2024-07-23 20:27:18
OCP Ecuador claims that, with the help of 400 workers and 20 companies, two bypasses have been built. The resumption of crude oil pumping was achieved 16 days after the stoppage. The country is currently producing around 103,000 barrels less at a time of fiscal crisis and lack of resources.
Due to a force majeure event, due to the heavy rains that occurred in the country and the advance of the regressive erosion del Río Quijos, the operation of the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline (OCP Ecuador) since June 17, 2024.
This caused a drop of more than 90,000 barrels of daily oil production, especially in fields such as ITT, which went from producing more than 50,000 barrels to less than 8,000 barrels per day.
This fact further deepened the problems of the Ecuadorian oil sector and made it more difficult to meet the oil revenue targets for 2024, included in the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
After 16 days of stoppage, on the morning of July 3, 2024, OCP Ecuador announced that, thanks to the intense work of its technical staff, at 00:40 in the morning today the provision of the service was resumed. crude oil transportation service.
«With a technical team made up of more than 400 people and the support of more than 20 companies, in record time, we built two bypasses at Kp 99 and Kp 102. Each bypass has a length of 1.4 kilometers and is located in the canton Chaco, Napo province“In this way, we protect the environment, the community and the country,” the company said.
40% of Ecuadorian oil is transported through the OCP Ecuador, especially the crude oil from the ITT. This crude oil is heavy and is called Oriente, produced by Petroecuador.
According to the latest production cut, as of July 1, 2024, Petroecuador still records a low production of 300,550 barrels per day. If the fields in private hands are added, Ecuador’s total production does not exceed 382,048 barrels per day. This level is far from the 485,533 barrels per day recorded until June 16, 2024.
Fields such as ITT had to shut down wells due to the OCP shutdown. It is still unknown how long it will take to restart those wells and for production to begin to recover lost levels.
In the last five years, as noted, the sum of all the losses due to not making the definitive variant in the OCP, and only patch measures, reaches $1.5 billion for Ecuador. oil pipelines They have stopped for more than 80 days. (JS)
By: LA HORA Newspaper