How a refiner uses shipping to achieve its sustainability goals

“Neste works with high-quality shipowners and ship managers to comply with the EU ETS and EU Maritime legislation to the best of our ability,” the company reports in its 2023 annual review.

Neste’s wider decarbonisation goals go far beyond compliance. The company has set an ambitious target to reduce its production emissions by 50% by 2030, with the ultimate aim of reaching carbon-neutral production by 2035. These commitments are part of a broader roadmap that encompasses more than 100 identified measures to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Key actions include increasing the share of renewable electricity in production, electrifying operations and improving energy efficiency. Central to this effort is the development of renewable hydrogen, which addresses one of the main sources of emissions in the refining process.

Time-chartered shipping plays a vital role in Neste’s ability to support these decarbonisation goals and in May 2023, Neste began fuelling two of its time-chartered tankers transporting renewable diesel from Finland to Sweden with low-emissions marine fuel, including its own coprocessed products.

“Neste Marine 0.1 coprocessed fuel supports International Maritime Organization’s ambitious targets for the maritime sector to reduce its emissions to combat climate change,” the company explained.

This move demonstrates Neste’s efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its shipping activities in line with its production objectives. The focus on low-emissions shipping is just one aspect of Neste’s larger investment in sustainability across its refining operations.

The company has embarked on a long-term transformation of its Porvoo refinery, aiming to make it a 100% renewable and circular solutions hub by the mid-2030s. The plan, set to unfold in phases, is designed to cut emissions not just in production, but across the full lifecycle of its products, including transport.

Neste’s Rotterdam refinery is also undergoing expansion, with a completion date of 2026. Once completed, the Rotterdam refinery will add 1.3M tonnes of renewable fuel capacity annually, bringing Neste’s total nameplate capacity to 6.8M tonnes by 2026.

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