PDVSA activates spill contingency plan

An oil worker walks past a drilling rig at an oil well operated by Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA in Morichal July 28, 2011. Venezuela received an enviable honor last month: OPEC said it is sitting on the biggest reserves of crude oil in the world -- even more than Saudi Arabia. But the Venezuelan oil industry is also sitting atop a well of trouble. Picture taken on July 28, 2011. To match Special Report VENEZUELA/PDVSA REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins (VENEZUELA - Tags: ENERGY POLITICS BUSINESS)

PDVSA plan: Company says monitoring pipeline after Ecopetrol report

Carlos Garcia Rawlins

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Tom Liskey

 11 February 2013 18:29 GMT

Venezuela’s PDVSA said this weekend that it has implemented an oil spill contingency plan after Colombia's Ecopetrol informed the company that it detected a loss of pressure at a pipeline in the Norte de Santander department.

The 480-mile Cano Limon-Covenas line has a capacity of 220,000-barrels per day and usually pumps around 80,000 barrels, according to recent reports.

PDVSA said the loss of pressure on the pipeline is related to a “possible attack” by leftist FARC rebels.

The Venezuelan oil company said it has ordered flights over the southern extension of the Lake Maracaibo oil province to the Venezuelan-Colombian frontier to survey the area, but has not found any evidence of a spill.

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