Latest update April 20th, 2025 7:37 AM
Latest News
- Jagdeo downplays cost-of-living impact from 7th project
- Ghana bans foreigners from trading in its gold market to boost revenue
- Israeli bombardment of Gaza kills 92 in two days: Health Ministry
- Couple dies after gas bottle explosion at Soesdyke home
- Guyana to remain CNOOC’s main source of production growth – 2024 Annual Report reveals
Ruptured pipeline causes oil spill in Ecuador River
AFP – An oil spill in northwestern Ecuador has turned a river black, prompting authorities to declare an environmental emergency and order residents to ration drinking water.
The spill, believed to have been caused when a landslide ruptured a major oil pipeline, has contaminated a section of the Esmeraldas River in the province of the same name.
A crew works to clean up an oil spill in Ecuador PHOTO: STRINGER
Residents in the town of Cube, where the water had changed color, were trying to stop the flow by building dikes, an AFP journalist saw.
“The mud formed by the oil has penetrated all the hillsides,” said farmer Fernando Gandara.
The Emergency Operations Committee in the provincial capital, also called Esmeraldas, declared an environmental emergency over concerns about water quality.
Vilko Villacis, mayor of the city of more than 200,000, said the leak had caused “unprecedented” damages.
His office halted the diversion of river water to an aqueduct supplying the city and urged people to ration water.
On Friday, state-owned Petroecuador said it was working to address the emergency at the pipeline, part of the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System (SOTE) which transports crude oil from the Amazon.
The company has not estimated the volume of oil spilled.
Ecuador last year produced 475,000 barrels of crude a day, exporting 72 percent of the total.
The SOTE is the most used pipeline system in the country, with the capacity to transport 360,000 barrels per day on the 500-kilometer (310-mile) journey from the Amazon to the Pacific coast.
(Ruptured pipeline causes oil spill in Ecuador River)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A disunited front in the face of Empire
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- By any rational measure of diplomacy, the worst thing the Caribbean could do at this hour—when... more
A Chance to steer U.S.–Caribbean Relations through Trade Winds and other Passing Storms
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled a genuine willingness to hear the Caribbean... more
Weekend Cartoon
