Draft:St1 Nordic

St1 Nordic Oy

Company type	Private
Industry	Energy
Founded	2006
Founder	Mika Anttonen
Headquarters	Helsinki, Finland
Key people	Henrikki Talvitie (CEO), Mika Anttonen (Chairman)
Revenue	EUR 8.2 billion (2023)
Net income	EUR 146.7 million (2023)
Owner	Majority owner Mika Anttonen, over 80% of shares
Number of employees	over 1000 (2023)
Subsidiaries	St1 Oy, St1 Norge AS, St1 Sverige AB, St1 Lähienergia Oy, St1 Finance Oy, Brocklesby Ltd
Website	[1]

St1 Nordic Oy is a privately owned Nordic energy group, focusing on fuels marketing activities and renewable energy solutions as well as developing and refining liquid fuels. The group researches and develops economically viable, environmentally sustainable energy solutions.

St1 Nordic group operates in Finland, Sweden, Norway and the United Kingdom. Net sales of the group amounted to EUR 8.2 billion in 2023, of which renewable energy covered 22.1%. Investments in renewable energy amounted to a total of EUR 111.3 million which equates to 46% of all investments made by the group in 2023. During the years from 2019 to 2023 some 43% of St1’s total investments has been allocated to renewable energy (excluding acquisitions).

Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, St1 employed more than 1000 people in 2023.

Management team

Henrikki Talvitie acts as CEO of St1 Nordic Oy and the Finnish St1 Oy. Besides him, the management team of St1 Nordic consists of:

• Miika Eerola, Head of Refining, Projects & HSSE
• Hilde Wahl, Head of Sales and Brands; CEO, St1 Sverige AB
• Kati Ylä-Autio, CFO
• Sampsa Halinen, Head of Energy Trade & Logistics
• Linda Pihl, Head of Business Technology
• Miika Johansson, Head of Renewable Energy & Strategy
• Tom Rinne, Head of HR
• Lea Rankinen, Head of Sustainability and Corporate Affairs

Mika Anttonen is the chairman of the Board, other board members being Kati Ihamäki, Mikko Koskimies and Kim Wiio.

Organization

In 2024 the group’s main companies were:

• St1 Oy and its subsidiary Lämpöpuisto Oy as well as St1 Lähienergia Oy in Finland
• St1 Sverige AB in Sweden
• St1 Norge AS in Norway
• Brocklesby Ltd in the UK

Associated companies

North European Oil Trade Oy, NEOT, owned by St1 and S-Group, is a fuel supply and logistics company. Annually the company delivers around 6 billion liters of traffic fuels to retail stations in Finland, Sweden and Norway, and also hundreds of thousands of Finnish homes and companies are heated by oil products delivered by NEOT. In addition, NEOT supplies significant fuel amounts to be used in seagoing vessels and in the aviation industry.

Aviation Fuelling Services Norway AS (AFSN) provides aviation fuelling services at airports in the Norwegian market. AFNS is co-owned by Shell Exploration and Production Holdings B.V. and St1.

Together with the Swedish forest company SCA St1 has formed a joint venture, Scastone AB. The company has acquired 50% of St1’s biorefinery in Gothenburg, Sweden, and is constructing a production unit for renewable diesel on the site. As feedstock material, the new biorefinery will use tall oil that is a by-product from the kraft pulp production at SCA’s mills.

In February 2022 St1 established a joint venture with Finnish food company Valio. The aim of Suomen Lantakaasu Oy is to produce renewable biogas from dairy farm manure and other agricultural by-products mainly as fuel for heavy-duty transport. The first production plant is planned to be built in North Savo, Finland, and the goal is for it to be operational by 2026.

1Vision Biogas AB specializes in biogas production and sales. It is co-owned by St1, HitecVision and Aneo. The aim of 1Vision Biogas is to become the leading biogas company in the Nordics, operating the entire biogas value chain from feedstock sourcing all the way to sales and distribution.

Areas of operations

St1 Nordic operates in following areas:

1. Retail stations
2. Corporate sales
3. Energy production and solutions
4. Energy trade and logistics

Retail station network

In 2023 St1’s Nordic network comprised 1259 St1- and Shell-branded stations and gas filling points.

• 36% of the network is located in Finland,
• 40% in Sweden,
• and 24% in Norway.

The Shell brand is in use under a license agreement. In September 2023 St1 announced the rebranding of its network of Shell sites and a move to a one-brand strategy, consolidating its entire retail operations under the St1 brand, following the expiration of existing brand license agreements in each country in couple of years.

The distribution network consists of unmanned stations and service stations with shops, convenience stores, restaurants and car washes as well as heavy goods vehicle (HGV) sites.

In 2023 St1’s market share in petrol sold in Finland was 23.6% and in diesel 20.0%. In Sweden the market shares were 20.7% in petrol and 16.2% in diesel. The market shares in Norway were 16.9% in petrol and 16.8 in diesel.

Energy production and solutions

Gothenburg refinery

St1 acquired the oil refinery in Gothenburg, Sweden, from Shell in 2010 – at the same time that the company bought the Shell retail stations in Finland and in Sweden.

The annual capacity of St1’s refinery is about 30 million barrels of crude oil. The Gothenburg refinery also operates as a blending hub. The products of the refinery include mogas, JET A1, sulphur-free MK-1 diesel and other middle distillates, marine fuels as well as liquefied petroleum gas. Most of the refined products are sold through the St1 and Shell network in Sweden, Finland and Norway.

A new biorefinery built at the St1 refinery site in Gothenburg commenced operations in 2023 to produce Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), Bio-Diesel (HVO), Bio-Naphtha and Bio-LPG. The Gothenburg biorefinery is a joint venture between St1 and SCA. The design of the biorefinery brings flexibility to the process by allowing the use of a wide range of feedstocks. Used cooking oil, animal fats, and tall oil fatty acids, the latter from SCA's paper and pulp mills, will be integrated. The biorefinery has an annual design capacity of 200,000 tons of renewable fuel production.

In 2022 St1 Nordic acquired 100% of Brocklesby Ltd. Brocklesby is a recycling expert of used cooking oil and fatty food waste, being one of the UK’s leading refiners in this field. It will provide feedstocks for renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel production at the new biorefinery in Gothenburg.

In 2023, St1 ceased production of advanced, waste- and residue-based ethanol in Finland as the availability of feedstock weakened substantially. In addition, the competitive environment for production facilities has changed significantly, and conditions for profitable business have not been found.

Biogas production

St1 sees biogas as a key growth opportunity within the energy transition, and the company is committed to making substantial investments in biogas production and distribution networks in the Nordics. Biogas is a readily available solution to achieve emissions reductions in traffic, especially for heavy-duty transport.

In December 2023 St1 joined forces with Aneo and HitecVision in order to consolidate their respective ownership in Biokraft into a newly established company, 1Vision Biogas AB. St1 Nordic owns 50% of 1Vision Biogas that now supports Biokraft in the company’s development efforts. In September 2024 1Vision Biogas acquired St1 Nordic’s biogas assets. The company is integrating the two entities into one company and is committed to investing more than EUR 1 billion in biogas production and distribution networks in the Nordic countries. 1Vision Biogas will operate an end-to-end biogas value chain, from feedstock sourcing all the way to sales and distribution.

In 2022 food company Valio and St1 established a joint venture to produce renewable biogas as transport fuel using dairy farm manure and agricultural by-products from Finnish farms. Suomen Lantakaasu Oy aims to build 8–10 production plants for biogas production and liquefaction by 2030. The planned annual production capacity of the first plant producing liquefied biogas is 125 GWh, and the goal is for it to be operational by 2026. The plant’s annual production is estimated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 71,000 tonnes a year, and the reductions would target both the transportation and agricultural sectors. St1 will distribute the biogas through its own nationwide network of fuelling stations for heavy-duty vehicles in Finland. St1’s share of Suomen Lantakaasu has been transferred to 1Vision Biogas AB along with the acquisition of St1 Nordic Oy’s biogas assets.

The first liquefied biogas (LBG) stations have been opened in May 2023 in Mäntsälä and Iittala. St1’s strong sales organization and network will continue the distribution of 1Vision Biogas’ products.

Wind power

In 2020 St1 sold its wind power production capacity in Finland that had been built by TuuliWatti Oy, the wind power producer owned in equal shares by St1 Nordic Oy and S-Voima. With this transaction, St1 wanted to free up capital for new investments in industrial wind power in the Nordic countries. At the same time TuuliWatti begun the process of demerging into two companies.

Today, St1 offers a wind power service concept covering technical and commercial management for 227 MW in wind farms in Finland. St1 is also continuously developing projects throughout the Nordic countries. In Finnmark county in northern Norway the company has two wind power projects: Davvi wind farm in the permit phase and Sandfjället wind project in the development phase. In Sweden, St1 has wind projects of various maturity levels in the pipeline.

Solar power

At the end of 2023, St1 announced its first investment decision in solar energy. The first solar park will be constructed in Risholmen, Gothenburg. When the solar park will be completed at the end of 2024, it will have an installed capacity of 9.5 MW, and its electricity production target is 8.5 GWh per year.

Geothermal heat

St1 Lähienergia (St1 Local Energy) focuses on the planning, designing and construction of heat well fields and also on the maintenance of ground source heating plants in the range of 30 to 5,000 kW. Our focus is on larger housing properties and public buildings, where ground source heating plants replace the use of fossil-based energy, such as coal and oil. The heat wells are typically drilled to a depth of 250–350 metres. In larger projects, the wells have extended down to 600 metres. Ground source heating solutions can be delivered as turnkey projects together with St1’s installation partner Caverion.

In 2021 St1 entered cooperation with CapMan Infra to accelerate ground source heat plant investments in Finland. CapMan Infra finances new ground source heat plants, sold and built by St1, for apartment buildings and commercial and public properties throughout Finland.

St1’s pilot project in Otaniemi, Espoo, has explored options for the technical implementation of a geothermal heating plant. Two geothermal wells were drilled to a depth of over six kilometres, where the temperature of the bedrock is about 120 degrees Celsius. The project was halted due to an inability to obtain sufficient water flow from one well to the other, and the thermal output of the planned powerplant would not have been commercially viable.

The deepest geothermal wells in Finland have attracted a great deal of interest for research. Therefore St1 is offering the deep geothermal wells for use in research. The wells, drilled into hard Finnish bedrock, provide an international and completely unique research environment for everything from the development of geothermal energy and other geosciences to microbiology research.

Carbon capture and utilization/Power-to-X

In 2020 LUT University, Wärtsilä and St1 published a report (Hiilineutraali Suomi – “Carbon-neutral Finland”) on how Power-to-X solutions can support Finland in achieving the country’s carbon-neutrality goal as well as create a new growth platform for the technology sector.

St1 is researching and developing Power-to-X based solutions in several projects. P2X is a globally scalable technology – an investment target that will solve the problem of storing electricity. The technology produces synthetic fuels from sequestered carbon dioxide and hydrogen using renewable electricity. P2X enables e.g. the production of a sustainable alternative for air traffic and other high-demand liquid fossil fuels.

A concrete step in utilizing P2X technology is St1’s plan to build the first synthetic methanol plant in Finland next to the Finnsementti factory in Lappeenranta. The aim is to produce renewable synthetic methanol to replace fossil fuels used in maritime and road transport. Synthetic methanol is an important future low-carbon fuel. In November 2023 St1 announced that the project will not proceed on its original schedule, because it has become clear that there still are many uncertainties related to the project's profitability due to an undeveloped market.

Carbon sequestrating through afforestation

St1 examined carbon sequestration in an afforestation pilot project in Marocco in 2018-2022. During the project fast-growing tree species were planted in an arid area and their ability to form a significant, measurable carbon sink was studied. The aim of the pilot was to find an optimal solution for cost-effective forest growth and carbon sequestration with the help of soil improvement and irrigation systems. The pilot was carried out in cooperation with the local university, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique. The Natural Resources Institute Finland LUKE directed and monitored the field tests at the plantation area in Benguerir.

The research report confirms that increasing vegetation that sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere and at the same time brings other benefits locally is possible, even in dry and long-barren conditions. Carbon sinks created by new vegetation offer a significant tool for mitigating climate change, increasing the earth’s green cover and at the same time substantially improving local living conditions.

St1 sees afforestation as a more economical way to prevent climate change than traffic biofuel blending obligations. According to St1 carbon sequestrating through afforestation should be one acceptable way for companies to compensate emissions.

Energy trade and logistics

Co-owned by St1 and the Finnish SOK Cooperation, North European Oil Trade Group (NEOT) is a significant independent fuel procurement company in the Baltic Sea region and a vital part of St1’s value chain. The purpose of NEOT’s operations is to provide its owners with competitive and sustainable fuel solutions.

St1 collaborates with NEOT to improve the sustainability of the supply chain. The goal of the collaboration is to enhance the traceability of St1’s products and to enable the calculation of their carbon footprint.

NEOT acquires fuels from global trading markets and handles storage and blending, as well as transportation from refineries to the terminals. St1’s own Gothenburg refinery is the most important source of supply, but NEOT also sources oil products from other refineries in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), mainly from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. NEOT supplies the St1 Gothenburg refinery with bio components from the global market and has an offtake agreement to obtain 100% of St1’s waste-based advanced ethanol production.

Together with NEOT, St1 maintains a comprehensive logistics chain in all company’s operating countries. The chain consists of terminals for storing products and a wide transportation network. In Finland, the network consists of six terminals operated by NEOT. Seven terminals in Sweden and nine in Norway are operated by St1. Jointly, St1’s and NEOT’s transportation network includes shipping as well as road and rail transport.

International awards

• In 2009 St1’s biofuel RE85 won the Finnish product category of the Energy Globe World Award. 80-85 percent of RE85 is bioethanol produced from bio waste.
• In 2019 a group of Finnish companies (St1, Fortum, Neste and HSY) was awarded Energy Globe World Award in the category “Air”. The winning project consisted of geothermal energy for the district heating of Espoo and renewable fuels for sustainable transportation.

Corporate responsibility

As the global transition towards sustainable energy continues to accelerate, the role of the energy industry has become increasingly critical and St1 recognizes the urgent need to address the challenges of climate change and contribute to a more sustainable future. As a provider of energy products, the company recognizes that its operations have a significant impact on the environment and the communities where they operate. Therefore St1 strives for transparency to ensure sustainable business practices throughout the value chain.

While fossil fuels are still St1’s main source of income, it allows the company to build world-class expertise in introducing more and more renewable energy to the market.

St1 is committed to the United Nations Global Compact initiative – a voluntary leadership platform for the development, implementation and disclosure of responsible business practices. The UN Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of UN goals and issues embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals.

St1 Nordic has published an integrated responsibility report annually starting from 2017. The latest integrated report, Game Changer 2023, was published by St1 Nordic Oy on 15th April, 2024.

In addition, St1 has brought into public discussion its views on climate goals and the global challenges of the energy sector. In June 2016 St1 published a discussion document called ”St1 Energy Outlook” about the change and challenges in energy market. The readers were invited to give feedback on the document, and the following year an updated version was published. In 2020 ”Solving Global Energy Challenges” document was published in a webinar during which top panelists discussed the challenges faced by the energy sector and our societies, and the solutions that will help us mitigate climate change.

External Links

• Official Website