Teboil's history

Finnish captain Mauritz Skogström founded Trustivapaa Bensiini Oy - Trustfri Bensin Ab with two other businessmen in 1934 in Helsinki.   During the 1940s, Trustivapaa Bensiini experienced strong growth, and more capital was required for the expansion of operations. In 1948 the owner of TB, Göran Ehrnrooth, and the general director, Rafael Rahikainen, decided to acquire funding by requesting international bids. The best bid came from V/O Sojuznefteexport. The oil company Suomen Petrooli Oy, founded in Vyborg in 1932, had been transferred to V/O Sojuznefteexport just two years earlier in accordance with the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties.  As such, TB and SP became sister companies with a joint head office and management located in Helsinki.

In 1959 the company began the importation and marketing of light fuel oil in Finland. In the 1960s, the company began to import heavy fuel oil to Finland and this rapidly increased the company's popularity as a source of energy. A lubricant plant and oil laboratory were built in Herttoniemi in 1962, and production began the following year. The importation of liquefied petroleum gas began in 1967. By the end of the 1960s, the service station comprised over 400 branches.

In 1966 a competition was held to find a new name for Trustivapaa Bensiini, and Oy Teboil Ab was selected.

The year 1970 saw the establishment of Teboil's very own rally racing team. It continued to be active for another three decades. Many top drivers who later became international stars drove in the Teboil Racing Team colours, including Markku Alen, Ari Vatanen, Timo Salonen, Jarmo Kytölehto, Harri Rovanperä and Jouko Puhakka. Motorsports played a part in furthering Teboil's product development work, which saw the market launch of the popular Silver motor oils. Teboil presented its first semi-synthetic motor oil, Teboil Gold, in 1979 and then, in 1988, it presented Silver G, the world's first AP-SG class motor oil.  A year later it introduced the fully-synthetic Diamond, which was the first of what would later become an entire product family. x

During the 1980's, Teboil oil was strongly involved in the development of the Finnish oil sector. The company was the first oil company in Finland to introduce comprehensive testing operations at its service stations and it developed a maintenance-under-warranty service. In 1981 it was the first to install credit card payment points at its stations.

In 1992 Teboil was the first to introduce unleaded petrol suitable for all cars, Teboil Terra, to the markets. In the same year, a new lubricant factory and laboratory facilities were opened in Hamina. In 1993 an entirely new kind of traffic service centre, Teboil Tähtihovi, was opened in Heinola. In 2000, Teboil Pirkanhovi was opened in Lempäälä. At the same time, Suomen Tähtihovit Oy was founded, and became a subsidiary of Teboil.

In 2005, the Russian company PAO LUKOIL acquired the entire share capital of Teboil and Suomen Petrooli from Nafta Moskva (previously Sojuznefteexport). In 2006 LUKOIL and the American company ConocoPhillips agreed on a deal whereby ConocoPhillips' service stations would move to the ownership of LUKOIL. The agreement included JET stations in Europe. Teboil purchased ConocoPhillips Finland, and its name was changed to Suomen Tähtiautomaatit Oy. Jet unmanned stations became Teboil Express unmanned stations. In 2008 Suomen Petrooli, Suomen Tähtihovit and Suomen Tähtiautomaatit were merged with Teboil.