Colombia weighs emergency on pipeline blockade

Colombia's energy minister said there may be grounds for declaring a state of emergency if an indigenous community does not lift its five-week blockade preventing state-run oil company Ecopetrol from repairing a key crude pipeline.

The Cano Limon-Covenas pipeline owned by state-run oil company Ecopetrol was shut off on March 25 after a bomb attack blamed on leftist rebels, prompting the company to declare force majeure on at least 25 delivery contracts.

The U'wa indigenous community close to the ruptured section of the pipeline have prevented engineers reaching the tube while they press their demands for it to be re-routed away from their territory and for a planned oil project nearby to be scrapped.

Source: Reuters