Kilon Canal opened after oil spill removal

On Tuesday, the strategic German Kilon Canal was reopened after a week's closure due to the oil spill.

On 21 December, about 12,100 litres of oil leaked from the pipeline to the inner port of Brunsbuttel, the entrance to the canal via the North Sea and the River Elbe. According to Tobias Goldschmidt, Minister of the Environment, the oil stain spread over a stretch of water about 6.5 km long.

About 150 volunteers and workers and three vessels engaged in activities to mitigate the spill. The canal locks have been temporarily closed to prevent the spread of contamination. The thick oil layer floating on the water had to be removed with sorbent before the movement could resume.

After closing the canal, at least 30 ships stood in traffic and waited for the waterway to reopen. Some units have decided to change course and instead sail around Denmark through Kattegat. According to the German NDR radio, the closure of the waterway cost German shipping over $1.5 million a day.

Final cleaning will take longer, but the vast majority of the leak has been removed. The work reached a stage that allowed safe resumption of shipping.

The Kilon Canal is an artificial waterway and a sea waterway connecting the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. The channel measures 98.26 km long and allows smaller units to shorten the journey between the two regions. Every third cargo ship moving across the canal is a tanker or a gas tanker. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the movement of tankers increased mainly there.

The canal was built in the 19th century, but in the years prior to World War I it was enlarged to adapt it to the dimensions of the largest German warships of that time. Today it can accept ships up to 235 metres long and up to 32 metres wide.

Like Bosfor, the Kilon Canal is open to international shipping under the Treaty, yet it is maintained and controlled by local authorities.

Source: Reuters