Ecuador Declares Emergency in Oil Producing Region

Ecuadorean President Alfredo Palacio declared a state of emergency in an eastern oil-producing region after protesters, demanding higher social spending, sabotaged the country’s biggest petroleum pipeline.

Soldiers and police today began guarding oil wells and pipeline installations in the jungle region of Napo, 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Quito, Interior Ministry spokesman Rigoberto Medina said. Protesters yesterday damaged the pipeline that moves crude pumped by companies including as Madrid-based Repsol YPF SA and Paris-based Perenco.

“Protests have halted while government officials meet with local leaders to look for a solution,” Medina said in a phone interview from the capital.

The pipeline, which carries the 450,000 barrels a day, has stopped operating after protesters cut electrical cables and stole a pumping station computer, police director Gen. Jose Vinueza told Radio Quito. Ecuador is South America’s fifth- largest petroleum producer and was the 11th-largest crude supplier to the U.S. in November, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Bloomberg