An oil pipeline in southern Colombia that was shut down Feb. 8 after being bombed by suspected rebels is back up and running, an official at state-run oil firm Ecopetrol SA said Monday.
The official, who requested to remain anonymous to comply with company policy, said the Transandino pipeline, which has a capacity to carry 48,000 oil barrels per day, came back online Sunday afternoon.
Leftist rebels had allegedly bombed two different sections of the pipeline. Ecopetrol owns and operates the 306-kilometer long pipeline, which stretches from Ecuador to the port of Tumaco in Colombia’s pacific coast. The pipeline was pumping around 30,000 barrels per day before the bombing.
Pipeline attacks by Colombian rebel groups have fallen to a handful per year from more than 200 a decade earlier as the government has ramped up security in remote rural areas.
(By Dan Kovalik / Dow Jones Newswires)
