The South European Pipeline (also known as Lavera–Karlsruhe pipeline; french: Pipeline sud-européen) is a

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

pipeline system in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is built and operated by ''

Société du pipeline sud-européen Société du pipeline sud-européen (SPSE) is an oil pipeline company established in France. It is an owner and operator of the South European Pipeline, a crude oil pipeline system which runs from Fos-sur-Mer in France to Karlsruhe in Germany ...

''. The system supplies crude oil to refineries in

Feyzin Feyzin () is a commune in the Metropolis of Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in eastern France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas region ...

, Cressier,

Reichstett Reichstett () is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Fort Rapp is located here. See also * Communes of the Bas-Rhin department The following is a list of the 514 communes of the Bas-Rhin department o ...

, and

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

Technical description

The main

pipeline Pipeline may refer to: Electronics, computers and computing * Pipeline (computing), a chain of data-processing stages or a CPU optimization found on ** Instruction pipelining, a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a s ...

starts in

Fos-sur-Mer Fos-sur-Mer (, literally ''Fos on Sea''; Provençal: ''Fòs'') is a commune in the Bouches-du-Rhône department in southern France. Geography Fos-sur-Mer is situated about north west of Marseille, on the Mediterranean coast, and to the west ...

(Lavera) in France and runs through

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

to Karlsruhe in Germany. It became operational in 1962–1963. As of 2011 it is inactive as the Fos–Strasbourg section is mothballed. Another pipeline runs from Fos to Strasbourg (

Oberhoffen-sur-Moder Oberhoffen-sur-Moder (german: Oberhofen an der Moder) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Population Notable people * Sébastien Loeb, French rally and racing driver * Charles Miller, born Oberhoffen- ...

), and pipeline runs from Fos to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

(Feyzin). These pipelines became operational in 1971–1972. The system uses Twelve pumping stations. The maximum discharge of the system is 35 million

metric ton The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

s per year, although the real used annual amount is approximately 23 million metric tons per year.

Accidents

In August 2009, a breach in the pipeline led to crude oil spilling into Réserve naturelle nationale des Coussouls de Crau, a nature reserve in France.

References

{{Reflist Infrastructure completed in 1962 Oil pipelines in Germany Oil pipelines in France Oil pipelines in Switzerland TotalEnergies ExxonMobil buildings and structures BP buildings and structures Shell plc ConocoPhillips BASF France–Germany relations France–Switzerland relations Germany–Switzerland relations