Leak Halts Major Fuel Pipeline into Germany

A major pipeline feeding oil products from the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refinery hub into Germany was shut this week after a leak was reported in the Netherlands, the operating company said in a statement on Thursday.

 

The Dutch-German Rotterdam-Rijn Pijpleiding (RRP) distillates pipeline, partly owned by Royal Dutch Shell (RYDAF) and BP, will be closed for at least a day as the company investigates the leak and makes any necessary repairs.

 

The 24-inch pipeline has a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres per hour, according to the RRP website. Oil traders say that when it is running it always operates at full capacity to meet demand for bringing fuel into Germany, Europe's top consumer of distillates such as diesel and heating oil.

 

Oil market sources said deliveries had already been affected to storage sites in Germany that are served by the pipeline, and sources in the ARA region said Shell had stopped offering diesel into the pipeline from its 400,000 barrel per day Pernis refinery, the largest in Europe.

 

Still, the soft summer demand season for distillates had tempered the impact of the closure on local German markets, and sources said oil products could also be delivered via barges when the pipeline is not fully operational.


(Reporting By Ron Bousso and Libby George; Editing by Greg Mahlich and William Hardy)