Neste


Neste Oyj, 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 and employs over 5,000 people. The company is the largest producer of renewable diesel in the world.
Neste shares are quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Stock Exchange. As of 2017, the Government of Finland is the largest shareholder with 50.1% of the shares. Neste was ranked the second most sustainable company in the world on the 2018 Global 100 index ranking by Corporate Knights.
The name "Neste" means "liquid" in Finnish.

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. 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 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.
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.  An engineering joint venture, Neste Jacobs Oy, was established with the American Jacobs Engineering in 2004. In 2017, Neste acquired Jacobs Engineering's 40% stake in Neste Jacobs and gained full control of the company. Correspondingly, Neste Jacobs was renamed Neste Engineering Solutions Oy.
In 2005, Fortum demerged; the oil division of Fortum was transferred to the re-established Neste Oil. At this point, the Neste headquarters building was kept by Fortum. The State of Finland maintains controlling interest in the company. The official name was Neste Oil after the Fortum demerger, but in 2015 it was changed back to Neste to emphasize the renewable energy business.
Two renewable diesel plants located at the Porvoo refinery were brought on stream in 2007 and 2009. 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.  In 2010, Neste opened the world largest biodiesel plant in Singapore. A fourth plant was brought on stream in Rotterdam in 2011.  In February 2014, Talouselämä magazine named Neste's NEXBTL renewable diesel as the most groundbreaking Finnish business innovation of the new millennium.
The self-service station chain in Poland was sold to Royal Dutch Shell in April 2013.

Operations

Neste has conventional oil refineries, at Porvoo and Naantali in Finland, and two renewable diesel refineries, in Singapore and in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Two renewable diesel plants have also located at the Porvoo refinery. Together, these produce 0.525 million tons annually, which is approximately one fifth of the diesel consumption in Finland. Neste's production facility in Singapore is the largest renewable diesel refinery in the world, boasting a capacity of 1.1 million metric tonnes per annum. A planned new production line is expected to increase its capacity by one million tonnes by 2022. 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 owns a chain of service stations, which is the largest chain in Finland. It has about 800 service stations in Finland, and about 240 stations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Northwest Russia.  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.
Neste's renewable fuels based on NEXBTL technology and includes Neste Renewable Diesel and Neste Renewable Jet Fuel, and Neste Renewable Naphtha, Neste Renewable Propane, and Neste Renewable Isoalkane as a feedstock for the chemical industry. Neste Renewable Diesel is a hydrodeoxygenated paraffinic fuel instead of a traditional transesterified biodiesel, and can be used in conventional diesel engines in any blending ratio without engine modifications. Neste 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, a fraction that increased to 80% in 2016. Renewable fuels have a good margin and contribute significantly to profits.
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.
The engineering division of Neste, Neste Engineering Solutions Oy, 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.  Since 2013, Neste uses only certified palm oil.  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. All palm oil used by the company is certified in accordance with the ISCC, RSPO, or RSPO-RED systems.  In April 2013, Neste began a programme of close cooperation with The Forest Trust, a non-profit organisation focused on preventing deforestation.
The use of any palm oil as a feedstock has been protested by Greenpeace and Neste has been a target of sustained attacks, including publicity campaigns. In January 2011, Neste won the Public Eye Awards. Neste also attempted to shut down a parody website launched by Greenpeace; however, the World Intellectual Property Organization 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.
In 2010, Neste bought palm oil from IOI Group, company allegedly responsible for illegal deforestation. In January 2019 Neste said it is still buying palm oil Asian Agri, an Indonesian company that has been caught in illegal rainforest harvests, most recently in 2017. Neste said they made that decision because Asian Agri is no longer obtaining raw materials from Tesso Nilo National Park and has started collaborating with WWF. Environmental groups have said that "more investigations would be needed to know if the Asian Agri Group mills are currently breaking the law, or not."
In 2018 Biofuelwatch stated in their report that Neste meets EU sustainability standards for biofuels by sourcing palm oil from older plantations, commonly ones for which rainforest was destroyed before 2008. However, investigations show that Neste cannot even guarantee that all its crude palm oil is free from more recent or ongoing deforestation." Greenpeace has issued similar concerns about Neste's palm oil usage, after an investigation by MapHubs showing that Neste's supply chain for palm oil includes Indonesian palm mills with the most orangutan habitat loss.

Sponsorship

Neste is the title sponsor of the Finnish World Rally Championship rally, Neste Rally Finland.
Neste has hired Prince EA to host YouTube videos concerning education and the environment.