Neste

This article is about the Finnish oil company. For the river in France, see Neste (river).
Neste Corporation
Julkinen osakeyhtiö (public company)
Traded as OMX: NESTE
Industry Oil and gas industry
Founded 1948 (1948)
Headquarters Espoo, Finland
Key people
 Matti Lievonen (President and CEO)
Jorma Eloranta (Chairman of the Board)
Products Refined oil products
Renewable fuels
Revenue €15.011 billion (2014)[1]
€150 million (2014)[1]
€60 million (2014)[1]
Total assets €6.494 billion (2014)[1]
Total equity €2.659 billion (2014)[1]
Number of employees
 4 989 (2014)[1]
Slogan The only way is forward
Website www.neste.com
Neste's logo until 1.4.2015
Neste headquarters in Espoo.
Neste's Porvoo refinery

Neste Corporation (Finnish: Neste Oyj, until 1 July 2015 Neste Oil) is an oil refining and marketing company located in Espoo, Finland. It produces, refines and markets oil products and provides engineering services, as well as licensing production technologies. Neste has operations in 14 countries.

Neste has petroleum refineries, at Porvoo and Naantali in Finland, and two renewable diesel refineries, in Singapore and in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The Porvoo site also produces renewable diesel. In addition to its own refineries, Neste has stakes in a base oil plant in Bahrain and in Nynas AB, which produces naphthenic oil and bitumen.

Neste shares are quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange. The company's market value in the end of 2013 was €3.7 billion. Neste's revenue was about €17.5 billion in 2013.

History

Neste was established in 1948 as the state petrol company of Finland, to ensure the availability of refined fuels. This entailed the building of refineries and developing the necessary technology. The refineries were built using American technology, which the U.S. government was first reluctant to provide, because many American oil companies would be competitors. After lobbying by the contractor Lummus, they relented, mainly due to the threat of the contract being handed to the Soviet Union. In practice, much of the oil refined was of Soviet origin, although after the collapse of the Soviet Union, North Sea oil was used. Thanks to Neste, the oil crisis of 1973 had little effect in Finland.[2] It held a legal import monopoly until the market liberalisation in the 1990s. The oil transport infrastructure in Finland was built and is owned by Neste, and thus petrol stations usually obtain fuels from Neste, although the monopoly is no longer government-sanctioned. In the 1970s, Neste introduced petrochemical and plastics production and natural gas to Finland. In 1994, Gasum was established with Gazprom as the minor (25%) shareholder. In 1994, polyolefin production was separated into Borealis, a joint venture with the Norwegian Statoil. In 1998, Neste's 50% stake in Borealis was sold to OMV and IPIC.[3]

In 1998, Neste Oyj merged with the power company Imatran Voima Oy to create Fortum Oyj. After the merger the chemical operations of Neste were transferred to the newly established company Neste Chemicals, which was sold to the investment firm Industri Kapital for $535 million.[4] An engineering joint venture, Neste Jacobs, was established with the American Jacobs Engineering in 2004. In 2005, Fortum demerged; the oil division of Fortum was transferred to the re-established Neste Oil. At this point, the Neste headquarters building (Raaden hammas) was kept by Fortum. The State of Finland maintains controlling interest (50.1%) in the company.

Operations

Neste produces and sells petroleum products. Its oil products segment focuses on petrols, diesel fuels, aviation fuels, marine fuels, heating oils, heavy fuel oils, base oils, lubricants, traffic fuel components, solvents, LPG and bitumen. Construction of a new hydrocracking line for converting heavy residues into diesel has improved the profitability of the Porvoo refinery.

Its renewable fuels based on NEXBTL technology and includes NEXBTL diesel and NEXBTL aviation fuel, and NEXBTL naphtha, NEXBTL propane, and NEXTBTL isoalkane as a feedstock for the chemical industry. NEXBTL renewable diesel is a hydrodeoxygenated (HDO) paraffinic fuel (not traditional transesterified biodiesel). NEXBTL renewable diesel can be produced from over ten different raw materials. In 2013, waste and residues accounted for over half of renewable raw material input.[5]

In 2007, the entire bus fleet of Helsinki Region Transport switched fully to NEXBTL. Experiments by Neste, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Proventia showed that local emissions were decreased significantly, with particle emissions decreased by 30% and nitrogen oxide emissions by 10%, with excellent winter performance and no problems with catalytic converters.[6][7] In Finland, two renewable diesel plants, located at the Porvoo refinery, were brought on stream in 2007 and 2009. Together, these produce 0.525 million tons annually, which is approximately one fifth of the diesel consumption in Finland.[8][9][10] In 2010, Neste completed their third, €550 million renewable diesel plant in Singapore . With production of 800,000 tons annually, it is the largest renewable diesel plant in the world.[11][12] A fourth plant of the same capacity was brought on stream in Rotterdam in 2011.[13] In February 2014, Talouselämä magazine named Neste's NEXBTL renewable diesel as the most groundbreaking Finnish business innovation of the new millennium.[14]

Neste and Stora Enso ran a joint venture to research production of renewable diesel oil from wood biomass with biomass gasification and the Fischer-Tropsch process in Varkaus, Finland. However, coming second in a bid for European Investment Bank startup funding led to cancellation of this project.[15]

Neste has the largest Finnish chain of service station.[16] It has about 800 service stations in Finland, and about 240 stations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Northwest Russia.[17] The self-service station chain in Poland was sold to Royal Dutch Shell in April 2013.[18][19] Neste was ranked Finland's most respected service station brand in a survey of Finnish brands carried out by Taloustutkimus and Markkinointi & Mainonta in summer 2013.[20]

The engineering division of Neste has the name Neste Jacobs as it is a joint venture with American Jacobs Engineering. Neste owns several important patents. A technology for MTBE is one. Another one is the NExOCTANE technology, which allows retrofitting MTBE plants to produce iso-octane; Neste licenses this to Halliburton.

Environmental and social issues

Palm oil

Neste uses 1–2% of the world's palm oil production. In 2015, 31% of renewable raw materials used by Neste consisted of crude palm oil.[21] Since 2013, Neste uses only certified palm oil.[22] In November 2013, Neste became the world's first company to be awarded an RSPO-RED Supply Chain certificate under the RSPO's new, more demanding certification system.[23] All palm oil used by the company is certified in accordance with the ISCC, RSPO, or RSPO-RED systems.[24] In April 2013, Neste began a programme of close cooperation with The Forest Trust (TFT), a non-profit organisation focused on preventing deforestation.[25]

The use of any palm oil as a feedstock has been protested by Greenpeace.[26] Neste (among others) buys palm oil from IOI Group, company allegedly responsible for illegal deforestation.[27] Neste has been a target of sustained attacks by Greenpeace, including publicity campaigns[28] where in January 2011, Neste won the less flattering Public Eye Awards, in Davos, Switzerland[29] and a parody webpage, which Neste attempted to shut down.[30][31] WIPO rejected the trademark-based complaint, since page is noncommercial, gives no economical benefit, is not misleading and the companies have to accept critics as part of the freedom of speech.[32]

From July to October 2015 increased palm oil demand in Indonesia burned two million hectares of forest and peatland to fires. in October 2015 peatland carbon emissions from the fires surpassed the average daily emissions of the entire US economy. Every year tens of thousands die prematurely from respiratory illness caused by smoke from annual forest and peatland fires.[33][34]

Sponsorship

Neste is the title sponsor of the Finnish World Rally Championship rally, Neste Rally Finland.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Financial Statement 2014" (PDF). Neste Oil. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Franck Media / MTV3. Öljyn pyörteissä. http://franckmedia.com/oljyn-pyorteissa-nesteen-tarina-mtv-doc-su-27-9-2015-klo-14-00/
  3. ↑ "Neste to complete Borealis sale by end Feb". ICIS. 1998-01-09. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  4. ↑ Alvarado, Vladimir (1999-10-18). "Neste Chemicals will go it alone". Chem. Eng. News (American Chemical Society) 42 (77): 15. doi:10.1021/cen-v077n042.p015. Retrieved 2012-01-25.
  5. ↑ http://2013.nesteoil.com/business/renewable-fuels/Renewable-raw-material-procurement/
  6. ↑ http://www.hsl.fi/en/abouthsl/news/2011/Pages/Page_20110210013111.aspx
  7. ↑ "Neste Oil – working for better urban air quality". Retrieved 2010-12-28.
  8. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1,41,537,2397,2235
  9. ↑ Biodieselhankkeet käynnistävät Suomessa valtavan risusavotan - HS.fi - Autot
  10. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;11736;12851
  11. ↑ Neste Oil to build a NExBTL Renewable Diesel plant in Singapore - Neste Oil Com
  12. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1261;13291;16384
  13. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1261;16768;18120
  14. ↑ http://www.talouselama.fi/uutiset/talouselama+valitsi+2000luvun+mullistavin+bisnesinnovaatio+on/a2234940
  15. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;18523;19844
  16. ↑ http://www.oil.fi/en/statistics-4-service-stations/41-service-stations
  17. ↑ http://2013.nesteoil.com/business/oil-retail/station-network/
  18. ↑ http://wyborcza.biz/biznes/1,100896,14242790,Stacje_Neste_na_dobre_znikaja_z_Polski__Zastapi_je.html
  19. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;20492;20971
  20. ↑ http://www.marmai.fi/uutiset/neste+oil+kiilasi+abcn+ohi/a2216708
  21. ↑ https://www.neste.com/en/emission-reductions-renewable-fuel-neste-corresponds-greenhouse-gas-emissions-about-13-million-cars
  22. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;20492;22757
  23. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;20492;22660
  24. ↑ http://2013.nesteoil.com/sustainability/neste-oil-sustainable-way/vastuullinen-toimitusketju/certified-feedstocks-and-production-plants/
  25. ↑ http://www.nesteoil.com/default.asp?path=1;41;540;1259;1260;20492;20999
  26. ↑ http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/neste-pal-oil-drives-climate-change/
  27. ↑ http://www.foeeurope.org/press/2010/Mar15_europes_demand_for_palm_oil_driving_deforestation_and_landgrabbing.html
  28. ↑ http://www.tdg.ch/actu/economie/mauvaise-entreprise-annee-2011-04-13,
  29. ↑ Neste Oil wins a less than flattering award in Davos January 2011
  30. ↑ Greenpeace parodiasivu suututti Neste Oilin, Nesteen mielestä Nestespoil-sivu loukkaa sen tavaramerkkiä, Greenpeace taas pitää sivun sulkemisyrityksiä sensuurina HS 22.5.2012 B10
  31. ↑ Neste ei siedä kritiikkisivustoa, Greenpeacen Nestespoil.com yritetään sulkea Tietokone 22.5.2012
  32. ↑ Greenpeace saa käyttää Nestespoil-verkkotunnusta HS 7.8.2012 C1 (Finnish)
  33. ↑ Illegally planted palm oil already growing on burnt land in Indonesia
  34. ↑ Stop the fires: sign to save Indonesia’s forests and protect our health!

External links

Wikinews has related news: Neste Oil to build world's largest biodiesel plant in Singapore
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