Fortum history

In September 1939, petrol rationing started in Finland.

Responsibility for the NKV project was transferred from the Ministry of Defense to the Ministry of Trade and Industry in June 1947.

In the spring of 1948, Neste purchased an old tanker of 8,896 pennyweight (dwt) from Norway.

An agreement between Neste and the government was signed in October 1950, whereby Neste returned some of the less suitable storage space to the state for a remuneration of Fmk 150 million.

When the plan was brought to the government for the first time in 1951, however, it was not accepted.

On December 17, 1954, the Finnish parliament authorized Neste to start building an oil refinery with 700,000 tons crude oil capacity.

Raade was named president of Neste on March 1, 1955.

The start-up of production in August 1957 had already shown that no technical problems existed.

Vartiainen remained chairman of the board of directors, and was succeeded by Raade in 1959.

In 1960 Neste decided to double the capacity of the Naantali refinery.

When the extension was completed and production started in September 1962, a capacity of 2.5 million tons of crude oil was reached.

In 1965 the company began electrifying the Finnish railway system.

When presenting to the supervisory board his plans for the building of the oil refinery in Sköldvik, Raade told his audience that Neste would continue its development by entering the petrochemicals sector after 1967.

In March 1969, a company named Pekema Oy was formed to realize the latter plan.

In 1971 Finland signed an agreement with the Soviet Union for deliveries of natural gas to Finland.

Both units were planned to start production in 1972.

Loviisa nuclear power plant's unit 1 (LO1) was connected to the national gridfor the first time on 8 Feb 1977.

Unit 2 (LO2) was connected to the national grid for the first time three years later on 4 Nov 1980.

In 1981 Loviisa unit 1 and 2 produced approximately 15% of Finland's electricity consumption.

Neste had entered the United States market in 1985, through a 50--50 joint venture with Weeks Exploration Co. of Houston.

The battery market did not, however, fare well in the years leading up to 1990, when half of the shares of Neste Battery Ltd. were sold to the Spanish Grupo Tudor.

In early 1992 Neste increased its ownership of Finnoil Oy from 50 percent to 95 percent, thereby increasing the number of service stations it controlled in Finland to about 900.

In 1996 transportation of spent fuel to Russia ends.

On 2 April 1998 the modernisation project (LOMO) of the plant was completed.

In July 1999 Fortum sold Enermet Oy, the maker of energy measurement equipment and systems that had been part of IVO, to a private equity fund, then acquired a 30 percent stake in a newly formed holding company, Enermet Group Oy.

2001: The Finnish Parliament passed the application of decision in principle to establish a disposal site at Olkiluoto.

The Neste assets were divested into a separate stock-listed company in 2005.

2009: Control room automation renewal began at Loviisa unit 2.