Company

The public limited company Rotterdam Rijn Pijpleiding Maatschappij (RRP) was founded in 1958 to transport crude oil from Rotterdam to refineries in western Germany. In response to the expected strong growth in the demand for fossil fuels at the end of the 1960s, it was decided to replace the 24″ pipeline from Rotterdam to Venlo by a 36″ pipeline. The original pipeline was subsequently connected to Rhein Main Rohrleitungsgesellschaft’s pipeline to transport oil products to Germany. At the present time, RRP owns two pipeline systems covering a total length of 457 km. The current shareholders are Shell, Ruhr Oel and BP.

Pumps are used to create the pressure required to force the liquids to flow from Rotterdam to Venlo and from there to the refineries in Germany. The pipelines are buried underground. The unique characteristic of our service is that the pipeline system is invisible. You do not see, smell and/or feel anything, while transport is continuous.

The crude oil system’s transport capacity is ± 25 million tonnes per year. The product system’s capacity is ± 10 million tonnes per year. Since it was founded, RRP has transported many millions of tonnes of oil. RRP can accept crude oil from the large tank terminals in the Botlek, Europoort and on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. The crude oil is then pumped to Venlo, where RRP has a tank terminal. From there it is pumped to the German refineries in Gelsenkirchen and Cologne.