The port of Rotterdam is one of the few places in Europe where the true scale of the petrochemical industry can be glimpsed. Until the mid-2000s, the continent’s largest industrial area handled more cargo per year than anywhere else in the world, the largest component of which is a hundred million tonnes of crude oil.
For miles the road through the Europoort is flanked by a forest of distillation columns, flames belching in the distance, storage tanks the size of tower blocks standing in row upon row. And there at the end, a gate topped by a cheery pink hallo. Beyond it, in stark relief against the grey expanse of tarmac, sea and sky, a building clad with bright rectangles of green, pink and yellow.
