Colombia’s Ecopetrol Criticizes New Assaults on Oil Pipeline

BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombia’s majority state-owned oil firm Ecopetrol on Wednesday criticized new assaults in opposition to an oil pipeline run by its subsidiary Cenit, saying the assaults hurt the nation’s inhabitants and the economic system.

The Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline has been the goal of 5 assaults by armed teams and two installations of illicit valves to this point this 12 months, Ecopetrol stated in a press release. 5 of the incidents harmed the encompassing surroundings.

The pipeline was most lately attacked on Tuesday in a rural a part of Saravena municipality, in Arauca province, the corporate stated, including Cenit employees had been on website attending to the harm.

Colombia’s oil infrastructure is the frequent goal of theft and assaults by leftist rebels. Hundreds of barrels of oil are stolen from pipelines every day, refined into bootleg fuels and utilized in making cocaine.

“Conditions like these put life, private integrity, free mobility and the surroundings in danger, affecting staff and their households, in addition to others inhabitants,” Ecopetrol stated.

In early March, an assault on an oil pipeline led to environmental harm close to a refinery within the Colombian metropolis of Barrancabermeja.

(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb; Writing by Carolina Pulice; Enhancing by David Gregorio)

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