I know there's problems with rebels in Columbia but the explanation for this spill is way too convenient for the oil companies...blame it on the teachers who want higher wages...

Colombia's Transandino pipeline crippled: sabotage alledged

By KERM YERMAN State-run oil company Ecopetrol shut down Colombia's fourth largest crude export pipeline Monday after unidentified saboteurs damaged a valve and caused a 2,500 barrel spillage.

The Transandino pipeline pumps around 100,000 barrels per day, including some 45,000 barrels of Ecuadorean crude, from southern Colombia to the Pacific coast oil terminal at Tumaco.

Much of the spilled crude had poured into the ocean, an Ecopetrol spokesman said.

The spokesman said he did not know who was behind the sabotage attack but said a group of teachers, protesting over wage conditions, had staged a demonstration near the site where the valve was damaged.

The pipeline was shut down just hours after the Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline, the second largest pipeline that crosses northern Colombia, was repaired a week after it was bombed by Marxist rebels. Link

http://www.canoe.ca/MoneyOil/mw_oilnews11.html

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 23, 2000