NESTENESTENeste Oy is the privatised national oil company of Finland, which merged in 1999 with Imatran Voima Oy, the country's main power generator, to form Fortum Oy (although by 2003 there were rumours that it would again be de-merged). Neste's history since it started in 1948 is fairly complex, but most of the retail outlets can be traced back to the former Union, BP, Gulf or Kesoil chains.
Union started life as Bensiinin-Kuluttajain Oy in 1931, and became Union in 1953; it found its way in the hands of the Finnish state and became the main component of Neste in 1991. BP entered Finland in 1960 by buying Petko, an independent chain established 20 years earlier and after a period in a joint venture (see right for a 1981 photograph of a BP/Union site in Jyvaskyla) sold out to Union in 1983. Neste's third component was Finnoil, which bought Gulf's outlets in the 1970s and switched them to the "E" brand; E-Öljyn had itself been established only in 1967. Neste bought out the minority interest in Finnoil in 1991 and replaced the E brand with its own.
Kesoil dates back to around 1949 as Autoilijain Bensiinija Kauppayhtiö, which changed its name to Kesoil in 1964 and was owned by the Finnish state and remained as an separate brand until 1998-9. Possibly to prevent a total dominance of the domestic market, Neste introduced the A24 brand at wholly automated outlets in the mid 1990s.
Neste's first retail activity outside Finland was in 1991 in Estonia; since then it had become an important player in all three Baltic States, Belarus and the St Petersburg area of Russia, although in 2001/2 all Baltic Neste sites were converted to the unmanned A24 format. Neste/A24 also operates a small chain of automat sites in Poland.
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The only known Neste sheet map covers the Baltic states and adjoining Russia and Poland under the title (in English) St Petersburg to Warsaw. The reverse of the map has town plans of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Minsk, St Petersburg (shown right) and Warsaw, each marking Neste locations, as well a full list of the 74 stations in the area at the date of publication (1996). No cartographer is given credit for this unusual map. |
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The Kesoil map (left) dates from 1974 and marks all Kesoil stations, which are also listed on the reverse. Although the cover may imply that it is only a two colour map, it is actually full colour inside, and was prepared by Maanmittaushallitus at 1:1,500,000. |
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No maps are known from other Neste group brands, but it is likely that they were also produced for E-Ölje.
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Text and layout © Ian Byrne, 1999-2007 |
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