QUITO, July 8, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Ecuador on Monday reopened one of two oil pipelines shuttered after heavy storms that have forced the South American country to suspend crude exports, a mainstay of its economy.

Operations resumed at the so-called Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline, operator OCP Ecuador said in a statement. Work continued on the main Trans-Ecuadoran Oil Pipeline System (SOTE).

The lines transport crude from oil fields in the Ecuadoran Amazon to the Pacific coast, with a combined capacity of 810,000 barrels per day.

In June, state oil company Petroecuador stopped pumping oil through the main SOTE pipeline due to a rupture in a section running through the Amazon.

Oil is one of Ecuador's primary exports.

In 2024, it produced an average of 475,000 barrels per day, of which more than 70 percent was exported.

Exports were halted last week after heavy rains -- which have claimed over 50 lives since January and displaced tens of thousands of people -- caused extensive damage in areas crossed by the two pipelines.