Neste Oil
Encyclopedia
Neste Oil is a Finnish
oil
refining and marketing company producing mainly transportation fuels and other refined petroleum
products. Neste Oil shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange
.
as the minor (25%) shareholder. In 1994, polyolefin production was separated into Borealis
, a joint venture with the Norwegian Statoil
. In 1998, Neste Oyj merged with the power company Imatran Voima Oy to create Fortum Oyj
. Neste Jacobs was established with American Jacobs Engineering in 2004. In 2005, the oil division of Fortum was transferred to re-established Neste Oil. The chemical divisions were sold to other companies, making Neste an oil company only. The State of Finland maintains controlling interest (50.1%) in the company.
s, diesel fuels, aviation fuel
s, marine fuels, heating oil
s, heavy fuel oils, base oils, lubricant
s, traffic fuel components, solvent
s, LPG and bitumen.
Neste Oil has the largest Finnish chain of service station
s with market share of 40%. It has about 900 service stations in Finland, and about 240 stations in Baltic countries
, Poland
, and Russia
. It has also middle-sized oil refineries in Naantali
(Naantali refinery) and near Porvoo
(Porvoo refinery), and several operations in the Baltic region and the United States. It is virtually a monopoly in oil refining and import in Finland.
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
. Neste has also developed renewable diesel production.
In 2007–2011, Neste Oil, Helsinki Region Transport, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
and Proventia ran an experiment with NExBTL
renewable diesel, such that the bus fleet switched to NExBTL in the Greater Helsinki Region. The trial, which was the largest field test of a biofuel produced from renewable raw materials worldwide, was a success: 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. NExBTL diesel is a paraffin
ic fuel (not traditional transesterified
biodiesel
). A renewable diesel plant with an annual production of 170,000 tons, located at the Porvoo refinery, was brought online in 2007. It produces 6.8% of the diesel consumption in Finland (2.5 million tons). Another plant of the same capacity was brought on stream at Porvoo in 2009.
In 2010, Neste completed their third, €550 million renewable diesel plant in Singapore
on-schedule and on-budget. With production of 800,000 tons annually, it is the largest renewable diesel plant in the world. A fourth plant of the same capacity was brought on stream in Rotterdam
in 2011.
Neste and Stora Enso
also established a joint venture to produce renewable diesel oil from wood biomass with biomass gasification and the Fischer-Tropsch process
in Varkaus
, Finland.
Neste produces ETBE, which is gasoline
blending stock and an antiknock agent
based on bioethanol. As it is produced from isobutene of petrochemical origin and ethanol of biological origin, it is partially a biofuel. It can be mixed with gasoline and does not have the ethanol-specific problems (such as hygroscopy
) that ethanol itself has.
Neste Oil is also the title sponsor of the Finnish World Rally Championship
rally, Neste Oil Rally Finland
.
as a feedstock and Neste Oil's plans to become the world leader in palm oil diesel
has been protested by Greenpeace. Neste Oil was also awarded on the 13th of April with the public price of the public eye award for being the most irresponsible company of the year 2011 despite Neste Oil's claims of supporting sustainability. Neste Oil (among others) buys palm oil from IOI Group, company allegedly responsible for illegal deforestation.
Neste Oil has responded to the criticism by pointing out that it remains the largest user of certified palm oil in the world, and has been committed to using only certified palm oil by the year 2015.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
refining and marketing company producing mainly transportation fuels and other refined petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
products. Neste Oil shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange
Helsinki Stock Exchange
The Helsinki Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Helsinki, Finland. Since 3 September 2003 it has been part of OMX, referred to as OMX Helsinki . Since NASDAQ's acquisition of OMX in February 2008, the official name of the Helsinki exchange has been NASDAQ OMX Helsinki.- History :The...
.
History
Neste was established in 1948 as the state petrol company of Finland, to ensure the availability of fuel. This entailed the building of refineries and developing the necessary technology. It held a legal import monopoly until the market liberalization 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 GazpromGazprom
Open Joint Stock Company Gazprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the largest Russian company. Its headquarters are in Cheryomushki District, South-Western Administrative Okrug, Moscow...
as the minor (25%) shareholder. In 1994, polyolefin production was separated into Borealis
Borealis
Borealis AG is Europe's second largest producer of polyethylene and polypropylene and is headquartered in Vienna, Austria.-Overview:...
, a joint venture with the Norwegian Statoil
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
. In 1998, Neste Oyj merged with the power company Imatran Voima Oy to create Fortum Oyj
Fortum
Fortum Oyj is a Finnish publicly listed energy company, which focuses on the Nordic and Baltic countries, Poland and the north-west of Russia. After acquisition of Russian energy company TGC-10 in year 2008, Western Siberia has become an important operating area for Fortum. The head of the company...
. Neste Jacobs was established with American Jacobs Engineering in 2004. In 2005, the oil division of Fortum was transferred to re-established Neste Oil. The chemical divisions were sold to other companies, making Neste an oil company only. The State of Finland maintains controlling interest (50.1%) in the company.
Activities
Neste Oil has three business areas: oil products, oil retail and renewable fuels. It produces, refines and markets oil products and shipping and engineering services, as well as licensing production technologies. Its main products are gasolineGasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
s, diesel fuels, aviation fuel
Aviation fuel
Aviation fuel is a specialized type of petroleum-based fuel used to power aircraft. It is generally of a higher quality than fuels used in less critical applications, such as heating or road transport, and often contains additives to reduce the risk of icing or explosion due to high temperatures,...
s, marine fuels, heating oil
Heating oil
Heating oil, or oil heat, is a low viscosity, flammable liquid petroleum product used as a fuel for furnaces or boilers in buildings. Home heating oil is often abbreviated as HHO...
s, heavy fuel oils, base oils, lubricant
Lubricant
A lubricant is a substance introduced to reduce friction between moving surfaces. It may also have the function of transporting foreign particles and of distributing heat...
s, traffic fuel components, solvent
Solvent
A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas that dissolves another solid, liquid, or gaseous solute, resulting in a solution that is soluble in a certain volume of solvent at a specified temperature...
s, LPG and bitumen.
Neste Oil has the largest Finnish chain of service station
Filling station
A filling station, also known as a fueling station, garage, gasbar , gas station , petrol bunk , petrol pump , petrol garage, petrol kiosk , petrol station "'servo"' in Australia or service station, is a facility which sells fuel and lubricants...
s with market share of 40%. It has about 900 service stations in Finland, and about 240 stations in Baltic countries
Baltic countries
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. It has also middle-sized oil refineries in Naantali
Naantali
Naantali is a city in south-western Finland, known as one of the most important tourist centres of the country. The municipality has a population of , and is located in the region of Finland Proper, west of Turku....
(Naantali refinery) and near Porvoo
Porvoo
Porvoo is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately east of Helsinki. Porvoo is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from 14th century...
(Porvoo refinery), and several operations in the Baltic region and the United States. It is virtually a monopoly in oil refining and import in Finland.
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
Methyl tert-butyl ether
Methyl tert-butyl ether, also known as methyl tertiary butyl ether and MTBE, is an organic compound with molecular formula 3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is immiscible with water. It has a minty odor vaguely reminiscent of diethyl ether, leading to unpleasant taste...
is one. Another one is the NExOCTANE technology, which allows retrofitting MTBE
Methyl tert-butyl ether
Methyl tert-butyl ether, also known as methyl tertiary butyl ether and MTBE, is an organic compound with molecular formula 3COCH3. MTBE is a volatile, flammable, and colorless liquid that is immiscible with water. It has a minty odor vaguely reminiscent of diethyl ether, leading to unpleasant taste...
plants to produce iso-octane; Neste licenses this to Halliburton
Halliburton
Halliburton is the world's second largest oilfield services corporation with operations in more than 70 countries. It has hundreds of subsidiaries, affiliates, branches, brands and divisions worldwide and employs over 50,000 people....
. Neste has also developed renewable diesel production.
In 2007–2011, Neste Oil, Helsinki Region Transport, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is largest multidisciplinary research organisation in Northern Europe. It provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services...
and Proventia ran an experiment with NExBTL
NExBTL
NExBTL is a renewable diesel production process commercialized by the Finnish oil and refining company Neste Oil. Whether as an admixture or in its pure form, NExBTL is able to supplement or partially replace diesel fuel without problems...
renewable diesel, such that the bus fleet switched to NExBTL in the Greater Helsinki Region. The trial, which was the largest field test of a biofuel produced from renewable raw materials worldwide, was a success: 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. NExBTL diesel is a paraffin
Paraffin
In chemistry, paraffin is a term that can be used synonymously with "alkane", indicating hydrocarbons with the general formula CnH2n+2. Paraffin wax refers to a mixture of alkanes that falls within the 20 ≤ n ≤ 40 range; they are found in the solid state at room temperature and begin to enter the...
ic fuel (not traditional transesterified
Transesterification
In organic chemistry, transesterification is the process of exchanging the organic group R″ of an ester with the organic group R′ of an alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base catalyst...
biodiesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
). A renewable diesel plant with an annual production of 170,000 tons, located at the Porvoo refinery, was brought online in 2007. It produces 6.8% of the diesel consumption in Finland (2.5 million tons). Another plant of the same capacity was brought on stream at Porvoo in 2009.
In 2010, Neste completed their third, €550 million renewable diesel plant in Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
on-schedule and on-budget. With production of 800,000 tons annually, it is the largest renewable diesel plant in the world. A fourth plant of the same capacity was brought on stream in Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
in 2011.
Neste and Stora Enso
Stora Enso
Stora Enso Oyj is a Finnish pulp and paper manufacturer, formed by the merger of Swedish mining and forestry products company Stora and Finnish forestry products company Enso-Gutzeit Oy in 1998. It is headquartered in Helsinki, and it has approximately 29,000 employees...
also established a joint venture to produce renewable diesel oil from wood biomass with biomass gasification and the Fischer-Tropsch process
Fischer-Tropsch process
The Fischer–Tropsch process is a set of chemical reactions that convert a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons. The process, a key component of gas to liquids technology, produces a petroleum substitute, typically from coal, natural gas, or biomass for use as synthetic...
in Varkaus
Varkaus
Varkaus is a Middle-Savonian industrial town and municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the Northern Savonia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is .The municipality is...
, Finland.
Neste produces ETBE, which is gasoline
Gasoline
Gasoline , or petrol , is a toxic, translucent, petroleum-derived liquid that is primarily used as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain...
blending stock and an antiknock agent
Antiknock agent
An antiknock agent is a gasoline additive used to reduce engine knocking and increase the fuel's octane rating.The mixture known as gasoline, when used in high compression internal combustion engines, has a tendency to ignite early causing a damaging "engine knocking" noise...
based on bioethanol. As it is produced from isobutene of petrochemical origin and ethanol of biological origin, it is partially a biofuel. It can be mixed with gasoline and does not have the ethanol-specific problems (such as hygroscopy
Hygroscopy
Hygroscopy is the ability of a substance to attract and hold water molecules from the surrounding environment. This is achieved through either absorption or adsorption with the absorbing or adsorbing material becoming physically 'changed,' somewhat, by an increase in volume, stickiness, or other...
) that ethanol itself has.
Neste Oil is also the title sponsor of the Finnish World Rally Championship
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13...
rally, Neste Oil Rally Finland
Rally Finland
The Neste Oil Rally Finland is a rally event driven in the Jyväskylä area in Central Finland. It is the biggest annually organised public event in the Nordic countries, gathering over 500,000 spectators every year....
.
Criticism
The use of any palm oilPalm oil
Palm oil, coconut oil and palm kernel oil are edible plant oils derived from the fruits of palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis; palm kernel oil is derived from the kernel of the oil palm and coconut oil is derived from the kernel of the...
as a feedstock and Neste Oil's plans to become the world leader in palm oil diesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
has been protested by Greenpeace. Neste Oil was also awarded on the 13th of April with the public price of the public eye award for being the most irresponsible company of the year 2011 despite Neste Oil's claims of supporting sustainability. Neste Oil (among others) buys palm oil from IOI Group, company allegedly responsible for illegal deforestation.
Neste Oil has responded to the criticism by pointing out that it remains the largest user of certified palm oil in the world, and has been committed to using only certified palm oil by the year 2015.