The Caño Limón – Coveñas pipeline is a crude oil pipeline in
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
from the
Caño Limón oilfield in the municipalities of Arauca and Arauquita in
Arauca Department
Arauca () is a departments of Colombia, department of Eastern Colombia located in the extreme north of the Orinoco River, Orinoco Basin of Colombia (the Orinoquía Region, Llanos Orientales), bordering Venezuela. The southern boundary of Arauca ...
on the border of
Venezuela
Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
to
Coveñas
Coveñas is a resort city and municipality located in the Sucre Department, northern Colombia. It was established in the 16th century as a port for slave traders, then it became an oil port in the twentieth century. It was classified as a municipa ...
on Colombia's
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
coastline. It is jointly owned by the state oil firm
Ecopetrol
Ecopetrol, formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petróleo S.A. () is the largest and primary petroleum company in Colombia. As a result of its continuous growth, Ecopetrol forms part of the Fortune Global 500 and was ranked 346. In the 2020 ...
, and
U.S.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
company
Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (often abbreviated Oxy in reference to its ticker symbol and logo) is an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States and the Middle East as well as petrochemical manufacturing in the ...
. The pipeline is long.
History
The pipeline was opened in 1986. During its existence, the pipeline has often been attacked by guerrilla organizations that oppose the Colombian government. The
National Liberation Army (ELN), which has traditionally been involved in such attacks, charged in a communique that "in our country, energy policy does not prioritize investment (in Colombia) but rather exploitation and consumption that sacrifices future generations." Together with the
FARC
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in 1966 from peasan ...
, they have repeatedly sabotaged and exploded sections of the pipeline.
The Colombian government has militarized the area in response. For several years a security tax was imposed on oil producers in the region, which have also been targeted by guerrilla extortion and kidnappings. Occidental Petroleum also contracted the security firm
AirScan to aid the Colombian military in the defense of its operations.
In 2001, there were 170 attacks on the pipeline. The pipeline was out of operation for 266 days of that year. The government estimates that these bombings potentially reduced the
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the total market value of all the final goods and services produced and rendered in a specific time period by a country or countries. GDP is often used to measure the economic performance o ...
of Colombia by 0.5%. Occidental Petroleum lobbied and testified for increased American involvement in protecting the pipeline. The government of the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
increased military aid by $98 million, in 2003, to Colombia to assist in the effort to defend the pipeline. Attacks on the pipeline have subsequently been reduced during the following years.
In 1998,
AirScan misidentified the village of Santo Domingo as a hostile guerrilla target, leading to a December 18
cluster bomb
A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy vehi ...
attack by the Colombian military which killed eighteen civilians, including nine children. The incident led to different legal actions against all the parties involved, some of which are still in progress.
See also
*
Guahibo people
The Guahibo (also called Guajibo, or Sikuani, though the latter is regarded as derogatory) people are an Indigenous people native to the Llanos or savanna plains in eastern Colombia (Arauca, Meta, Guainia, and Vichada departments) and in southern V ...
*
U'wa people
The U'wa are an indigenous people living in the cloud forests of northeastern Colombia. Historically, the U'wa numbered as many as 20,000, scattered over a homeland that extended across the Venezuela-Colombia border. Some 7-8,000 U'wa are alive to ...
*
Plan Colombia
Plan Colombia was a United States foreign aid, military aid, and diplomatic initiative aimed at combating Colombian drug cartels and left-wing insurgent groups. The plan was originally conceived in 1999 by the administrations of Colombian Presid ...
*
Ocensa pipeline
The Ocensa pipeline (''Oleoducto Central'') is a crude oil pipeline in Colombia. It starts on the Cusiana and Cupiagua oilfields and runs to Coveñas on Colombia's Caribbean Sea, Caribbean coastline. It is owned by the consortium of Ecopetrol, BP ...
References
Sources
* Project Underground,
"Blood of Our Mother"', August 1998.
* Douglass W. Cassel Jr.
"A CORPORATE COVER-UP? ''Chicago Daily Law Bulletin'', January 9, 2003.
* American Friends Service Committee
* T. Christian Miller
''Los Angeles Times'', March 17, 2002.
*
Bill Weinberg
William J. Weinberg (born March 19, 1962) is an American political writer and radio personality based in New York City. He writes journalism focusing on the struggles of indigenous peoples, largely in Latin America, but he has also written on the ...
STATE OF SIEGE IN ARAUCA: Indigenous Peoples, Civil Society Under Attack in Colombia's Oil Zone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cano Limon - Covenas Pipeline
Energy infrastructure completed in 1986
Oil pipelines in Colombia