On May 31, a landslide near the Reventador volcano ruptured Ecuador’s largest petroleum pipeline, the SOTE. One and a half million litres of crude oil gushed out before the spill was contained. 

At the time of the break, the SOTE was moving 309,000 barrels per day, says Reuters.

That day, 11,480 barrels of crude spilled, and 90 percent of that ended up in the Coca river, according to one newspaper. (Sp)

The spill prompted the closure of the City of Coca’s entire running water system, affecting most of the 80,000 people that live in the regional capital.

On June 4, Peru reported that the oil slick had made it into their waters in the Loreto region--a journey of about 400,000 km from where the spill started. Perus environment minister has said they could seek reparations from Ecuador. This weekend, Ecuador’s president apologized on live TV for any possible damages the oil spill causes Peru. Nevertheless, on June 7 Ecuadors minister of the environment said shed overflown the area and decided the spill hadnt polluted the national parks Yasuní and Sumaco (Sp) that border the Napo River before it ends up in Peru.

Brazil, further downstream, is monitoring the situation:

"Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment), Brazils navy and (the National Petroleum Agency) are on alert in the event that the oil slick reaches the country," the BBC quotes Brazil’s foreign ministry as saying. "Brazil has offered aid to Ecuador and Peru to support the work of containment and dispersion of the oil slick in the two countries."

View Oil spill in Coca River in a larger map

On June 8, Ecuador’s government said water service was restored (Sp) to half of Coca’s residents. The other half are still getting water from the fleet of 40 tanker trucks that bring it in from out of province or downriver. 

Ecuador has hired a U.S. firm to help with the clean-up.