10/08/26
Rhine oil traffic stops as water still dropping: Update
Updates throughout Hamburg, 10 August (Argus) — Barge traffic along the River
Rhine has largely come to a standstill, disrupting oil product supply in western
Germany, barge operators said. Several terminals on the Lower Rhine will be cut
off from barge traffic towards the end of the week. The gauge at the key Kaub
bottleneck reached a new record low over the weekend, at 17cm. The federal
waterways and shipping administration expects it to fall to as little as 4cm by
14 August, making Kaub practically impassable. Historically low levels have
already slashed the number of barges able to pass Kaub, and the loads they can
carry without running aground. A German shipowner said last week when levels had
reached 23cm that a vessel with a maximum capacity of 1,200t can only carry
180t, and that the voyage to Karlsruhe from the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp
(ARA) hub now takes five days instead of two. Specialised vessels, which are
wider and longer but draw less water, can carry a maximum of 700t. The federal
waterways and shipping administration also said the water level in Cologne stood
at just under 60cm today. Most inland vessel fleets require water levels of
around 1m to reach the loading terminals at Cologne Molenkopf, Cologne-Niehl,
Godorf and Wesseling, shipping companies said. This threshold was breached at
the end of July, and water levels are forecast to fall further to as low as 40cm
by mid-month. Loading terminals in western Germany, including Neuss, Duisburg
and nearby Bendorf, may also become inaccessible during the week ending 14
August, shipowners said. German policymakers have introduced emergency measures
to ease growing logistical constraints along the river. The federal states of
North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Lower Saxony and Saarland have
temporarily lifted restrictions on truck traffic on Sundays and public holidays.
But it remains unclear whether the oil product sector will benefit from these
steps. Replacing a fully loaded barge carrying 2,400t of diesel would require
almost 89 road tankers, each with a capacity of 32m³. Fuel traders also report
that their tanker fleets are already running above normal utilisation levels
because of longer hauls to more competitively priced loading terminals. Product
availability in western Germany, especially for road fuels, has tightened in
recent weeks, traders said. Many traders that usually buy at tank farms along
the Rhine are diverting to the Miro consortium's 310,000 b/d Karlsruhe refinery
in southwestern Germany. But supply in southern Germany has also fallen after a
leak at a mild hydrocracker at the Bayernoil consortium's 207,000 b/d
Vohburg-Neustadt refinery prompted two local suppliers to pull supply from the
spot market on 7 August. The restrictions are likely to last a week. By Natalie
Müller and Johannes Guhlke Send comments and request more information at
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