Reuters informs that Venezuelan authorities struggled Wednesday to prevent oil spilled...
Reuters informs that Venezuelan authorities struggled Wednesday to prevent oil spilled from a pipeline, damaged by leftist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia, from washing down a frontier river into South America's largest lake.
A large oil slick, estimated to contain 18,000 barrels of crude, was advancing down the Catatumbo River toward Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela's western oil-producing state of Zulia, oil industry and waterways officials said.
The oil had spilled from Colombia's much-attacked Cano Limon pipeline, which was blown up in five places by guerrillas of the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) over the weekend.
It was one of the biggest spills to ever wash across the border down the Catatumbo River into Venezuela as a result of the Colombian rebel attacks.
Teams of 260 workers distributed at eight points on the river were using booms and other clean-up equipment to try to halt the flow of the slick, which was about 30 miles from Lake Maracaibo.
The 490-mile Cano Limon pipeline has been bombed at least 142 times so far this year by the ELN and the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) ? a record number of attacks for the duct, which began to operate in 1986.
