ERASMUS SCHOOL OF HISTORY, CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION Rotterdam as an energy port Rotterdam as energy port Hein A.M. Klemann Special thanks to Marten Boon and Joep Schenk

Competition between ports Development port depends on: –Economic development hinterland –Quality of the connections with the hinterland –Quality of the port itself: Its connection with the sea The quality and costs of the service –These factors in other, competing ports Mix of factors changes per period and per product Dutch ports compete already since the 17 th century with ports in the Le Havre-Hamburg range

Two products : –Coal –Oil Coal dominant product in downstream Rhine transport from the early 19 th century –Overwhelmingly dominant from the 1890s –Rotterdam became the major port for the Ruhr area, and so for coal exports Oil and Oil products: Postwar period –Major transition of the European energy market –Major transition for Rotterdam Energy and the Port of Rotterdam

German Coal and the port of Rotterdam From 1850s: Enormous growth of coal production in hinterland –Ruhr Area –Westphalia –Industrialization From 1860: Coal mines needed to export In Westphalian mine owners decided to make Antwerp their export port –Antwerp had a better rail connection –Connection with the hinterland decisive –Rotterdam came back from the late 19 th century on.

From the 1890s on main dry bulk port: –Upstream: Cereals, ore, pit-wood –Downstream: Coal –In the interwar period: balance between upstream and downstream transport – Extremely cheap Port highly specialized Vulnerable –Antwerp: less cargo, but more general cargo –Smaller quantities, but possibly a higher added value Rotterdam as a dry bulk port

Postwar Period Rotterdam wanted to industrialize German hinterland: occupied by US and Britain –Coal production stagnated As everywhere else in Europe Specific German problems: poverty and hunger Alternative for coal: oil US authorities: imports of crude oil, no oil products Wanted to safe on hard currency. German chemical industry moved from coal to oil Also ever more used as an industrial fuel

Middle East: new postwar production centre –After the war: overcapacity –Oil extremely cheap From the 1950s: wage increases: Coal expensive –German coal production reached a peak in 1957 –Market protected New free trade: –European Economic Community –Ideas on competition within Germany Oil substituted coal while the total energy market grew Postwar oil market

Graph 4 Crude oil prices, (in 2010 US dollars)

Graph 5 Fuel oil consumption and Ruhr coal production, Marten Boon

New infrastructure needed: pipelines –Rhine shipping: bound to the river –New hinterland connection: footloose –No reason to go for the Port of Rotterdam –Ideas to bring the oil in from: Marseilles: Pump the oil directly from the Mediterranean to the Rhine area Wilhelmshaven Germany: to protect the German market The new energy market and Rotterdam

Map 1 Geographical distribution of refineries in Germany, 1950

Map 2 West German refinery capacity by state,

Map 3 Geographical distribution of refineries in Germany, 1960

Map Trans- European pipeline flow rate projection,

Why Rotterdam nonetheless? The shift in the German geographical structure The Suez Crisis and 1973 Oil Crisis blocking the Suez Canal The quick reaction of the Rotterdam Port to the demand for extra capacity For petrochemical industry Tank storage capacity Ever larger tankers Europoort: The influence of Royal Dutch Shell, that had already an important balancing refinery in Rotterdam (Pernis)

Map 5 The Rhine-Main Pipeline trajectory

Map 6 Volumes of oil products transported by the Rhine-Main Pipeline

Map 5 Industries in the Rotterdam port, 2010

Rotterdam: an oil port Rotterdam in the first place an oil port –Highly specialized since the 1890s –Vulnerable Now in danger of losing its position –Alternative energy in Germany –Hinterland no longer the most dynamic industrial centre of Germany –Refining oil more in producing countries