Occidental Petroleum Corp. resumed production July 18 in Colombia's Cano Limon oil field, 8 days after shutting it down due to deadly guerrilla attacks on a pipeline to the Caribbean port of Covenas.
Two attacks on Colombian troops sent to guard repair efforts following the 471st bombing of the pipeline claimed the lives of 30 soldiers and one civilian.
The resulting shutdown of the field, which produces 171,000 b/d of oil, cost Oxy 8% of its worldwide oil production and prompted it to evacuate 150 of the field's 300 workers. But an official said Oxy expects to make up most or all of lost deliveries by yearend. The oil field shutdown was the third since Cano Limon was inaugurated in 1985, an opening that vaulted Colombia into energy self-sufficiency. Oxy built the 410-mile pipeline, but it now is owned by state oil company Empresa Colombiana de Petroleos (Ecopetrol).
The shutdown caused a brief uptick in U.S. oil futures prices-a reflection, traders said, of the importance of Colombian oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refiners.
Ecopetrol said Colombia oil exports were up to 330,000 b/d at the time of the shutdown, or 5% of U.S. imports in 1996.
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