Ecuador’s state-owned oil company Petroecuador has declared force majeure across all operations and suspended crude exports after its two main pipelines, the Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE) and the Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados (OCP), stopped pumping. The shutdown was ordered to protect infrastructure threatened by heavy rains that accelerated soil erosion along the Coca River in the Amazonian province of Napo. The halt has already cut national crude output by roughly 133,000 barrels per day, according to the Hydrocarbons Regulation and Control Agency, after Petroecuador began closing wells because storage at production sites quickly filled. In 2024 Ecuador produced about 475,000 barrels per day, 73% of which was exported, making oil the country’s principal export earner. Engineers are building temporary bypasses for both pipelines and studying permanent rerouting options, but officials said exports will remain on hold until an alternative section of the SOTE is completed. Petroecuador’s acting chief, Leonard Bruns, said shipment schedules are being renegotiated with buyers and warned that the duration of the export pause will depend on how quickly the variant line can be finished.