Colombia's Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline attacked for ninth time in 2023

Cenit AG

21/04/2023 15:02

BOGOTA, April 21 (Reuters) - The suspension of pumping
operations at Colombia's Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline will be
prolonged after a new bombing attack damaged its infrastructure
in the country's Arauca province, oil transportation company
Cenit said.
    The attack, the ninth this year, took place on Thursday in
the Saravena municipality, prompting the company to activate its
emergency contingency plan to control the subsequent oil spill
and mitigate pollution, said Cenit, a subsidiary of Colombia's
majority state-owned oil company Ecopetrol  ECO.CN .
    "The company calls on the nearby community to refrain from
approaching the site of the incident, until the evaluation,
repair and clean-up operation that is in place is completed,"
Cenit said in a statement late on Thursday.    
    Colombia's military is working to secure the area, Cenit
added.
    Pumping along the pipeline has been suspended since April 14
due to other attacks, a Cenit spokesperson said, adding that the
restarting of operations will depend on the military's ability
to secure the area where the attacks took place while repairs
continue. 
    Cenit did not attribute the attack to any particular group,
but guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and FARC
dissidents who reject a 2016 peace deal with the government
operate in the area, according to the military.
    The Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline, which can transport up to
210,000 barrels of oil per day and runs along Colombia's
northern border with Venezuela, was attacked 13 times last year,
leading to fires and contamination of the surrounding area.
    It was not immediately possible to establish how the
suspension of oil pumping had affected production at oil fields
in Colombia's Arauca province, including those belonging to
private companies SierraCol and Parex.

 (Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta; Writing by Oliver Griffin;
Editing by Paul Simao)
 ((Oliver.Griffin@thomsonreuters.com; +57 304-583-8931;))