ABSTRACT
In the summer of 1955, the Rotterdam Port Authority was notified of the pipeline plans being developed by a consortium of German subsidiaries of multinational oil companies. In particular, Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven were being studied as potential starting points for a crude oil pipeline to the Rhine-Ruhr area. The German governmental response to the Esso plan started in Wilhelmshaven. Esso AG had provided Wilhelmshaven City Council with a detailed calculation of the pipeline and its economic benefits. The city council pointed to the strategic risk of allowing Rotterdam to acquire an even greater concentration of oil transhipments than it already boasted. "The entire oil supply of Central Europe could potentially be disrupted and in case of a nuclear attack entirely wiped out". The maritime ports of Western Europe thus needed to adapt to the growing scale and shifting pattern of production and consumption in the oil sector.
