More than a million liters of oil. Nearly 6,300 barrels of oil spilled in an environmental reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon after an oil pipeline ruptured late last week in this region of northeastern Ecuador, according to data provided Wednesday. by the private company OCP.
OCP, the company that manages the pipeline, tried to limit the damage by collecting the oil in retention basins set up in the area of the incident. Of these 6,300 barrels, the company would have “collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of crude oil into the system”, or 84% of the crude spilled.
Polluted water sources
About 21,000 m2 of the Cayambe-Coca reserve were affected by the oil leak, after the rupture of an oil pipeline caused by a rock fall. A disaster, especially since the oil has also flowed into the Coca, a major river in the Amazon that flows into a river, the Napo. This river and river provide water to many communities, including indigenous peoples.
Covering an area of more than 4,000 km2, the Cayambe-Coca National Park straddles four provinces, in an area of mountains and humid forests in the Amazon basin, between 600 and 5,790 meters above sea level. It takes its name from Cayambe, a volcano, and the Coca River which crosses its territory.
Oil, main export product
Heavy rains caused landslides and rockfalls at the end of the week, leading to the rupture of this crude oil transport pipeline in the Piedra Fina area. The incident took place on the border between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbios. The 485 kilometer long pipeline crosses a total of four provinces, to end up on the Pacific coast, transporting 160,000 barrels of crude per day from oil wells in the middle of the jungle.
In May 2020, in this same area of Piedra Fina, some 15,000 barrels spilled into three rivers during a similar incident. Ecuador has significant oil resources, its main export product. Between January and November 2021, the country produced an average of 494,000 barrels/day.