Page "Transport in Colombia" Paragraph 25

Colombia has 4, 350 kilometers of gas pipelines, 6, 134 kilometers of oil pipelines, and 3, 140 kilometers of refined-products pipelines.

The country has five major oil pipelines, four of which connect with the Caribbean export terminal at Puerto Coveñas.

Until at least September 2005, the United States funded efforts to help protect a major pipeline, the 769-kilometer-long Caño Limón – Puerto Coveñas pipeline, which carries about 20 percent of Colombia's oil production to Puerto Coveñas from the guerrilla-infested Arauca region in the eastern Andean foothills and Amazonian jungle.

The number of attacks against pipelines began declining substantially in 2002.

In 2004 there were only 17 attacks against the Caño Limón – Puerto Coveñas pipeline, down from 170 in 2001.

However, a bombing in February 2005 shut the pipeline for several weeks, and attacks against the electrical gird system that provides energy to the Caño Limón oilfield have continued.

New oil pipeline projects with Brazil and Venezuela are underway.

In addition, the already strong cross-border trade links between Colombia and Venezuela were solidified in July 2004 with an agreement to build a US $ 320 million natural gas pipeline between the two countries, to be completed in 2008.