(, ) 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 .
After sheddding their oil and gas interests
Eivind Reiten will stay on as CEO of Norsk Hydro.
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 Field s and had a production of 563,000 barrels of oil equivalents. Hydro also operates
Gas Station s 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.
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.
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.
,
Norway ]]
The company was founded on
December 2 ,
1905 as (lit. Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited) by
Sam Eyde , exploiting a novel technology for producing artificial
Fertilizer s 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 ''.)
plant at
Becancour ,
Canada ]]
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 .
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.
