Ecuadorian state-owned oil company Petroecuador announced Tuesday that it had controlled an oil spill in the Cuyabeno nature reserve two weeks after an oil pipeline burst.

Galo Chiriboga, president of Petroecuador, said the company would now start cleaning and repairing the area affected, and a minimum of six months is needed to complete the work.

According to the company, the spill, in the Amazon province of Sucumbios, would have a lasting impact on the area, which hosts many plants and animal species that are at risk of extinction.

"Three lagoons are seriously affected, and we are containing the oil's spreading towards the others," said Lucy Ruiz, the company's manager of environmental protection, adding that the reserve would never be exactly the same as before.

The two-week spill contaminated more than 600,000 hectares of the nature reserve all together.

The people who live in the area have threatened to take "forceful measures" to demand the company clean the environment and compensate for the environmental damage.

In 2006 to date, the country has reported 117 oil spills, which have jointly cost the company more than 27 million U.S. dollars in environmental compensation.

Source: Xinhua