Gas Curbs Shutdown At BASF Site Would Hit All Of Europe

Everything is connected at the German chemical firm BASF's Ludwigshafen site, a 4 sq mile industrial complex so sprawling that the company runs its own bus network to usher employees from its gates to their workplace.

- Philip Oltermann

Byproducts from making ammonia, for example, are funnelled through the plant's 1,770 mile pipeline network from one end of the site to another, where they are recycled to produce fertiliser, disinfectant, diesel exhaust fluid, or carbon dioxide for fizzy drinks.

The so-called Verbund (composite) principle has been key to BASF's 157-year rise to its position as the world's largest chemical manufacturer. Now, as Vladimir Putin has severely restricted Russia's energy exports to Europe, that ingenious interconnectivity could be its undoing. The site, in south-west Germany, is highly reliant on gas both as a raw material and an energy source- and BASF played an active role in ensuring a high percentage of that gas was cheaply imported from Russia.

Should the German state be forced to ration gas for industrial use this winter, BASF says it can reduce its consumption to a degree.