Ecuador oil flow tumbles, pipeline repairs advance

Ecuador's oil production dwindled to just 68,000 b/d on 13 April in the wake of weather-related pipeline ruptures last week, forcing state-owned PetroEcuador to reprogram most crude exports into May.

PetroEcuador said it has pushed 10 crude export loadings from April to May as it works to repair its 360,000 b/d Sote pipeline.

The May exports will include six medium sour Oriente cargoes and four heavy sour Napo cargoes.

The 503km (313mi) Sote line, as well as PetroEcuador's Shushufindi-Quito products pipeline and the 450,000 b/d OCP pipeline owned by producers were damaged by mudslides on 7 April.

The Sote repairs are 20pc complete, and the products line is halfway repaired, PetroEcuador chief executive Pablo Flores said yesterday.

The repairs, which feature a 1.7km bypass, should be complete by 30 April, he said.

The 485km OCP heavy crude line resumed partial operations with flow of around 15,000 b/d of 18°API crude, OCP business manager Guillermo Freire said today. The crude is originating from Block 10, operated by Argentina's PlusPetrol, and Block 21, operated by Ecuador's state-owned PetroAmazonas.

OCP expects the line to be fully repaired by 4 May.

OCP and the contracted parties declared force majeure on 8 April.

The OCP line is owned by China's Andes Petroleum, Spain's Repsol, US independent Occidental, Argentina's Pampa Energy and UK-French independent Perenco.

PetroEcuador separately declared force majeure on exports following the Sote rupture.

Unwitting Opec contribution

The twin export pipeline ruptures knocked out almost 450,000 b/d of Ecuadorean crude production, just as the producer's group known as Opec+ was debating extensive output restraints.

Ecuador produced 334,418 b/d of crude in the first 13 days of April, starting with more than 512,000 b/d on 1 April and falling to 68,000 b/d almost two weeks later, according to data from Ecuador's oil regulator Arch. March output was just over 520,500 b/d.

Ecuador left Opec in January, and is not a member of the wider 23-country Opec+ coalition, comprising the 13 Opec members and 10 non-Opec countries.

The pipeline outages come amid a devastating local blow from the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the Pacific coast city of Guayaquil.

By Patricia Garip