Ventspils Nafta Termināls

The potential of the Ventspils port as one of the major ports in the Baltic Sea region has been highly valued for centuries. In the course of time, the port of Ventspils became an important transit point of transportation of various cargoes from the East to the West. Taking this into account, the government of the Soviet Union in Moscow came up with the idea in 1955of constructing an oil export facility in Ventspils. Two years later, on 20 August 1957, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a respective order on construction of such facility in Ventspils  with the expected cargo turnover of 3 million tons per year. Upon completion of the 3 rounds of construction, the Ventspils Oil Transshipping Terminal was in terms of export volume the largest terminal in the former USSR. Today's SIA Ventspils nafta termināls is a company which was known under the name Ventspils Oil Transshipping Terminal for a period of three decades.

Ventspils Oil Transshipping Terminal was constructed in three rounds. The company began working on September 30, 1961 upon completion of the first construction round. At that time it was possible to handle tankers with a loading capacity of 2 500 – 20 000 tons. In 1964, the construction second was commenced and after its completion the terminal could load tankers with a loading capacity of 45 000 tons. A relevant stage in the company’s development began upon launching of the Samara-Polotsk-Ventspils crude oil pipeline in 1968 and completion of construction of the light petroleum products pipeline in 1976. With the growth of oil production, the third construction round of the Ventspils Oil Transshipping Terminal was commenced and was finished in 1975. Since the time when the company started working, the annual crude oil and petroleum products transshipment volumes increased, by reaching that time’s maximum limit in 1983 when the total transshipment volumes reached 33 million tons, which was a direct consequence to the strike-forward-economy enforced by the USSR.

After the Republic of Latvia regained independence, on 9 May 1991 the state company for export of crude oil and petroleum products Ventspils Nafta was registered with the Enterprise Register of the Republic of Latvia. On 21 September, 1993, by an order of the Cabinet of Ministers, the state-owned company Ventspils Nafta was transformed into state joint stock company. The most important time for Company's development and strengthening of its positions was the year 1995, when development of the technical development program of JSC Ventspils Nafta was completed. Implementation of comprehensive reconstruction and modernization projects, having the main purpose to increase the company’s transshipment capacity and effectiveness of its operations, as well as labor and environment safety.

On 21 February 1996, by the order of the Cabinet of Ministers, the state joint stock company Ventspils Nafta was handed over for privatization. As a result, on 29 April 1997, the board of the Latvian Privatisation Agency approved the basic rules for privatization of Ventspils Nafta. JSC Ventspils Nafta was founded in accordance with these rules, by attaching the private stock company LaSam to state limited company. JSC Latvijas Naftas Tranzits became strategic investor. On 15 October 1997, JSC Ventspils Nafta obtained the status of public joint stock company and its shares started quoting in the Riga Stock Exchange, which is currently comprised by the world’s largest exchange company NASDAQ OMX.

To achieve more effective coordination of the work and investments optimization of JSC Ventspils nafta Group, SIA Ventspils nafta termināls is engaged in crude oil and petroleum products transshipment within the framework of the JSC Ventspils nafta Group since 1 October 2003.
In 2007, a strategic investor was attracted to SIA Ventspils nafta termināls – Euromin Holdings (Cyprus) Limited, which is a company of the international oil and gas transport and trade cooperation Vitol Group. As a result of strategic cooperation between the largest crude oil and petroleum products terminal in the Baltic region and the powerful company of the global crude oil and gas sector Vitol, a significant joint venture has formed in the scale of the entire region.