Norsk Hydro
Encyclopedia
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
aluminium and renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
company, headquartered in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
. Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company worldwide. It 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, which employs approximately 28,000 people. Svein Richard Brandtzæg has been the CEO since 2009.
The company had a significant presence in the oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
industry until October 2007, when these operations were merged with rival Statoil to form StatoilHydro
StatoilHydro
Statoil ASA, trading as Statoil and formerly known as StatoilHydro, is a Norwegian energy company, formed by the 2007 merger of Statoil with the oil and gas division of Norsk Hydro. The Government of Norway is the largest shareholder in Statoil with 67% of the shares...
(in 2009 changed to Statoil). Notodden remains home to the Hydrogen Technologies division, a world leader in alkaline electrolysis
Electrolysis
In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a method of using a direct electric current to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction...
technology.
The first steps with fertilizer
Financed by the Swedish Wallenberg familyWallenberg family
The Wallenberg family is a prominent Swedish banking family, renowned as bankers, industrialists, politicians, diplomats and philanthropists. The most famous of the Wallenbergs, Raoul Wallenberg, a diplomat, worked in Budapest, Hungary, during World War II to rescue Jews from the Holocaust...
and French banks, the company was founded on December 2, 1905 as Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab (lit. Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited) by Sam Eyde
Sam Eyde
Samuel Eyde was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist, the founder of Norsk Hydro and Elkem.-Biography:Sam Eyde was the son of a shipowner, and studied engineering in Berlin where he graduated in 1891. He started his career in Hamburg, working with the railways where he planned new lines, bridges...
, exploiting a novel technology for producing artificial fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...
s by fixing nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
from air. The technology had been developed by the Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland
Kristian Birkeland
Kristian Olaf Birkeland was a Norwegian scientist. He is best remembered as the person who first elucidated the nature of the Aurora borealis. In order to fund his research on the aurorae, he invented the electromagnetic cannon and the Birkeland-Eyde process of fixing nitrogen from the air...
. The method is still known as the Birkeland–Eyde process. The fertilizer was an important boost for the food production in Europe, which was insufficient for the population at the turn of the century. The process required large amounts of electric energy, and for this, a power plant was built at the Svelgfossen waterfall near Notodden. Later also Rjukanfossen
Rjukanfossen
Rjukanfossen is a waterfall of 104 meter in the western part of the Westfjord valley in Tinn, a municipality in the county of Telemark, Norway, west of the industrial town Rjukan. The waterfall is a part of the Måne river, earlier a major tourist attraction, being one of the first floodlighted...
waterfall was developed and its power harnessed, in the process establishing the city of Rjukan, establishing the plant Norsk Hydro Rjukan
Norsk Hydro Rjukan
Norsk Hydro Rjukan is an industrial facility operated by Norsk Hydro at Rjukan in Tinn, Norway, from 1911 to 1991. The plant manufactured chemicals related to the production of fertilizer, including ammonia, potassium nitrate, heavy water and hydrogen...
.
Hydro's first factory was built at Notodden
Notodden
is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Notodden....
(opened in 1907) followed up with another at Rjukan
Rjukan
Rjukan is a town and the administrative center of Tinn municipality in Telemark . It is situated in Vestfjorddalen, between Møsvatn and Tinnsjå, and got its name after Rjukanfossen west of the town. The Tinn municipality council granted township status for Rjukan in 1996. The town has 3 386...
, Tinn
Tinn
Tinn is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Rjukan....
(opened in 1911). Then in 1912 production is established at Glomfjord in Nordland
Nordland
is a county in Norway in the North Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Nord-Trøndelag in the south, Norrbottens län in Sweden to the east, Västerbottens län to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The county was formerly known as Nordlandene amt. The county administration is...
. 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
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. From 1936 Hydro also started producing fertilizer at Herøya. There was also opened a railway, Rjukanbanen
Rjukanbanen
The Rjukan Line , at first called the Vestfjorddal Line, was a Norwegian railway line running through Vestfjorddalen between Mæl and Rjukan in Telemark. The railway's main purpose was to transport chemicals from Norsk Hydro's plant at Rjukan to the port at Skien, in addition to passenger transport...
, connecting Rjukan with Hærøy. The railway opened in 1909 and consisted of a railway ferry across Tinnsjø, railway again with Tinnosbanen
Tinnosbanen
The Tinnos Line was a 30 km Norwegian railway line that went from Tinnoset to Notodden in Telemark. The railway was part of the transport chain used to transport fertilizer from Norsk Hydro's factory in Rjukan to the harbour in Skien. The railway opened in 1909 and was closed when the plant closed...
and a barge ride from Borgestad
Borgestad
Borgestad is a Norwegian shipping, industry and real estate company. It operates 11 open hatch bulk carriers and one Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel. It also owns a shopping centre in Bytom, Poland and a housing complex at Borgestadholmen...
to Herøya with barge
Barge
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...
on the Telemark Canal
Telemark canal
The Telemark Canal connects Skien to Dalen in southern Norway by linking up several long lakes using a series of 18 locks. It originally consisted of two canals: The Norsjø-Skien Canal, with locks in Skien and Løveid was built in the period 1854–1861, and is the oldest of the two canals.The...
. The canal was superseded by the railway line Bratsbergbanen
Bratsbergbanen
The Bratsberg Line is a railway line between Eidanger and Notodden in Telemark, Norway. It opened in 1917, connecting the Tinnos Line, the Sørland Line and the Vestfold Line; allowing Norsk Hydro to transport fertilizer from their plant at Rjukan to the port in Skien...
in 1916.
By the 1920s, Norsk Hydro's electric arc
Electric arc
An electric arc is an electrical breakdown of a gas which produces an ongoing plasma discharge, resulting from a current flowing through normally nonconductive media such as air. A synonym is arc discharge. An arc discharge is characterized by a lower voltage than a glow discharge, and relies on...
-based technology for manufacturing artificial fertilizer was no longer able to compete with the newly developed Haber-Bosch process
Haber process
The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is the nitrogen fixation reaction of nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas, over an enriched iron or ruthenium catalyst, which is used to industrially produce ammonia....
, and in 1927 the company formed a partnership with the German company IG Farben
IG Farben
I.G. Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical industry conglomerate. Its name is taken from Interessen-Gemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG . The company was formed in 1925 from a number of major companies that had been working together closely since World War I...
in order to gain access to this process. By 1945, IG Farben had become a majority shareholder in Norsk Hydro. The plant at Herøya
Herøya
Herøya is a peninsula in the municipality of Porsgrunn, Norway. It is located between the fjords of Frierfjord to the west and Gunneklevfjord to the east, at the mouth of Telemarksvassdraget...
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 Herøya plant.
Heavy water production at Rjukan
The Rjukan plant was the only location in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
which produced heavy water
Heavy water
Heavy water is water highly enriched in the hydrogen isotope deuterium; e.g., heavy water used in CANDU reactors is 99.75% enriched by hydrogen atom-fraction...
, a component the Allied powers in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
feared would be used as part of the German atomic bomb project
German nuclear energy project
The German nuclear energy project, , was an attempted clandestine scientific effort led by Germany to develop and produce the atomic weapons during the events involving the World War II...
, and consequently was the target of several commando and air raids and a sabotage raid which eventually resulted in the plant's destruction
Norwegian heavy water sabotage
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of actions undertaken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the German nuclear energy project from acquiring heavy water , which could be used to produce nuclear weapons...
and later reconstruction. (This story was portrayed in the Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
movie The Heroes of Telemark
The Heroes of Telemark
The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during World War II...
.)
The first metal
Light metal
Light metals are metals of low atomic weight. The cut off between light metals and heavy metals varies. Lithium, beryllium, sodium, magnesium and aluminium are almost always included. Additional metals up to nickel are often included as well. Metals heavier than nickel are usually called heavy...
production came in 1940 when Hydro started construction of a magnesium carbonate
Magnesium carbonate
Magnesium carbonate, MgCO3, is a white solid that occurs in nature as a mineral. Several hydrated and basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals...
plant at Herøya, but the German invasion of Norway
Operation Weserübung
Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...
stopped the plans.
During the Second World War Norsk Hydro collaborated with IG Farben and Nordische Aluminium Aktiengesellschaft (Nordag) in building new aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
and magnesium plants in support of the German war effort. The construction was however ended on July 24, 1943 when an allied bombardment completely destroyed the facilities, killing 55 construction workers. As Germany's defeat became more likely, Norsk Hydro started to tone down its collaborative relations with the occupier.
In 1946 the Årdal aluminium plant was opened, operated by the state owned company Årdal og Sunndal Verk
Årdal og Sunndal Verk
Årdal og Sunndal Verk or ÅSV is a defunct Norwegian state owned company that operated the aluminum plants in Årdal, Sunndal, Høyanger and Holmestrand. The company was established to take advantage of the hydro-electric power plants in the respective villages to create aluminum plants...
. In a merger Hydro acquired this company in 1986, in essence establishing the light metal division Hydro Aluminium.
Since 1919 there had first been zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
, then aluminium production at Glomfjord
Glomfjord
Glomfjord is an industrial community at the head of a small fjord of the same name in Meløy municipality, northern Norway, above the Arctic Circle. The population is 1,204.-Heavy industry:...
in Northern Norway. Hydro bought the power plant in 1947 and started ammonia production there instead. In the 1950s Hydro opened a new magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
plant in Herøya and in 1963 Hydro started in cooperation with Harvey Aluminum a plant at Karmøy to produce aluminium. The plant, called Alnor, was purchased in whole by Hydro in 1973.
In 2002 Hydro acquired the leading German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
aluminium producer Vereinigte Aluminium Werke from the German utility company E.ON
E.ON
E.ON AG, marketed with an interpunct as E•ON, is the holding company of the world's largest investor-owned energy service provider based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The name comes from the Greek word aeon which means eternity....
.
Into the petroleum age
In 1965 Hydro joined Elf AquitaineElf Aquitaine
Elf Aquitaine was a French oil company which merged with TotalFina to form TotalFinaElf. The new company changed its name to Total in 2003...
and six other French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
companies to form Petronord to perform search for oil and gas in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
. 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
Oseberg oil field
Oseberg is an offshore oil field with a gas cap in the North Sea located northwest of the city of Bergen on the southwestern coast of Norway....
.
In 1969 Hydro started its first international operations, with a 25% stake in a fertilizer plant in Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
.
Hydro acquired in the late 1980s the Mobil
Mobil
Mobil, previously known as the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, was a major American oil company which merged with Exxon in 1999 to form ExxonMobil. Today Mobil continues as a major brand name within the combined company, as well as still being a gas station sometimes paired with their own store or On...
service stations in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, changing their name to Hydro
Hydro (fuel station)
Hydro was a chain of fuel stations throughout Sweden owned by Statoil. The chain had more than 500 stations, as well as some unmanned Uno-X stations...
. In 1995 Hydro merged its gas stations in Norway and Denmark with the Texaco
Texaco
Texaco is the name of an American oil retail brand. Its flagship product is its fuel "Texaco with Techron". It also owns the Havoline motor oil brand....
, creating the joint venture
Joint venture
A joint venture is a business agreement in which parties agree to develop, for a finite time, a new entity and new assets by contributing equity. They exercise control over the enterprise and consequently share revenues, expenses and assets...
HydroTexaco
HydroTexaco
YX Energi, formerly known as Hydro Texaco, is a Norwegian and Danish gas station chain formed after the merge of the Hydro and Texaco gas station chains in 1995. In 2006 the company was bought by Reitangruppen and incorporated into their chain including the implementation of 7-Eleven brand on the...
. The service station chain was sold in 2006 to Reitangruppen. In 1999 Hydro acquired Norway's third largest petroleum company Saga Petroleum
Saga Petroleum
Saga Petroleum was a Norwegian upstream petroleum company established in 1972 that was acquired by Norsk Hydro in 1999. Since October 2007 it is a part of Statoil. The company was the only fully private oil company in Norway. It had partial ownership in 60 oil field licenses and was operator of 18...
, which had major upstream
Upstream (oil industry)
The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream, though midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category....
operations primarily in Norway and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. 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.
In December 2006 Norsk Hydro revealed a proposal to merge their oil business with compatriate oil and gas company Statoil
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
. Under the rules of the EEA
European Economic Area
The European Economic Area was established on 1 January 1994 following an agreement between the member states of the European Free Trade Association and the European Community, later the European Union . Specifically, it allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to participate in the EU's Internal...
the proposal was approved by the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
on May 3, 2007 and by the Norwegian Parliament on June 8, 2007. The merger was completed by 1 October 2007. Hydro’s shareholders took 32.7% of the new company—StatoilHydro—shares.
Aluminium
Hydro is the fourth largest integrated aluminium company world wide. In Norway Hydro has plants in Rjukan, PorsgrunnPorsgrunn
is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Porsgrunn....
, Vennesla
Vennesla
Vennesla is a municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway. Vennesla was separated from Øvrebø in 1861. Øvrebø and Hægeland were merged with Vennesla again on 1 January 1964...
, Karmøy
Karmøy
Karmøy is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located southwest of the city of Haugesund in the traditional district of Haugaland....
, Høyanger
Høyanger
is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The administrative center is the village of Høyanger, which has 2177 inhabitants . Other villages in Høyanger include Lavik, Kyrkjebø, Austreim, and Vadheim...
, Årdal
Årdal
Årdal is a municipality in the county of Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sogn. The village of Årdalstangen is the administrative center of the municipality. Årdal was separated from Lærdal in 1860....
, Sunndalsøra
Sunndalsøra
is a village and the administrative centre of the municipality of Sunndal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located at the mouth of the river Driva at the beginning of the Sunndalsfjord. It is about west of Hoelsand, southeast of Øksendalsøra, and about west of Grøa. The village has a...
, Holmestrand
Holmestrand
is a city and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Holmestrad. The city was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 . The neighboring rural municipality of Botne was merged into the municipality of Holmestrand on 1 January...
and Magnor
Magnor
Magnor is a village in the municipality of Eidskog, Norway, not far from the Swedish border. Its population is 961. It is known as a production site for glass, made at Magnor Glassverk and aluminium, made at Hydro Aluminium....
. The corporation also has plants abroad.
Qatalum
Qatalum
Qatalum is 50-50 joint venture aluminium smelter project between Qatar Petroleum and Norsk Hydro. It will be the largest aluminium plant ever launched. It is located in Mesaieed, Qatar. It will have a capacity in the first phase of 585,000 tonnes of primary aluminium, all to be shipped as value...
will be the largest aluminium plant ever launched. It will be located in Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
and is joint venture by Qatar Petroleum
Qatar Petroleum
Qatar Petroleum is a state owned petroleum company in Qatar. The company operates all oil and gas activities in Qatar, including exploration, production, refining, transport, and storage. QP's Chairman Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, is also the head of the Ministry of Energy and Industry and, as...
and Hydro. It will have a capacity in the first phase of 585,000 tonnes of primary aluminium, all to be shipped as value added aluminium casthouse products. A 1350 MW natural gas power plant will also be built to ensure a stable supply of electricity.
Energy
Hydro is a major producer of windWind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
and hydroelectric power. In May 2005, Norsk Hydro became a major backer of a Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
wave-farming project to produce electricity from wave power. The project will use Pelamis P-750 Wave Energy Converters
Pelamis wave energy converter
The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter is a technology that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine is made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity....
developed by Pelamis Wave Power
Pelamis Wave Power
Pelamis Wave Power designs and manufactures the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter–a technology that uses the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity...
(formerly Ocean Power Delivery) to produce an estimated 2.25 megawatts of renewable energy in the subsequent year.
Hydro Agri
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 InternationalYara International
Yara International ASA is a Norwegian-based chemical company. Its largest business area is the production of nitrogen fertilizer, however it also encompasses the production of dry ice, nitrates, ammonia, urea and other nitrogen-based chemicals....
, listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
Chief Executive Officers
- 1905–1917 Sam EydeSam EydeSamuel Eyde was a Norwegian engineer and industrialist, the founder of Norsk Hydro and Elkem.-Biography:Sam Eyde was the son of a shipowner, and studied engineering in Berlin where he graduated in 1891. He started his career in Hamburg, working with the railways where he planned new lines, bridges...
- 1918–1926 Harald BjerkeHarald BjerkeHarald Borgen Bjerke was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Kristiania. From 1895 to 1912 he was the managing director of Mandalsgatens Høvleri. From 1910 to 1912 he also chaired the Norwegian Employers' Confederation. From 1918 to 1926 he was the Director-General of Norsk Hydro.-References:...
- 1926–1941 Axel AubertAxel AubertAxel Aubert was a Norwegian businessman.He was born in Kristiania. He took his engineer's education in that city in 1893, as well as a doctorate in chemistry Basel in 1895. He became the managing director of Engene Dynamitfabrik and Norsk Sprængstofindustri. In 1926 he was hired as...
- 1941–1956 Bjarne EriksenBjarne Eriksen (businessperson)Bjarne Eriksen was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Trondheim. He was hired as a Supreme Court barrister in 1917, but started a career in Norsk Hydro in 1926. He was originally head of the judicial and financial department, but was then promoted to Director-General in 1941...
- 1956–1967 Rolf ØstbyeRolf ØstbyeRolf Østbye was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Kristiania as a son of rector Niels Johan Hagerup Østbye and Johanne Elisabeth Mellbye...
- 1967–1977 Johan B. Holte
- 1977–1984 Odd NarudOdd NarudOdd Narud was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Furnes, and was educated as a siv.øk. He was hired in Norsk Hydro in 1943, advanced to become CFO in 1960 and assisting director-general in 1976. In 1977 he was hired as director-general , staying in this position until 1984.-References:...
- 1984–1991 Torvild AakvaagTorvild AakvaagTorvild Aakvaag was a Norwegian businessperson.He was born in Bærum, and was a cand.jur. by education. He was employed in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1951 to 1956, but left for a career in Norsk Hydro. He was promoted to head of the judicial department in 1967, and head of the...
- 1991–2001 Egil MyklebustEgil MyklebustEgil Myklebust is a Norwegian businessperson and lawyer. Since 2001 he has been chairman of the board of SAS Group.Born in Kvinnherad, Myklebust took a law degree from the University of Oslo in 1967, before starting work with the Norwegian Welfare Services . After that he worked at Norsk Hydro...
- 2001–2009 Eivind ReitenEivind ReitenEivind Kristofer Reiten is a Norwegian economist, corporate officer and politician for the Centre Party. He was a Minister of Fisheries and Minister of Petroleum and Energy during the 1980s, before entering a career in business. Reiten served as the Director General of Norsk Hydro between 2001...
- 2009– Svein Richard Brandtzaeg