A 48,000-barrels-per-day capacity Colombian oil pipeline was still not operating on Wednesday since workers had not reached the remote site where suspected rebels detonated bombs, a source at Ecopetrol said.
The Transandino pipeline — which transports crude from the southern Putumayo province near the Ecuadorean frontier to the port of Tumaco on the Colombian Pacific coast — was halted by bomb attacks without affecting exports earlier this week.
“They still haven’t been able to reach the site,” said a source at state-run Ecopetrol, Colombia’s largest oil producer. The source said once the workers arrive, it should take around four days to repair depending on the damages.
The 305-km (190-mile) pipeline moved an average of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) from fields in Putumayo through the Narino department on the coast.
Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels operate in Putumayo and neighboring Nariño as well as do some criminal groups. The smaller ELN guerrilla movement also has a presence in Nariño.
Colombia, now Latin America’s No. 4 oil producer, has seen a sharp drop in violence from its long war as rebels have been battered by a U.S.-backed security offensive. But guerrillas still occasionally attack oil pipelines in remote areas.
