Nafta Lendava

First notes on oil in this area are more than 200 years old. First organised research and production of oil started in 1860. Between the world wars the interest for oil searches increased greatly, mostly by foreign firms. 

During the Second World War, foreign companies researched and acquired oil with modern equipment and therefore also with more success. After the war, the firm faced hard times as it was left almost without equipment. Oil firm in Lendava officially started operating again on 21st December 1945. The number of drilling rigs increased year by year, and also a school for education of staff was established as the production grew constantly. In the fifties, production decreased, so at the start of sixties, the firm started with oil research activities, refinery and petrochemical activities, which have been its main activities until today. 

In its 50 years' history Nafta Lendava, d.o.o. has been the driving force of this part of Slovenia. Unfortunately apart from periods of development there were also periods of stagnation. Mostly those were due to involvement of politics in economy. 

History of Nafta in years:

1945
21st December - On this day in 1945 the oil company named Izvori nafte Dolnja Lendava officially started to operate within the framework of “Kombinat za nafto in plin” in Zagreb.

In Dolina, they build the first refinery (steam distilation) for the needs of Red Armada.

1960
Start of the reconstruction of old production to a refinery. Work is finished in 1962. First traces of refinery activities. The drillers work in Egypt from 1960 to 1963.

1963 
First methanol plant with capacity of 6000 tons/year is built. Start of petrochemical activities.

1964
Mechanical workshops are established as a sector. In cooperation with Metalna Maribor they produce 77 construction cranes POHORC P-14 and 10 LIEBHER LM-25 cranes. Start of mechanical activities.

1976
In the plan of Socialist Republic of Slovenia for years 1976 to 1980 they approve the building of a new refinery with capacity 2 million tons/year.

1979
22nd June 1979 - Official opening of Methanol plant Lurgi, the most modern and biggest methanol plant in middle Europe.

1981
On 11th February 1981 the first oil Dubay flows through Yugoslavian oil pipeline "JUNA". Nevertheless the changed views of politics in SR Slovenia stop the building of already purchased new refinery. Until then a very successful firm finds itself in a difficult situation as it has to pay off the 45 million USD for the delivered refinery and at the same time it has to start paying off the reserved capacity of the oil pipeline after the contractual clause “empty for full”. The loss due to sale of the new refinery to China amounts to 26 million USD. If interest is added to that, together with predesigning and equipment costs, the total loss is 36 million USD. The Government assigns substitutional development programmes in the mid term plan for Nafta Lendava, nevertheless, they are never carried out.

1985
In December of 1985 Smelt sells the new refinery to the Chinese firm GPW, and in Lendava everything is prepared for transportation. Despite this, Nafta Lendava manages to pay off the debts of the new sold refinery equipment and unused pipeline capacities until mid 90s. Nevertheless it exhausted the firm financially and caused 20 years’ delay in development.

1994
Nafta Lendava is nationalised by a rule of Ministry of Economic Affairs. Petrol and Republic of Slovenia sign a contract to establish a new firm Nafta Lendava d.o.o. so as to rehabilitate the firm. (Petrol becomes a 55% owner and the state a 45% owner). The firm is divided into four sectors: RPNP, Refinery, Petrochemy, Mechanical engineering, and Management.

2000
The management presents the additional profitable, ecologic and development programmes and a proposal for sanation. As the sanation is not carried out as agreed between the owners and due to the out-of-date refinery, the only Slovenian refinery stops operating on 14th October 2000.

2001
On 22nd March Nafta Lendava and Nemmoco Slovenia Corporation sign a contract on joint investment to acquire the remainder of oil from oil fields Petišovci and Dolina.

2002
17th May - The owners of the firm, Government and Petrol d.d. sign an Arrangement on providing basic conditions for sanation of the company, with the goal to transform the firm in financial, status and business sense. The agreement enables the sale of Petrol's share to the government on 26th July 2002. Based on this agreement the Government becomes the sole owner of Nafta Lendava. Firm Geoenergo is established to research and acquire oil and earth gas, with owners Nafta Lendava and Petrol d.d., each holding 50%.

• EKO Nafta, d.o.o.
• Nafta Geoterm, d.o.o.
• Nafta Petrochem, d.o.o.
• Nafta Strojna, d.o.o.  

all in 100% ownership of Nafta Lendava.

2003
Subsidiary companies Nafta Inženiring, d.o.o. and Nafta Informatika, d.o.o. are established.

2004
Compulsory settlement finished

Regional Court in Murska Sobota starts the procedures for compulsory settlement of Nafta Lendava on 23rd July 2004, which is finished on 26th November the same year. In the procedures, Janaf as creditor files claims that are partly recognised and partly not. Janaf files an appeal to the ruling of the court in Murska Sobota, which is rejected by Higher Court in Maribor on 20th January 2005. This makes the ruling of the court final and finishes the compulsory settlement procedures.

2005
From 11th to 26th October 2005 daughter companies of Nafta Lendava go through external assessment of management systems. In the two biggest companies, Nafta-Petrochem and Nafta Strojna in standards SIST EN ISO 9001, SIST EN ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 whereas in other companies Nafta-Geoterm, Eko-Nafta, Nafta-Informatika and Nafta-Inženiring in standard SIST EN ISO 9001. All assessments are successful and we are awarded quality certificates on 14th April 2006.

2006
Establishment of company Nafta Biodizel, d.o.o.

The company has its headquarters at Mlinska ulica 5 in Lendava and was established on 10th May 2006 to realize the project of building a bio-diesel production plant. 

Nafta Biodizel d.o.o. is a mixed firm, 75% owned by Eko Nafta d.o.o. , a daughter firm of Nafta Lendava d.o.o. and 25% owned by CMB Maschinenbau & Handels GmbH from Graz in Austria, a part of Cristoph Group..

2009
Start of operation of the new factory formalin F-2

The company Nafta Petrochem  officially opened the new factory formalin F-2 on 15 May 2009. The factory, which was built according to modern environmental standards, will allow for increased production by 47 percent. The value of the investment amounted to around 6.1 million euros.

A new subsidiary, Nafta varovanje in požarna varnost, d.o.o., was founded, whose business is in the service of fire safety, occupational safety and ecology.

The subsidiary Nafta Biodizel was merged with Eko-Nafta.

2010
The opening of the first Nafta petrol station

Eko Nafta officially opened the first self service station on 31 March 2010 that is built according to modern standards and offering high-quality petroleum products, AdBlue, oil, and lubricants, a modern car wash and a store. The bar "Nafta" is also part of the petrol station. The value of the investment amounted to 2 million euros.