PetroEcuador declares force majeure at blocked field

State-owned PetroEcuador declared force majeure yesterday on its Eden Yuturi field on block 12 because of an indigenous protest.

The block had been producing just over 27,000 b/d as of yesterday, according to regulatory data.

The field, located in the eastern province of Orellana, has been blockaded since 10 May by the El Eden Kichwa community, and will now undergo an "Operational Logistical Contingency Plan," PetroEcuador said today.

"This declaration was made because of the high risk exposure of the company's workers, as well as strategic installations of the state and the level of national oil production," the company said.

The protest is one of several brewing in Ecuador in the wake of conservative president Guillermo Lasso's inauguration last month. On the horizon is an 11 June protest against rising fuel prices. Lasso's predecessor, Lenin Moreno, instituted a mechanism that gradually brings gasoline and diesel prices into line with international levels.

Ecuador produced 477,330 b/d of crude in May, up from about 335,000 b/d a year earlier when pipeline ruptures forced PetroEcuador and other producers to shut in wells. The ruptures were caused by mudslides and riverbed erosion that have since grown worse, forcing PetroEcuador and private-sector pipeline operator OCP to install pipeline bypasses.

PetroEcuador this week carried out a simulation to drain the 360,000 b/d Sote crude pipeline as a precaution.

By Patricia Garip