NORSK HYDRO

'Norsk Hydro ASA' (, ) is a Norwegian oil and energy and integrated aluminium company, headquartered in Oslo.
Hydro presently has two core businesses; oil, energy and aluminium. The company is the second largest oil and gas operator on the Norwegian continental shelf and the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. In 1999 Hydro acquired another Norwegian oil and gas company, Saga Petroleum, and in 2002 Hydro acquired the leading German aluminium producer VAW from the German utility company E.on. Hydro has operations in some 40 countries around the world and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds a 43.8 percent ownership interest in the company. There are total of around 36,000 employees. Eivind Reiten has been the CEO since 2001.
In December 2006 Norsk Hydro revealed a proposal to merge their oil business with compatriate oil and gas company Statoil.^[1] Under the rules of the EEA the proposal was approved by the European Union on May 3, 2007^[2] and by the Norwegian Parliament on June 8, 2007.^[3] Hydro’s shareholders will hold 32.7% of the new company² which will be known as StatoilHydro.³
After sheddding their oil and gas interests Eivind Reiten will stay on as CEO of Norsk Hydro.

Contents

Operations

Oil & Energy

Aluminium

Hydro Agri

History

The first steps with fertilizer

The first metal

Into the petroleum age

External links

References

Operations

Oil & Energy

Hydro's main operations in Petroleum are on the Norwegian continental shelf, but also operates in Angola, Canada, Russia and Libya. Hydro is the operator of 13 oil fields and had a production of 563,000 barrels of oil equivalents. Hydro also operates gas stations in Sweden under the brand name Hydro and operates in Norway and Denmark with the name HydroTexaco in joint venture with Chevron.
Hydro is also a major producer of wind and hydroelectric power. In May 2005, Norsk Hydro became a major backer of a Portuguese wave-farming project to produce electricity from wave power. The project will use Pelamis P-750 Wave Energy Converters developed by Ocean Power Delivery to produce an estimated 2.25 megawatts of renewable energy in the subsequent year.

Aluminium

Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company world wide. In Norway Hydro has plants in Rjukan, Porsgrunn, Vennesla, Karmøy, Høyanger, Årdal, Sunndalsøra, Holmestrand, Magnor and Raufoss. The corporation also has plants abroad.

Hydro Agri

Though Hydro started off as a fertilizer producer and agricultural products was for a long time one of the companies major ventures, the agricultural division was in 2004 demerged into the independent company Yara International, listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

History

The first steps with fertilizer

The company was founded on December 2, 1905 as 'Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab' (lit. Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited) by Sam Eyde, exploiting a novel technology for producing artificial fertilizers by fixing nitrogen from air. The technology had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, who originally intended to use it in the construction of an electric cannon. The fertilizer was a boost for the food production in Europe, that was not sufficient for the population at the turn of the century.
Hydro's first factory was built at Notodden (opened in 1907) followed up with another at Rjukan, Tinn (opened in 1911). In 1930 Norsk Hydro opened a plant at Herøya outside Porsgrunn. To begin with it was to function as a shipping port for the fertilizer as well as a point to import limestone. From 1936 Hydro also started producing fertilizer at Herøya. There was also opened a railway, Rjukanbanen, connecting Rjukan with Hærøy. The railway opened in 1909 and consisted of a railway ferry across Tinnsjø, railway again with Tinnosbanen and a barge ride from Borgestad to Herøy with barge on the Telemark Canal. The canal was superseeded by the railway line Bratsbergbanen in 1916.
During the Second World War the Rjukan plant was the only location in Europe which produced heavy water, and consequently was the target of several commando and air raids which eventually resulted in the plant's destruction and later reconstruction. (This story was portrayed in the Kirk Douglas movie ''The Heroes of Telemark''.)

The first metal

The first steps towards metal production came in 1940 when Hydro started construction of a magnesium carbonate plant at Herøya, but the German invasion of Norway stopped the plans. In 1946 though the Årdal aluminium plant was opened, operated by the state owned company Årdal og Sunndal Verk. Hydro acquired this company in 1986.
Since 1919 there had first been Zinc, the aluminium production at Glomfjord in Northern Norway. Hydro bought the power plant in 1947 and started ammonia production there instead. In the 1950s Hydro opened a new magnesium plant in Herøya and in 1963 Hydro started in cooperation with Harvey Aluminum a plant at Karmøy to produce aluminium. The plan, called Alnor, was purchased in whole by Hydro in 1973. In 1969 Hydro started its first international operations, with a 25% stake in a fertilizer plant in Qatar.

Into the petroleum age

In 1965 Hydro joined Elf Aquitaine and six other French companies to form Petronord to perform search for oil and gas in the North Sea. Hydro soon became a large company in the North Sea petroleum industry, and also became operator of a number of fields, the first being Oseberg.
Hydro acquired in the late 1980s the Mobil service stations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, changing their name to Hydro. In 1995 Hydro merged its stations in Norway and Denmark with the Texaco, creating the joint venture HydroTexaco. The service station chain was sold in 2006 to Reitangruppen. In 1999 Hydro acquired Norway's third largest petroleum company Saga Petroleum, who had major upstream operations primarily in Norway and the United Kingdom. The British operations were later sold.
Hydro's fertilizer business was spun off as a separately stock-listed company under the name of Yara International on March 26 2004. Hydro distributed all its Yara shares to Hydro's shareholders and presently has no ownership in Yara.

External links

★ Official website

★ Company history website

★ Pelamis Wave Energy Converter

★ Hydro operated oil fields Detailed list of all oil fields operated by Hydro.

References

1. Hydro's oil and gas activities to merge with Statoil, ''Norsk Hydro'', published 2006-12-18, accessed 2007-06-20
2. EU regulators approve Statoil, Norsk Hydro merger, ''EU Business'', published 2007-05-03, accessed 2007-06-20
3. Norwegian Parliament Okays Statoil-Hydro Merger, ''Ocean-Resources'', published 2007-06-11, accessed 2007-06-20