Norsk Hydro

in 1911). Then in 1912 production is established at

Glomfjord in Nordland. In 1930 Norsk Hydro opened
a plant at Herya 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 Herya. There was also opened
a railway, Rjukanbanen, connecting Rjukan with Hry.
The railway opened in 1909 and consisted of a railway
ferry across Tinnsj, railway again with Tinnosbanen and
a barge ride from Borgestad to Herya with barge on the
Telemark Canal. The canal was superseded by the railway line Bratsbergbanen in 1916.
By the 1920s, Norsk Hydros electric arc-based technology for manufacturing articial fertilizer was no longer
able to compete with the newly developed Haber-Bosch
process, and in 1927 the company formed a partnership
with the German company IG Farben in order to gain access to this process. By 1945, IG Farben had become
a majority shareholder in Norsk Hydro. The plant at
Herya was a direct result of no longer being dependent
on immediate proximity to the power sources. This provided the advantage of being able to have the plants and
the shipping port in the same location, as was the case
with the Herya plant.

The Norsk Hydro plant at Herya, Norway

Norsk Hydro ASA is a Norwegian aluminium and

renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. Hydro is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide.
It has operations in some 50 countries around the world
and is active on all continents. The Norwegian state holds
a 34.3 percent ownership interest in the company, which
employs approximately 12,500 people.[2] Svein Richard
Brandtzg has been the CEO since 2009.

The company had a signicant presence in the oil and gas

industry until October 2007, when these operations were
merged with rival Statoil to form StatoilHydro (in 2009
changed to Statoil).
1.2

1
1.1

Heavy water production at Rjukan

Main article: Norwegian heavy water sabotage

The Rjukan plant was the only location in Europe which

History
The rst steps with fertilizer

Financed by the Swedish Wallenberg family and French

banks, the company was founded on December 2, 1905 as
Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvlstofaktieselskab (lit. Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited) by Sam Eyde,
exploiting a novel technology for producing articial
fertilizers by xing nitrogen from air. The technology
had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian
Birkeland. The method is still known as the Birkeland
Eyde process. The process required large amounts of
electric energy, and for this, a power plant was built
at the Svelgfossen waterfall near Notodden. Later also Heavy water sample made by Norsk Hydro
Rjukanfossen waterfall was developed and its power harnessed, in the process establishing the city of Rjukan, es- produced heavy water, a component the Allied powers in
tablishing the plant Norsk Hydro Rjukan.
World War II feared would be used as part of the German
Hydros rst factory was built at Notodden (opened in atomic bomb project, and consequently was the target of
1907) followed up with another at Rjukan, Tinn (opened several commando and air raids and a sabotage raid which
1

2 OPERATIONS

eventually resulted in the plants destruction and later re- In 1965 Hydro joined Elf Aquitaine and six other French
construction. (This story was portrayed in the Kirk Dou- companies to form Petronord to perform search for oil
glas movie The Heroes of Telemark.)
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 elds, the rst being
Oseberg.
1.3 The rst metal
In 1969 Hydro started its rst international operations,
The rst steps towards light metal production came in with a 25% stake in a fertilizer plant in Qatar.
1940 when Hydro started construction of a magnesium
carbonate plant at Herya, but the German invasion of Hydro acquired in the late 1980s the Mobil service stations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, changing their
Norway stopped the plans.
name to Hydro. In 1995 Hydro merged its gas stations in
In 1941 the Oslo Consortium (Norwegian: Oslo- Norway and Denmark with the Texaco, creating the joint
konsortiet) invested money equivalent to year 2014 Nor- venture HydroTexaco. The service station chain was sold
wegian kroner 172 million.[3] (The consortium included in 2006 to Reitangruppen. In 1999 Hydro acquired NorThomas Fearnley, Orkla, Fred Olsen, Storebrand, Jens ways third largest petroleum company Saga Petroleum,
P. Heyerdahl, Klaveness & Co, Christopher Kahrs Kiel- which had major upstream operations primarily in Norland.[3] ) Collaboration with the Nazi-German regime, did way and the United Kingdom. The British operations
not result in any company employees being convicted (for were later sold.
collaboration) after the war.[3]
Hydros fertilizer business was spun o as a separately
During the Second World War Norsk Hydro collabo- stock-listed company under the name of Yara Internarated with IG Farben and Nordische Aluminium Aktienge- tional on March 26, 2004. Hydro distributed all its Yara
sellschaft (Nordag) in building new aluminium and mag- shares to Hydros shareholders and presently has no ownnesium plants in support of the German war eort. The ership in Yara.
construction was however ended on July 24, 1943 when
an allied bombardment completely destroyed the facili- In December 2006 Norsk Hydro revealed a proposal to
ties, killing 55 construction workers. As Germanys de- merge their oil business with compatriate oil and gas com[4]
feat became more likely, Norsk Hydro started to tone pany Statoil. Under the rules of the EEA the proposal
was approved by the European Union on May 3, 2007[5]
down its collaborative relations with the occupier.
and by the Norwegian Parliament on June 8, 2007.[6]
In 1946 the rdal aluminium plant was opened, operated The merger was completed by 1 October 2007. Hyby the state owned company rdal og Sunndal Verk. In a dros shareholders took 32.7% of the new company
merger Hydro acquired this company in 1986, in essence StatoilHydroshares.[5]
establishing the light metal division Hydro Aluminium.
Since 1919 there had rst been zinc, then aluminium production at Glomfjord in Northern Norway. Hydro bought 2 Operations
the power plant in 1947 and started ammonia production there instead. In the 1950s Hydro opened a new
magnesium plant in Herya and in 1963 Hydro started 2.1 Aluminium
in cooperation with Harvey Aluminum a plant at Karmy
to produce aluminium. The plant, called Alnor, was pur- Hydro is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. In Norway Hydro has plants in Rjukan, Raufoss,
chased in whole by Hydro in 1973.
Vennesla, Karmy, Hyanger, rdal, Sunndalsra, and
In 2000, Hydro acquired Wells Aluminum, a network of Holmestrand. The corporation also has many plants
aluminium extrusion plants in the United States. Two abroad, including in Germany and Brazil.
years later, the company acquired the leading German
aluminium producer Vereinigte Aluminium Werke from In 2010, Hydro and Qatar Petroleum inaugurated their
the German utility company E.ON and the French build- 50-50 joint venture Qatalum, located in Qatar. It was
the largest aluminium plant ever launched in one step. Its
ing systems company Technal.
annual capacity is 585,000 metric tons of primary aluHydro became a truly integrated aluminium company in minium, all to be shipped as value added aluminium cast2011, when it acquired the aluminium assets owned by house products. A 1350 MW natural gas power plant has
Vale in Brazil. This made Hydro a signicant player in also been built to ensure a stable supply of electricity.
bauxite mining and alumina rening.
In 2010, Hydro acquired the Brazilian bauxite, alumina
and aluminium production assets of Vale, an international
mining and metals company.
1.4 Into the petroleum age
Main article: Hydro Oil & Gas

In September 2013, Hydro combined its aluminium extrusion operations with that of Sapa, which is now a 50/50
joint venture between Hydro and the Norwegian com-

3
pany Orkla. Sapa Group, headquartered in Oslo, has
23,000 employees worldwide.

2.2

Energy

Hydro is a major producer of hydroelectric power in Norway.

2.3

Hydro Agri

[3] Nazi-Tysklands venner - Mange prominente herrer tjente

store penger p tysk samarbeid under krigen. Etterp gikk
de fri, mens tyskertsene ble jaget. [Nazi-Gemanys
friends - Many prominent gentlemen earned great sums
through cooperation with Germans during the war. Afterwards they walked free, while the tyskertsene became
hunted]
[4] Hydros oil and gas activities to merge with Statoil, Norsk
Hydro, published 2006-12-18, accessed 2007-06-20
[5] EU regulators approve Statoil, Norsk Hydro merger, EU
Business, published 2007-05-03, accessed 2007-06-20

Though Hydro started o as a fertilizer producer and agri- [6] Norwegian Parliament Okays Statoil-Hydro Merger,
cultural products was for a long time one of the compaOcean-Resources, published 2007-06-11, accessed 200706-20
nies major ventures, the agricultural division was in 2004
demerged into the independent company Yara International, listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Coordinates:
595450.97N 10392.42E /
59.9141583N 10.6506722E

Chief Executive Ocers

19051917 Sam Eyde
19181926 Harald Bjerke
19261941 Axel Aubert
19411956 Bjarne Eriksen
19561967 Rolf stbye
19671977 Johan B. Holte
19771984 Odd Narud
19841991 Torvild Aakvaag
19912001 Egil Myklebust
20012009 Eivind Reiten
2009 Svein Richard Brandtzaeg

External links
Ocial website
http://www.arte.tv/guide/de/045561-000/
die-akte-alu

References

[1] Annual Report 2010 (PDF). Norsk Hydro. Retrieved

17 April 2011.
[2] http://www.hydro.com/en/Investor-relations/Reporting/
Annual-report-2013/Hydro-in-figures-2013/

6 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Norsk Hydro Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsk%20Hydro?oldid=627707300 Contributors: Arwel Parry, Stone, Wernher, Morven, JorgeGG, Altenmann, DocWatson42, Boris Kaiser, Kks862003, Shanes, Nsaa, A2Kar, Geschichte, Eixo, Asav, Kbakken, Rjwilmsi,
The wub, FlaBot, Jaraalbe, YurikBot, Manxruler, Tomks, IceCreamAntisocial, Timouton, Shawnc, NielsenGW, DocendoDiscimus,
SmackBot, Kjaergaard, Jeekc, Delta Tango, Kristod, WoiKiCK, Meco, Matt.hatton, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Teratornis, Gralo, Varlet16,
Alan Smithee 87, Arsenikk, Rich257, The Anomebot2, Gr1st, Beagel, Rettetast, Bendavis2, Ebben, Tjh1234, Homanr, Relilles, CultureDrone, Xnatedawgx, ImageRemovalBot, ClueBot, Kredittkort, Mild Bill Hiccup, Slovalco, Gule mann, Svgalbertian, Addbot, LaaknorBot,
Alchemist-hp, Lightbot, Yobot, LovesMacs, Xqbot, Date delinker, Hauganm, JorunnFrafjord, Full-date unlinking bot, EmausBot, Solarra,
Kkm010, ClueBot NG, Doktor drefkis, MahdiBot, Widlic1960, Azul Prueba, Makecat-bot, Strachkvas, Schwobator, Craig.johnson.no,
Swahulko and Anonymous: 46

6.2

Images

File:Deuterium_oxide_Norsk.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Deuterium_oxide_Norsk.jpg License:

FAL Contributors: Own work Original artist: Alchemist-hp (<a href='//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Alchemist-hp' title='User
talk:Alchemist-hp'>talk</a>) (www.pse-mendelejew.de)
File:Hydro_Heroya.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/aa/Hydro_Heroya.jpg License: CC-BY-2.5 Contributors:
Own Work
Original artist:
Reidar Lunde Lillestl (Relilles)
File:Norsk_Hydro.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/44/Norsk_Hydro.svg License: Fair use Contributors:
Norsk Hydro Q2 Report 2007 Original artist: ?

6.3

Content license

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