Sabotage saps Colombia oil output Reuters Company News - October 02, 2000 11:17

BOGOTA, Oct 2 (Reuters) - A bombing campaign by Marxist rebels targeting crude export pipelines cut Colombia's oil output by 21 percent in September from the same month last year, state oil company Ecopetrol said Monday.

Production in September was about 652,860 barrels per day, compared to September 1999 production of 826,461 barrels per day.

An Ecopetrol spokesman reported the production drop as the company said it had been forced to shut down two key oil export pipelines for more than a week following a fresh spate of bomb attacks by guerrillas over the weekend.

The main target of the attacks was the Cano Limon pipeline, which carries crude from the Cano Limon field operated by Occidental Petroleum Corp. to the Caribbean lifting terminal of Covenas. The pipeline has a capacity of 230,000 barrels per day.

Oil is this war-torn Andean nation's leading export, with production in 1999 averaging a record 805,000 barrels per day.

Colombia's two main guerrilla groups routinely attack the country's pipelines in protest over what they call excessive foreign involvement in Colombia's oil industry.

The Cano Limon pipeline is a favourite target, bombed at least 67 times this year and fast approaching last year's record of 79 attacks.

The biggest drop in September production was registered by private sector companies working in association with Ecopetrol, which extract most of the country's crude output.

They saw a 29.1 percent decline to 498,390 barrels per day, compared to 703,708 barrels per day in September 1999, Ecopetrol said.

Production figures from individual companies were not available for September.

In August, rebel attacks pushed Cano Limon's average output down to 40,000 barrels per day, far short of this year's daily average of 105,000 barrels per day, the Ecopetrol spokesman said.

The Colombian unit of BP Amoco, which operates the largest field at the Cusiana-Cupiagua complex in the eastern plains, has been unable to raise current production of 350,000 barrels per day average due to rebel attacks, a company spokesman said.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), October 03, 2000