QUIT, June 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Reventador Volcano in Ecuador has resumed eruption, which is expected to affect two major oil pipelines, said Hugo Yepez, director of Geophysics Institute of the National Polytechnical School (IGEPN) on Tuesday.

    "Reventador is in the second phase of the eruption process which only consists of a lava flow circulating in the volcanic crater," said the expert.

    A thin ash layer could fall over the inter-Andean zones and cover the Heavy Crude Pipeline and the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil-Pipeline System, causing maintenance problems.

    "We have to take into account that the volcano is generating some ashes and if the activity increase, there could be consequences in the inter-Andean valley," said Yepez.

    In Ecuador eight volcanoes have erupted since 1534 and volcanologists believe there exist at least 13 or more potentially active volcanoes.

    Reventador, 3,485 meters above sea-level, is a symmetrical conevolcano which on November 3, 2002 expelled into the air millions of tons of ashes that reached Quito and covered the capital city with a thick layer of ash. Enditem