Nov. 3 (UPI) -- The state-owned oil company Petroecuador has declared an emergency in the Trans-Ecuadorian Pipeline System, or SOTE, its main crude transport line, after landslides triggered by activity from the El Reventador volcano in the Amazonian province of Napo.
The measure will accelerate mitigation work and allow urgent contracts to protect infrastructure from the risk of spills and structural damage, the newspaper Primicias reported.
The SOTE, which carries more than 60% of Ecuador's oil from Amazonian fields to the port of Esmeraldas, runs through one of the country's most unstable areas that also is affected by regressive erosion from the Coca River.
According to a Petroecuador resolution signed by general manager Leonard Bruns, the event was classified as "unforeseeable" under the Public Procurement Law because of the combined effects of volcanic activity, heavy rainfall and unstable terrain.
It is the second emergency declared this year along the same section of the pipeline. In July, erosion at the confluence of the Coca and Loco rivers forced operations to shut down for nearly a month on both the SOTE and the OCP, Ecuador's second major oil pipeline operated by a private company.
