On Saturday, Ecuador discovered a fresh fuel pipeline leak in the Amazon region, calling it an “attack,” hours after hundreds of thousands of people were impacted by another spill.
The country’s primary hydroelectric facility is located on the Coca River; the energy ministry did not disclose the extent of the recent spill or whether it reached that watershed.
“A leak of oil derivatives” occurred in the eastern province of Napo, according to a statement from the ministry on Sunday, March 23, 2025. The leak was ascribed to sabotage.
The nation’s state-owned oil firm announced an emergency on Tuesday in response to the earlier disaster in the northwest that contaminated multiple rivers and left hundreds of millions without access to safe drinking water.
The spill was also condemned by authorities as a sabotage act.
In order to protect its equipment, the neighbouring Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric power station, which supplies 1,100 MW to the national grid, will either be taken offline or not, according to the energy ministry.
A plant shutdown, according to the ministry, would not result in power outages because supplies would be “guaranteed” to the whole nation.
In 2024, Ecuador experienced blackouts for as long as 14 hours per day because of the worst drought in 60 years, which caused hydroelectric reservoir levels to drop to all-time lows.
It was thought that a landslip had broken a large pipeline, causing tens of thousands of barrels of oil to flow earlier on March 13.
Hundreds of thousands of people’s access to clean water supplies has been impacted as the crude has since moved to at least five streams, including the Esmeraldas River that empties into the Pacific Ocean.
Alleged sabotage against oil infrastructure has been condemned by Energy Minister Ines Manzano.
President Daniel Noboa, in power since November 2023, faces leftist opposition leader Luisa Gonzalez in a presidential run-off election on April 13.
