Colombia's No. 2 Oil Pipeline Halted After Rebel Attack
The ELN rebel group bombed Colombia's second biggest pipeline on Monday, military sources said, forcing state-run oil company Ecopetrol to stop the pumping of crude.
The attack on a section of the 485-mile (780 km) Cano-Limon Covenas pipeline occurred in Cubara municipality in Boyaca province near the border with Venezuela, and is at least the 17th such attack this year, Ecopetrol said on Tuesday.
No injuries were immediately reported.
The bombing caused a crude spill on Monday, rupturing tubing and contaminating a small river.
Military sources blamed the bombing on the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) rebel group, which frequently attacks oil infrastructure and is in the midst of a renewed offensive against the government.
The government in the final stages of peace talks with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebel group in Havana. Cuba.
At least six members of the armed forces were killed in clashes with ELN this weekend, President Juan Manuel Santos said during his weekly security presentation on Tuesday. The government and ELN said in March they would begin formal peace talks, but negotiations have yet to begin.
Cano-Limon has the capacity to transport up to 210,000 barrels of crude daily from oil fields operated by U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp to the Caribbean port of Covenas.
(Reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta)
