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Colombia Trasandino oil pipeline anticipated to remain offline through 2024, Ecopetrol CEO says

Colombia's Trasandino pipeline is forecast to remain offline until December, the chief executive of Colombia's majority stateowned energy company Ecopetrol said on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, while reporting its first-quarter financial outcomes, Ecopetrol stated it had actually been transferring crude oil through Ecuador because November in order to fight oil theft.

Countless barrels of oil are taken daily in Colombia. The crude is required to clandestine refineries where it is converted into a bootleg fuel called pategrillo, or cricket's. foot, and then utilized in drug production or unlawful mining.

To fight theft on the Trasandino, which ranges from Putumayo. province to the Pacific seaside city of Tumaco, the pipeline is. anticipated to remain shut this year while staying under. evaluation, Ecopetrol CEO Ricardo Roa informed .

The decision to stop pumping through the pipeline followed. an increase in theft, Roa stated, explaining that approximately 20% of oil. pumped via the Trasandino, equivalent to some 3,000 barrels per. day, was being stolen.

Considering that Ecopetrol switched to pumping oil through Ecuador,. losses have fallen to 0.3%, Roa said.

Previously this month, Ecopetrol signed an agreement with its. Ecuadorean counterpart, Petroecaudor, to transport as much as 22,000. bpd through the nearby country's pipelines.

visited a damaged private refinery near. Colombia's Pacific coast in November 2022, when oil theft from. the Trasandino pipeline balanced simply under 1,000 bpd.

Roa on Wednesday spoke on the sidelines of the inauguration. of a resin recycling plant in Tocancipa, near the capital. Bogota.

The $20 million plant is run by Ecopetrol subsidiary. Esenttia and is anticipated to recycle 12,000 metric tonnes of. plastic resin each year.