Multinational Business and Transnational Regions

Marten Boon is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of History at Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

Introduction



Transnational economic regions: capturing an illusive phenomenon



Resurrecting the Rhine as an economic region



Energy transition in the Rhine region



Part I Regional transformation — Energy transition in the Rhine region



Chapter 1 The post-war reconstruction and the rise of oil, 1945-1951



1.1 Introduction



1.2 The question of energy in post-war Western Europe



1.3 The impact of the Allied occupation on the Ruhr coal industry



1.4 The Allied refining program: restarting the hydrogenation plants



1.5 The case of Union Kraftstoff



1.6 The geographical consequences of the Allied occupation



1.7 Conclusion



Chapter 2 Oil unbounded: The Coal Crisis of 1957-8



2.1 Introduction



2.2 The competition between coal and oil, 1950-1955



2.3 The rise of fuel oil and the 1958 coal crisis



2.4 Stemming the tide: attempts to limit the rise of fuel oil



2.5 Conclusion



Chapter 3 The growth of chemical clusters in the Rhine region, 1960-73



3.1 Introduction



3.2 The Rhine-Ruhr refineries



3.3 Deutsche Shell and Union Kraftstoff, 1951-1958



3.4 The Rhineland refinery of Deutsche Shell



3.5 The post-war transition of the chemical industry



3.6 An oil and petrochemical cluster in the Rhine-Ruhr area



3.7 Effect of the transition on transport demand in the hinterland



3.8 Conclusions



Part II Regional connections — From Rhine to pipeline



Chapter 4 Pipelines: The national approach, 1955-6



4.1 Introduction



4.2 A pipeline to the Rhine-Ruhr area



4.3 Rotterdam competing with Wilhelmshaven



4.4 Wilhelmshaven: "the best deep water port in Europe"?



4.5 Conclusions



Chapter 5 The trans-European pipeline: The transnational approach: 1956-8



5.1 Introduction



5.2 From national to transnational: the trans-European pipeline plan



5.3 Further complications



5.4 France, oil and the Cold War



5.5 Endgame: The failure of the trans-European pipeline



5.6 Why the trans-European pipeline never materialised



5.7 Conclusion



Chapter 6 Expanding transnational connections, 1959-73



6.1 Introduction



6.2 The hydrocarbon hub: The Rotterdam port between 1950 and 1973



6.3 The expansion of the Rotterdam-Rhine pipeline, 1965-1968



6.4 The Rhine-Main pipeline, 1965-1971



6.5 Integrating chemical clusters in the Rhine basin, 1965-73



6.6 The Rotterdam-Antwerp pipeline, 1967-1969



6.7 Conclusion



Chapter 7 Transnational connections in the Rhine region: Evidence from transport flows



7.1 Introduction



7.2 Gateway to the Rhine? Rotterdam from transitopolis to industrial port



7.3 Oil flows in the Rhine region: The impact of pipelines



7.4 Transnational connections



7.5 Conclusion



Chapter 8 Conclusion