Nynas

Nynas AB is a Swedish manufacturer of specialty naphthenic oils and bitumen products.[1][2] Founded in 1928 as a national oil company with a traditional range of products, the company today also supplies specialist products and niche markets.[3]

Nynas AB
IndustryOil
Founded1928
HeadquartersStockholm, Sweden
Key people
Bo Askvik, CEO Acting
ProductsBitumen
Naphthenic oils
Revenueapprox. SEK 17 billion (2019)
OwnerBitumina, Independent Swedish foundation and PDVSA
Number of employees
approx. 1.000 (2019)
Websitehttp://www.nynas.com

As well as sales offices all over the world, Nynas also has access to a global distribution network. This includes, among other things, three central storage facilities and mixing stations (hubs), 44 local depots and 42 sales offices in 32 countries. The naphthenic specialty oils are sold all over the world, while the bitumen products are only sold in Europe.

Nynas has around 1,000 employees. After peaking at SEK 22.5 billion in 2014, net sales fell during the next few years and are currently at a level of about SEK 17 billion.[4]

Business activities
Archive photo of a Nynas petrol station in Sweden during the 1950s.

Until the 1970s Nynas was a traditional oil company, manufacturing and selling a large number of products, from petrol and diesel to heating oil and lubricants. Following the oil crises (1973 and 1979), activity now focuses on naphthenic specialty products and bitumen products.[5]

Naphthenic specialty oils

consist of three different kinds of products:

Bitumen products

are available in various versions depending on which properties are required:

  • Standard binding agents to hold together the stones in asphalt surfaces.
  • Special binding agents for demanding applications such as noise-dampening asphalt and roads with high traffic intensity.
  • Binding agents for surface treatment, for example emulsions for roads with little traffic.
  • Binding agents for cold mix asphalt technology, which has lower energy consumption and is also used to recycle old asphalt surfaces.
  • Binding agents for industrial use, primarily for roof coverings and to provide anti-corrosion protection for items such as pipes.[7]

Nynas conducts extensive work on product development. This involves not least of all catalyst and hydrotreatment technology, which has resulted in, among other things, the launch of a new kind of transformer oil. Nynas also manufactures oils that comply with the new environmental requirements that come into force in 2010, when the European Union bans aromatic oils in car tyres.[8]In 2019, Nynas launched transformer and tyre oils that are partly manufactured from bio-based feedstock and are thus renewable. This is an important stage in reducing dependence on fossil feedstock, thereby contributing towards sustainable development.[9][10]

Efforts on the bitumen side have focused on products suitable for various conditions with regard to temperature, stone material and traffic loads. One example is the special bitumen found in noise-dampening asphalt, which results in the noise from traffic being almost halved. Nynas is also the leader in the field of water-based emulsions. These can be used in cold and semi-hot asphalt masses, which means both reduced energy consumption and lower hydrocarbon emissions.[11][12]

Manufacturing takes place at a number of refineries around the world. Three of these, at Harburg, Gothenburg and Nynäshamn, are wholly owned by Nynas, while the refinery at Eastham is co-owned with Shell. But there are also a number of external production facilities that are linked to the company through partnership agreements. Nynas has its own laboratories for quality control and product development, including those in Belgium, the UK and Sweden. Nynas is investing heavily in expanded manufacturing capacity. Work at the Nynäshamn refinery have boosted output,[13] but the most significant recent investment is the purchase of the Harburg refinery in 2013, which represents a forty percent increase in the company's supply capability of naphthenic specialty oils.[14]

Traditionally, Nynas primarily uses heavy crude oil from Venezuela as feedstock, as it has properties that are ideal for both bitumen and naphthenic specialty oils. There have been major efforts in recent years to increase feedstock flexibility and totally replace Venezuelan crude oil. These involve crude oil not only from the North Sea, but also from countries including Brazil, Colombia, Russia and Italy.[15]

History

The name primarily associated with the original Nynas is Axel Ax:son Johnson. At an early stage he recognised the opportunities created by car ownership, and in 1928 he had Sweden's first refinery built in Nynäshamn.[16] During World War II, Nynas played a prominent role in supplying energy in Sweden, as the company developed methods for manufacturing oil products made of coal and tar.[17]

The decades immediately after the Second World War were characterised by rapid expansion, and in 1956 the refinery in Gothenburg was opened. At that time Nynas was a Swedish family firm, manufacturing a large number of oil products and also with a national network of petrol stations.[18]

But changes in the outside world soon made it economically unviable to run a small, national oil company. The two energy crises in the 1970s resulted in Nynas suffering a serious cost crisis, as they did not have access to their own crude oil. The only way out was to specialise in a small number of products and to look beyond the borders of Sweden.[19]

In order to grow on the bitumen side, the refinery in Antwerp was bought in 1985, and in 1992 the UK bitumen company Briggs Oil was acquired. The latter acquisition included the refineries in Dundee and Eastham. In parallel with this expansion in the bitumen area, hundreds of million Swedish kronor were invested in turning the Nynäshamn refinery into a modern facility for the production of naphthenic specialty oils.[20]

In September 2013, Nynas received EU approval to takeover the Harburg base oil manufacturing plant and some associated refining facilities of the Harburg refinery in Hamburg, Germany. The reason was an expected demand for naphthenic specialty oils, especially in Asia. The takeover, which involved wide-ranging investments to convert the part of the plant that was previously used for fuel production, was completed in 2016. With the new specialty oil refinery in place, it was possible to achieve an annual production increase of 350,000 tonnes.

2017 saw the start of a period that resulted in significant financial problems because of an increasingly stressed political and economic situation in Venezuela. Initially this caused disruption to crude oil deliveries, which gradually stopped completely because the USA introduced far-reaching sanctions against Venezuela. During a transitional period, it was still possible to run the business thanks to the exemption – General Licence – that Nynas was a granted by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). This exemption meant that other companies were permitted to continue trading with Nynas without being in breach of the USA’s sanctions. But the situation became economically unsustainable, and in December 2019 Nynas was granted an application for a company reconstruction at a Swedish court in order to investigate the possibilities of continuing to run the business, either partly or in full.[21]

In May 2020, the OFAC announced that Nynas was no longer blocked under the sanctions because of changes in the company’s ownership structure. This meant that American individuals and companies no longer required a permit from the OFAC for transactions or activities that involved Nynas.[22]

The company reconstruction involved changes to Nynas’ ownership structure. In an initial step, the State-owned Venezuelan oil company PDVSA reduced its holding of Nynas shares to 15 per cent of current shares. The 35 per cent that were sold off by PDVSA were transferred to an independent Swedish foundation, while Finnish company Neste retained its holding of 50 per cent of the shares.[23][24]


Timeline

[25][26][27]

  • 1928 The refinery in Nynäshamn is built.
  • 1950s Nynas builds up a national network of petrol stations.
  • 1981 The petrol stations are sold to Shell.
  • 1986 Nynas buys a refinery in Antwerp, Belgium.
  • 1992 UK company Briggs Oil is acquired.
  • 2001 The refinery in Nynäshamn undergoes an extensive modernisation process.
  • 2004-2006 Partnership agreements are concluded with US oil companies Valero and Lyondell
  • 2007 The Nova Grades product range is launched
  • 2008: A new bitumen laboratory is built in Antwerp.
  • 2010-2011: A new hydrogen plant is built in Nynäshamn. In summer 2011 the plant starts to run on natural gas instead of naphtha, cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20,000 tonnes per year.
  • 2012: A new sulphur treatment plant is opened at the refinery in Nynäshamn at a cost of SEK 600 million, cutting emissions from sulphur recovery to one fifth.
  • 2013: Nynas receives approval from the European Commission to take over production and responsibility for the base oil plant and associated production units at the Harburg refinery in Hamburg, Germany.
  • 2014-2016: Extensive investments to convert Harburg from a fuel refinery into a refinery for specialty oils, resulting in a 30 per cent increase in capacity for naphthenic specialty oils.
  • 2017: Financial problems because of an increasingly stressed political and economic situation in Venezuela, resulting in disruption to feedstock supplies.
  • 2020: US sanctions are removed because of the new ownership structure and ongoing reconstruction of the company.


Notes
  1. Advantage Environment: Oil from Sweden is better for the environment, 2009
  2. Lube Report: Nynas Beefs Up as Citgo Bows Out of Pale Oils, 2006 Archived 2012-02-26 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Nationalencyklopedin: AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2009
  4. 'Nynas Annual report 2018'
  5. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 40-63. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  6. Nynas Annual report 2008, page 6, 2009.
  7. Nynas Annual report 2007, page 10, 2008.
  8. Advantage Environment:'Oil from Sweden is better for the environment, 2009
  9. Nynas introduces bio-based high-performance transformer fluid
  10. Nynas’ first bio-based tyre oil supports tyre producer’s sustainability goals
  11. Welcome to a specialist oil company, page 6. AB Nynas, 2006.
  12. Advantage Environment: Oil from Sweden is better for the environment, 2009
  13. Lube report: Nynas Ups Pale Oil Output, 2009
  14. "Nynas website: Our refineries, 2014". Archived from the original on 2014-09-03. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
  15. Nynas Annual Report 2018
  16. Nationalencyklopedin: Axel Ax:son Johnson, 2009
  17. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 23. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  18. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 29. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  19. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 33-34. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  20. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 33-37. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  21. 'Swedish refiner Nynas proposes restructuring to escape U.S. sanctions', Reuters,
  22. US Department of the Treasury
  23. Nynas exits US Sanctions
  24. Ackordcentralen
  25. Nationalencyklopedin: AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2009
  26. Hedengren, Uriel: 75 years old – looking back, page 94-95. AB Nynäs Petroleum, 2003.
  27. Nynas Annual Report 2013, page 108-109 Archived 2014-09-03 at the Wayback Machine

Sources
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