which caused the paralysis of the two oil and oil pumping systems and caused spills in rivers in the area.
Despite this incident, the Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources, René Ortiz, guaranteed the supply of fuels from the existing reserves on a national scale and specified that the confinement of the population to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has reduced the consumption substantially.
Source: El Universo, El Comercio, EFE, social networks
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