Local fuel and mineral oil dealers in Hesse are clearly feeling the effects of the low water levels on the Rhine.

The Rhine and Main are the main supply axes for most people.

Although the tankers are still sailing, they are only allowed to take about a third of the usual cargo on the way from the port of Rotterdam to the south.

Petra Kirchhoff

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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"There is still something to come," says Hans-Jürgen Funke, Managing Director of the Association for Energy Trading Southwest-Central, which also represents the Hessian predominantly medium-sized mineral oil traders.

Funke does not want to speak of a precarious situation, even though the supply has become more complicated.

Dealers would have to react flexibly, transporting fuel from further afield with tankers or by rail, the transport costs might then be reflected in a higher price.

However, heating oil prices are currently moving sideways between EUR 1.50 and EUR 1.55 per liter, with no major upward or downward fluctuations.

Funke compares the situation with the low water in the summer of 2018. At that time, however, a further complication was that a refinery in Ingolstadt had burned down and many Bavarian fuel dealers in Hesse also had to supply themselves.

Oil trader in critical situation

But this time, too, the bottleneck hits the industry in a critical situation in that demand is very high, as Holger Olf notes.

Olf is the general sales manager at Adolf Roth GmbH & Co. KG from Gießen, which is one of the larger representatives of the industry with sales in several federal states and a network of 45 petrol stations.

The company supplies itself from several of its own tank farms on the Main and Rhine.

"The supply is not interrupted," emphasizes Olf.

If necessary, as in 2018, more tank trucks would have to be used again for transport from the refineries.

Other fuel dealers in Hesse are already doing this.

Demand is high because homeowners stock up on heating oil more than usual at this time.

According to Olf, there are also many industrial companies that work with natural gas, but still have the technical prerequisites to switch to oil.

Such companies are now stocking up out of concern that politicians could classify their business as not systemically important and turn off the gas tap when natural gas becomes scarce and the third stage of the emergency plan comes into force.

In laundries and garden centers, for example, people are concerned.