Ocensa Oil Pipeline

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Ocensa Oil Pipeline, also known as Oleoducto Central or Oleoducto Central de Colombia, is an oil pipeline in Colombia.

Location

The pipeline runs from Cupiagua (Casanare department) to Coveñas (Sucre department), Colombia.

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Project Details

• Operator: Oleoducto Central S.A. (OCENSA)
• Owner: Cenit SAS (72.65%), AI Candelaria Spain SA (27.35%)
• Parent Company: Ecopetrol SA (72.65%), I Squared Capital (13.675%), Grupo Romero (13.675%)
• Current capacity: 745,000 barrels per day
• Length: 848 km
• Diameter: 30 inches, 36 inches
• Oil source: Cusiana and Cupiagua oilfields, Colombia
• Status: Operating
• Start Year: 1997

Background

Colombia's Ocensa oil pipeline runs from the Cusiana and Cupiagua fields in the Llanos basin to the port of Coveñas on the Caribbean coast. The 848-km pipeline, comprising 836 km of underground pipeline and 12 km of undersea pipeline, has a capacity of 745,000 barrels per day, accounting for around 75% of total Colombia oil production. Colombia's state oil company Ecopetrol and its subsidiary Cenit, hold a controlling share in the pipeline.

Route

The 848-kilometre Ocensa pipeline starts onshore at the Cusiana Oil Field and Cupiagua Oil Field and terminates at the port in Coveñas on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The pipeline passes through passes through the eastern and central Cordilleras of the Andes, a zone of Humid Tropical Forest, with great biodiversity with various uses to agriculture, forestry and fishing. This zone is medium and high, with average temperatures at 24 degrees and rainfall between 1,500 mm and 2,500 mm per annum. The pipeline also crosses Colombia's two largest waterways, the Magdalena and Cauca Rivers, while passing through 42 municipalities.

Ownership

When the pipeline commenced in 1997, the ownership of the pipeline was divided among six corporations. TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) together with IPL Energy shared a 35% ownership position and managed the operational aspects of the company. Ecopetrol owned 25%, British Petroleum 15.2%, Total 15.2%, and Triton Energy 9.6%.

As of 2017, the Ocensa Oil Pipeline is owned by three different companies. 72.65% of the pipeline is owned by Ecopetrol through its wholly-owned midstream subsidiary, Cenit SAS. The remaining stakes are owned 22.35% by Advent International and 5% by Darby Overseas (a subsidiary of Franklin Templeton), both private equity firms. Advent purchased its stake in December 2013 from long-time owner/shippers Total SA, Repsol Oil & Gas Canada Inc. formerly Talisman Energy Inc., and CEPSA, a Spanish refining subsidiary of IPIC, an investment fund of the government of Abu Dhabi. Advent's purchase of Talisman's, Total's, and CEPSA's shares cost $1.1 billion

In February 2020, Advent International sold its entire 22.4% interest in the pipeline to I Squared Capital.

In May 2021, Darby International Capital sold their 5% interest in the pipeline to Al Candelaria (Spain).

Controversy and Incidents

Colombian farmers and lawyers asserted that BP failed to obey environmental safety procedures during the construction of the pipeline. The farmers and lawyers alleged that the pipeline had caused severe damage and erosion to their lands' soil and groundwater, causing crops to fail, livestock to die off, contaminating drinking water, and making fish ponds unsustainable. A scientific investigation which followed found that BP failed to take proper measures in protecting topsoil when earth was moved during the construction process and failed to prepare the soil correctly for construction. Farmers also alleged that the environmental impact study was woefully inadequate.

In addition to the environmental problems caused by the pipeline's construction, peasants have suffered physical and social harm form government paramilitaries and private security forces providing security for the pipeline. A security border of 100 metres was placed on either side of the pipeline while no economic activity could take place within this 200 metre wide corridor in an attempt to prevent guerrilla fighters from sabotaging the pipeline. Peasants received no compensation for the land that was expropriated for the pipeline's security, while what land they still had was divided in two and no longer workable. The security forces themselves, many of them from the private sector, engaged in intelligence operations and forms of anti-insurgency in which civilians were harmed and even killed.

In December 2018 the Supreme Court of Colombia found that the pipeline's owners were responsible for an October 1998 spill that caused 22,000 barrels of oil to contaminate the town of Machuca, and which resulted in numerous deaths and injuries.

Legal Cases

In the case of Pedro Emiro Florez Arroyo & Others vs. Equion Energia Limited (formerly known as BP Exploration Company (Colombia) Limited), over 74 farmers filed a class action lawsuit against BP, claiming the Ocensa Pipeline caused significant damage to their lands. The claims themselves focused on the reduction in the economic capacity of the farms, such as areas available for pasture rental, and specific losses, such as loss of cattle. There were late and unsuccessful attempts to introduce new claims for costs of reinstatement of the land and a general damage claim. Ultimately, the farmers lost their case in the UK court system.

Articles and resources

External articles

Wikipedia also has an article on Ocensa Pipeline (Ocensa Pipeline). This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License].