Ecuador: Oil spill could have been avoided in the Amazon rainforest
More than one million liters of oil spilled in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador after a pipeline ruptured on January 28. The company that runs the pipeline said it was damaged by falling rocks, erosion and torrential rain, claiming the accident “could happen”. It was not expected.” But our Observer says that this excuse is not enough.
The pipeline, operated by a private company OCP, is located in Ecuador, on the border of the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos.
The equivalent of 6,300 barrels of oil – over a million liters – flowed into the nearby Coca and Nabu rivers. The spill affected up to 21,000 square meters of the Cayambe Coca Reserve, a protected area.
After the pipeline was ruptured on January 28, oil flowed into the Coca and Napo rivers toward Peru. © Indigenous Communities of Observers Living on the Coca and Napo Rivers Our Observer is Luis Xavier Solis, a human rights lawyer with the Alejandro Lapaca Foundation. He lives in Oriana County, which was affected by the spill. Solis told Jowharmonitors that he views the spill as a disaster for the local population as well as the environment.
Indigenous communities live on the Coca and Napo rivers. We’re talking about 27,000 people, Quechuas. They drink river water. They bathe in rivers. They travel on rivers. They eat food that comes from rivers. And all of that has been spoiled. In Ecuador, two pipelines carry oil from the Amazon to the Pacific coast: one operated by OCP, a private Ecuadorean company, and the other operated by PetroEcuador, a public company.
Pipeline in a high-risk environment
On January 28, OCP said its pipeline was damaged by rockfall in an accident that “would have been unpredictable.”
However, oil transportation in the area was suspended in December 2021, due to soil erosion that OCP said caused the problem. Both OCP and PetroEcuador have built diversions to their pipelines.
Louis Xavier Solis said:
We’ve said time and time again that the January 28 leak was to be expected, and that it could even have been avoided. There have been many warnings from scientists and organizations like ours that we cannot continue to have a pipeline on the banks of a river, in an area highly prone to landslides and rockfall, which is very close to the volcano.
These warnings were ignored by the Ecuadorean state and private companies, leading to this new spill, as hundreds of oil spills have occurred in recent years as well as other oil spills in the region in the past of varying degrees of severity. In April 2020, both Ecuadorean pipelines were damaged in the same place, spilling more than 15,000 barrels of oil. In May 2013, the equivalent of 11,000 barrels was spilled a few kilometers away. The equivalent of about 14,000 barrels was spilled at the same site in February 2009.
These are not the only cases – various sources say that hundreds of oil spills have occurred in Ecuador in the past years.
According to the Federation of Indigenous Nations of Ecuador, “more than two oil spills occur each week in the Amazon,” or more than a hundred per year. An investigation by Ecuadorean website Plan V confirms this figure, adding that “between 2015 and June 2021, 899 oil spills were recorded.” NGO Amazon Frontlines says: “According to the Ecuadorean Ministry of Environment, more than 1,169 oil spills were recorded. Officially reported between 2005 and 2015 in Ecuador, 81% of them occurred in the Amazon.”
When the spill happens, the companies transporting the oil always say it was due to extenuating circumstances, to prove they are not responsible. And they always tend to underestimate their impact.
