Eastern Germany is resorting to getting barge loads of fuel all the way from the North Sea oil port of Rotterdam as the nation pivots away from Russian supplies. Fuels used to help make gasoline are being sent from the Dutch trading hub up the Rhine river and then into Germany’s sprawling network of canals as far as Berlin. Such voyages, a distance of 500 miles and about a week’s sailing, would previously have been rare because of the distance and cost involved. The shipments are just the latest example of how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken up Germany’s energy-distribution network — just as the river is getting drier and harder to navigate. About 550,000 barrels a day of mineral oil products were transported on the Rhine in 2020. […]