Ecopetrol suspends operations along the Cano-Limon Covenas pipeline in Colombia after attacks

Oil company Ecopetrol has suspended pumping operations along the Cano-Limon Covenas pipeline in Colombia following two rebel bomb attacks.

According to police and military sources, the attacks were performed by National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas in rural areas of northern Norte de Santander and Arauca provinces.

The Cano-Limon Covenas pipeline, which is 780km long, is capable of transporting up to 210,000 barrels of crude daily.

Oil will be transported from fields that are operated by US-based Occidental Petroleum, near the border with Venezuela, to Covenas on Colombia’s Caribbean coastline.

The ELN have been attacking oil pipelines frequently during a conflict that has killed more than 220,000 over the past 52 years, Reuters reported.

Cano-Limon Covenas, which was opened in 1986, is a crude oil pipeline and is jointly owned by Ecopetrol and Occidental Petroleum.

The pipeline has been attacked often during its existence by guerrilla organisations that oppose the Colombian Government.

During 2001, it was attacked 170 times and was out of operation for 266 days.

ELN has been involved in such attacks and with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) repeatedly sabotaged and exploded sections of the pipeline.

The news agency said FARC is the biggest rebel group in Colombia, which declared a unilateral ceasefire in July 2015.

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Image: A physical map of the Caño Limón-Coveñas pipeline in Colombia. Photo: courtesy of Sémhur via Wikipedia.