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Neste history
Neste company history timeline
NKV became a limited company, Neste Oy, and its first general meeting was held on January 2, 1948.
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 FIM 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.
Neste’s first refinery comes on stream at Naantali in 1957, and the first cargo of crude arrives there in June
The start-up of production in August 1957 had 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 November 1962 he presented to his supervisory board a plan to construct a second refinery.
The plan to create a new refinery, with capacity equal to that of the enlarged Naantali refinery, was approved in June 1963.
Neste, Kesko, OTK, and SOK establish an LPG distribution company, Tehokaasu, in 1963
The Porvoo refinery was built in 1965 in Sköldvik (Kilpilahti). Originally, much of the oil refined was of Soviet origin, though North Sea oil was used after the collapse of the USSR.
Some of the suppliers had timing problems, and the start-up in the spring of 1966 was delayed by nearly a year.
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.
In 1971, Neste acquired half of Kesko-owned Kesoil.
Both units were planned to start production in 1972.
Neste had begun reducing its dependence on Russian crude as far back as 1972, when it joined a consortium of Canadian, Swedish, and U.K. companies in a North Sea exploration venture.
Because of the operations of Neste, the oil crisis of 1973 had little effect in Finland.
Natural gas imports into Finland begin in 1974
Expansion of the Porvoo refinery completed in 1976
In 1976, Finland's first skyscraper, Neste's 83.6-meter tall headquarters, was built in Keilaniemi, Espoo.
Uolevi Raade retires as CEO in 1979
The benzene unit opened in 1979.
In 1980, Jaakko Ihamuotila became the CEO.
When the corporate organization was changed in 1981 to consist of business units with individual responsibilities for results, this included the research and development activities.
In 1981 the production of many industrial chemicals, such as phenol and acetone, began.
Oil trading business started in 1982
Neste öljystä muoveihin, Espoo, Finland: Neste, 1982.
Neste started its service station operations in 1983.
In 1985 the coal business was sold to a Finnish coal merchant.
Neste had entered the United States market in 1985, through a 50-50 joint venture with Weeks Exploration Co. of Houston.
The battery market, however, did not 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 1990 the company failed to receive about two million metric tons of crude oil supplies it had contracted from the Soviet Union.
In 1991, the company's turnover stood at 53.025 billion Finnish markka, and it employed around 13,685 people.
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.
Holdings in gas fields in the British sector of the North Sea sold in 1994
In 1994, Neste began as the main sponsor of a competition previously known as the Finnish Rally and renamed Neste Rally Finland.
Neste listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange on 27 November 1995
Production begins in the Heidrun oil field in Norway in 1995
The company went public in 1995 but remained majority owned by the Finnish government.
In late 1995, 8.9 million shares of Neste stock were sold through an initial public offering (IPO) on the Helsinki exchange.
The Finnish State was left with an 83.2 percent stake by the end of 1996.
In January 1997 Neste and Gazprom formed another joint venture, North Transgas Oy, this one of the 50-50 variety and slated to build a new pipeline that would take natural gas from Russia through Finland then on to the continental European market.
IVO had revenues of FIM 13.8 billion ($2.5 billion) in 1997, a considerably smaller figure than the FIM 45.7 billion ($8.2 billion) of Neste.
Fortum listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1998
At year-end 1998, the Finnish government held a 75.5 percent stake.
In 1998, Neste's 50% stake in Borealis was sold to OMV and IPIC.
Petrochemicals business (50% stake in Borealis) divested in 1999
Majority holding in Gasum sold in 1999
Oil production begins in the Åsgard field in Norway in 1999
In early 1999 Neste became known as Fortum Oil and Gas Oy, while Imatran Voima's name was changed to Fortum Power and Heat Oy.
2000 Gas production starts in the Åsgard field in Norway in October
2001 LPG business expanded in Latvia Fortum’s organization restructured around 12 business units 30% stake in an oil and gas exploration license in the northern North Sea awarded to Fortum Petroleum
During 2001 investments were made at Porvoo to increase the refinery's capacity to produce low-sulfur and sulfurfree fuels.
At the Naantali refinery in March 2002, a new unit producing sulfur-free gasoline commenced operation.
In May 2002 the company sold its 24 diesel stations in Sweden.
In 2002 Fortum conducted a strategic review of the upstream (exploration and production) activities of Fortum Oil.
Fortum Oil's only remaining upstream asset was the joint venture SeverTEK ZAO, a 50-50 joint venture with the Russian firm OAO LUKOIL. In July 2003 production began at SeverTEK's South Shapkino oil field in northwestern Russia.
An engineering joint venture, Neste Jacobs Oy, was established with the American Jacobs Engineering in 2004.
Independent once again, Neste exited from the oil exploration and production sector by selling its interest in SeverTEK to LUKOIL for $321.5 million in November 2005.
The merged oil and electricity company continued until 2005, when the oil business was spun off as a separate company and Neste Oil took its place on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.
In the spring of 2005, Fortum Oil Corporation was demerged from Fortum, becoming the Neste Oil Corporation.
In September 2006 Neste Oil unveiled an ambitious strategy to become the world's largest producer of biodiesel by investing several billion euros over the following ten years to build new plants to produce the alternative fuel.
In 2006 Neste and the Austrian oil and gas firm OMV Aktiengesellschaft entered into a deal to construct such a plant at OMV's Schwechat refinery in Vienna.
Startup was scheduled for the summer of 2007.
A renewable diesel plant, using second generation biofuels and NEXBTL technology and located at the Porvoo refinery, was brought on stream in 2007, together with a new conventional diesel production line.
A second renewable diesel plant at Porvoo was became operational in 2009.
Neste Oil submitted a voluntary verification system to the European Commission in fall 2010 to demonstrate that NEXBTL renewable diesel is produced in accordance with sustainable principles.
2010 The largest-ever maintenance turnaround was successfully completed at the Porvoo refinery.
The company’s fourth renewable diesel plant, in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, was commissioned in September 2011.
Neste Oil decided to build a pilot plant to produce waste-based microbial oil at its Porvoo Technology centre at the end of 2011.
Drawing on its R&D expertise, Neste Oil succeeded in producing its first batch of NEXBTL renewable aviation fuel in summer 2011.
95 E10 gasoline, containing a maximum of 10% ethanol, was launched at the beginning of 2011.
In spring 2012, a acheduled maintenance turnaround was conducted at the Naantali refinery.
However, coming second in a bid for European Investment Bank startup funding led to the cancellation of this project in 2012.
Neste's self-service station chain in Poland was sold to Royal Dutch Shell in April 2013.
In 2017, Neste acquired Jacobs Engineering's 40% stake in Neste Jacobs and gained full control of the company.
When CEO Lievonen retired in November 2018, he was followed by the Belgian-German Peter Vanacker.
In 2019, the research program restarted to investigate the production of aviation fuel from algae and municipal solid waste.
In 2019, Neste was the largest corporate taxpayer in Finland.
In 2019, Neste and LyondellBasell announced the commercial-scale production of bio-based plastic from renewable materials.
In March 2020, Neste made an investment in the German Sunfire company, which develops high-temperature electrolysis technology.
In September 2020, Neste sold its 49.99% stake in Nynas AB to Bitumina Industries.
In 2020, Neste, Covestro, and Borealis started a similar cooperation for production of polycarbonate plastics.
The refinery is planned to close by the end of March 2021.
"Neste Oil Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 85. . Retrieved May 23, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/neste-oil-corporation
When CEO Lievonen retired in November 2018, he was followed by the Belgian-German Peter Vanacker. It was estimated that the company's total annual production capacity of renewable products would increase to nearly 4.5 million tonnes by 2022.
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