Ecuador and its state-run oil firm Petroecuador are losing millions of U.S. dollars as organized crime groups are increasingly targeting fuel pipelines to tap and steal gasoline and diesel to support drug trafficking and production. The number of instances in which illegal homemade valves are being used to tap Ecuador's pipelines has surged in recent years, from around three dozen back in 2022 to more than 770 this year through October, a Reuters investigation has found.
A string of political crises, as well as endemic corruption, anti-oil industry protests, corroded infrastructure, and falling investment from foreign companies have all combined to drag Ecuador's oil production down. All these are now compounded by increased theft of fuels used by drug traffickers to ship their product out or to smuggle gasoline into neighboring Colombiagasoline which is then used in the production of cocaine in makeshift laboratories in the jungle.