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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9

'''FIGURE 6. Brandenburg lock on the Elbe-Havel waterway. Enlagement of the second chamber was completed during the 1971 navigation season. (U/OU)'''

development are an integral part of the overall CEMA plan calling for interconnecting the Elbe, Oder, and Danube to Eastern Europe.

F. Pipelines (S)

The development of pipeline systems in East Germany has been spurred by industry's growing preference for liquid or gaseous fuels in place of solid fuels. There are now about 950 miles of trunk pipelines in operation and over 100 miles of lines under construction (Figure 7).

The first CEMA pipeline, completed in 1963, transports crude oil directly from the Urals-Volga oilfields of the U.S.S.R., across Poland, to East Germany's larges refinery at Schwedt; a parallel pipeline has been recently completed and will more than double the petroleum throughput to East Germany. A 126-mile pipeline extends from the refinery at Schwedt to the port of Rostock on the Baltic Sea. Another pipeline 212 miles in length leads from Schwedt to Leuna and serves other large refineries. By processing the natural crude oil from the U.S.S.R., East German refineries no longer are dependent upon supplies of crude oil derived from bituminous coal.

The first significant refined-products pipeline was completed in 1968, about 50 miles in length. It connects the Schwedt refinery with Seefeld, near East Berlin. An extension of this line is under construction from Seefeld to Dresden, a distance of about 170 miles.

A recently completed pipeline transports natural gas from the Magdeburg area to the Schwarze Pumpe industrial combine near Cottbus, a distance of about 155 miles. Imports of Soviet natural gas began to reach East Germany in May 1971 with a pipeline built across Czechoslovakia. The gas pipeline supplies industrial areas in the southeast. East Germany continues to improve and expand its network of manufactured-gas pipelines.

G. Ports (S)

East Germany has five major ports (Figure 8): Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Sassnitz, and Peenemuende; and 12 minor ports. All of the ports are located on the Baltic seacoast or on nearby rivers and bays. The eastern half of the coastline, along which most of the ports are situated, is very irregular and as a result, many ports have natural or improved natural harbors.

Coastal configuration generally favors East German ports, but certain hydrographic and weather factors create limited navigational disadvantages. Among these are shallow depths that prevail along the entire coast and islets, rocks, shoals, and shifting sandbars that often encumber the nearshore approaches to harbor entrances. Navigation may also be obstructed by shoaling in bays and channels resulting from the littoral shift of the coastline and from silting due to stream discharge, requiring dredging to maintain navigable depths. Other navigational disadvantages at several major ports are long restrictive approaches into various entrance channels. Wismar's two approaches, for instance, are 10 and 14 miles long, and the port's entrance channel narrow at places to 130 feet. Stralsund's main approach is 17 miles long and has a least width of 150 feet, and the channel through Rostock's Unter Warnow harbor is miles long and narrows at one place to 200 feet.

Ice can also impede navigation. It may be insignificant in protected bays during mild winters but can produce almost complete cover in exceptionally severe winters. The two most important major ports—Rostock and Wismar—are kept open by icebreakers, and Sassnitz is normally not closed by ice. Navigation at Peenemuende is hindered by ice for about 2 weeks each winter, and Stralsund is closed an average of 27 days per winter, between mid-December and early March. Half the minor ports are closed by ice from 1 to 2 months each year. Other than weather and the hydrographic factors mentioned, no serious problems affect port traffic. Tides and tidal currents along the coast are negligible, changes in water level being caused principally by winds. Variations in water level of as much as 10 feet above or below mean water level may occur in constricted waters such as at the heads of inlets.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R00020011022-9