Recent Report on Massive Oil Spill in Ecuador Revealed 25,000 Barrels Leaked from SOTE Pipeline
On Tuesday, a report confirmed a rupture in Ecuador’s SOTE crude pipeline earlier this month led to the spill of 25,116 barrels of oil that seriously affected the environment and local communities. Ecuador’s National Secretariat for Risk Management reported the spill contaminated three rivers, nine beaches and around 294 hectares of cultivated land in Esmeraldas province that affected at least 5,300 people and left 5 lakh people without drinking water.
Petroecuador, the state owned company that runs the pipeline accepted the scale of the disaster and said it had collected 30,257 barrels of crude oil mixed with water before separating the two. The rupture also resulted in a landslide and shutted the pipeline down for six days and led the company to declare force majeure which remains in place even after Petroecuador began to export Oriente crude again.
As a result, Petroecuador has committed $4 million to implement emergency measures including containment, environmental cleanup and distribution of assistance to impacted families. The company continues monitoring on the ground as well as performing aerial assessments to determine the full extent of the damages. The spill presents serious ecological and economic challenges for local communities that rely on fishing and agriculture.
