Amazon oil spill in Ecuador was 6,300 barrels

An oil spill caused by a ruptured pipeline in Ecuador’s Amazon region leaked almost 6,300 barrels into an environmental reserve, according to information provided Wednesday by the company that owns the conduit.

The firm OCP said it had “collected and reinjected 5,300 barrels of crude into the system” since the accident on Friday when heavy rains caused a boulder to fall on the pipeline in a mountainous region.

OCP said the recovered oil amounted to 84 per cent of the total that leaked, which would mean around 6,300 barrels.

The oil was collected in large basins deployed as an emergency measure when there is a leak.