The private company that runs an oil pipeline in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest stopped pumping oil Saturday after a rupture in the pipeline, according to a statement from the company.
Footage obtained and posted on Twitter by the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), an advocacy group, shows oil spraying out of the pipeline. The rupture happened Friday, and was caused by a rock fall, said OCP Ecuador, the company that operates the pipeline.
OCP Ecuador said it had “immediately initiated clean up, environmental remediation as well as repair of the pipeline in the Piedra Fina sector and implemented all the necessary actions to avoid, reduce, mitigate and repair any impact related to the OCP pipeline rupture caused by the rockslide on January 28, 2022.”
The company said it had contained spilled oil so “it cannot contaminate any bodies of water” and had stopped pumping crude until “conditions are right.”
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