(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s fuel-supply network fell victim to a cyberattack -- less than a year after the biggest refined petroleum pipeline in the U.S. was halted by a hack.

The head of Germany’s IT security system described the incident as serious “but not grave.”

A company that stores and distributes large amounts of fuel in Germany said on Tuesday that its information technology systems had been breached and its operations disrupted. On Wednesday, a broker that moves barge-loads of fuel up and down the Rhine River said numerous terminals in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil trading hub were also affected.

While the full scale and impact of the incidents are not yet known, they serve as a reminder of how cyber security is becoming a growing concern across the oil industry. Last year, Colonial Pipeline Co. paid a ransom after a hack forced it to shut the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S., resulting in shortages at filling stations and price spikes.

Oil trader Mabanaft, which distributes diesel, gasoline and heating oil, declared force majeure on supplies within Germany following the Jan. 29 breach that targeted its fuel storage and distribution business. The legal clause covers a company when it can’t honor contractual commitments due to events beyond its control.

“All parties continue to work to restore operations to normal in all our terminals as soon as possible,” Mabanaft said. It declined to state whether a ransom is being sought or when it expects the situation to be resolved.

Multiple fuel terminals in Europe’s oil-trading hub have been impacted by “IT issues,” according to broker Riverlake. “The waiting queue is still building up since Sunday, with currently no prospects when the operations can resume,” Riverlake, which organizes barge shipments, said in a note. 

Force Majeure 

SEA-Tank Terminal, a firm with multiple storage facilities in Antwerp, was affected by a cyberattack, according to an email seen by Bloomberg. The email, from a company that does business with SEA-Tank, says that the storage company’s IT systems suffered an unexpected outage, severely affecting operations at its storage and handling facilities.

The head of Germany’s IT security agency, Arne Schoenbohm, said at a conference on Tuesday that 233 filling stations largely in northern Germany had been affected, only 1.7% of the country’s total. He said that it wasn’t possible at some of those stations to pay by credit card or adjust prices, but that in some cases it was possible to pay using cash.

Storage is a key business for Mabanaft, which operates terminals across Germany. Its Oiltanking Deutschland operations declared force majeure, a move that’s likely to be felt most keenly in locations where there’s the least alternative fuel supply. That includes the Hamburg area, which is served by the Holborn refinery, and southwest Germany, which relies on the Miro oil plant.  

Oiltanking has terminals on the Rhine River, a conduit for the supply of fuel into southern Germany and Switzerland. Delays are likely if river barges loaded with heating oil or diesel from the Rotterdam trading hub can’t discharge into inland terminals. Oiltanking had a throughput of 18.2 million tons of oils and biofuels through its terminals in 2020, according to its website. 

Shell Plc said it is having to seek alternative supply, with trucks no longer able to load at fuel depots linked to Mabanaft.

 

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.