Oil spill sprays crude into Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest
The private company that runs an oil pipeline in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest stopped pumping oil Saturday after a rupture in the pipeline, according to a statement from the company.
Footage obtained and posted on Twitter by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), an advocacy group, shows oil spraying out of the pipeline. The rupture happened Friday, and was caused by a rock fall, said OCP Ecuador, the company that operates the pipeline.
OCP Ecuador said it had “immediately initiated clean up, environmental remediation as well as repair of the pipeline in the Piedra Fina sector and implemented all the necessary actions to avoid, reduce, mitigate and repair any impact related to the OCP pipeline rupture caused by the rockslide on January 28, 2022.”
The company said it had contained spilled oil so “it cannot contaminate any bodies of water” and had stopped pumping crude until “conditions are right.”
Remedial action includes containing the spilled crude so it cannot contaminate any bodies of water.
“This is the exact reason why we oppose oil extraction,” said Andres Tapia of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, the parent organization of CONAIE. “Spills have become a part of our daily life, and we live with the contamination for decades. The oil industry has only brought us death and destruction. … We are calling on the government to halt oil expansion plans and properly clean up this spill and all the others that continue to contaminate our territories and violate our rights.”
In a statement, Kevin Koenig, energy and climate director of the environmental group Amazon Watch, said, “This latest spill shows once again that Ecuador’s oil infrastructure is built to spill. Despite promises to use state of the art technology and alleged commitments to environmental responsibility, Ecuador is averaging two oil spills per week. … Government plans to double production and expand extraction deeper into the Amazon will only lead to more of the same.”
Both the OCP pipeline and a state-owned pipeline paused operations in December because of erosion. The pipelines burst in 2020 due to erosion, causing oil to spill into the Coca River.