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Private company

Vopak

Logo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

Dutch chemical company

Royal Vopak N.V. (Dutch: Koninklijke Vopak) is a Dutch independent multinational company that stores and handles products ranging from chemicals, oil, gases and LNG to biofuels and vegoils. Its purpose is to "Store vital products with care", which derives from the products Vopak stores and how they are being stored The company was created by the merger of Van Ommeren and Pakhoed in 1999.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1999Founded1
  • Industrypetroleum industry, storage1
  • HeadquartersRotterdam1
  • Websitewww.vopak.com/index.php
  • Legal formnaamloze vennootschap1
  • LEI724500UL634GFV1KYF103
  • StatusActive3
  • LEI statusIssued and current3
  • Registered addressWesterlaan 10, 3016CK Rotterdam, Netherlands3
  • Registered withThe Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, 242953323

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Royal Vopak N.V. (Dutch: Koninklijke Vopak) is a Dutch independent multinational company that stores and handles products ranging from chemicals, oil, gases and LNG to biofuels and vegoils.2

Corporate structure

Vopak sits at the top of its group. 4 entities, 2 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Vopak Rotterdam, Netherlands
    • Vopak Finance B.V. Subsidiary · 100% · Rotterdam, Netherlands
    • Vopak India B.V. Subsidiary · 100% · Rotterdam, Netherlands
    • VOPAK CHEMICAL TERMINALS BELGIUM Subsidiary · Antwerpen, Belgium

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

Acquisitions

  1. Succeeded Phs. van Ommeren1

In 1998 the companies Royal Pakhoed nv and Royal van Ommeren nv decided to merge. Both companies were offering storage services for oil, petrochemical products, vegetable oils etc. Both companies were also active on the market of shipping (tankers) and other logistical services.

Besides their overlapping activities Van Ommeren offered heavy-goods transport via Dockwise and Pakhoed offered distribution services for chemical products via the company Univar.

The European Commission ruled that the merger would give the combined company too much market power in storage services in the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam (ARA)-area, on which made the offer to sell parts of their storage-tank capacity. The EC ruled this as insufficient and the merger was canceled.

Renewed negotiations resulted in the combination selling the Pakhoed terminals in Pernis and Botlek as well as van Ommeren selling their stake in Gamatext in the Port of Antwerp. This new offer convinced the EC to approve the merger and in 1999 it was publicly announced

Read the full text

On 15 April 2000 Vopak announced that they sold their 1,5 million m3 Botlek terminal to Norwegian competitor Odfjell. Odfjell had already terminals in Houston, China and South America. The entire workforce of 260 people also moved to Odfjell. Earlier that year Vopak had already sold its stake in the Gamatex terminal in Antwerp to the American partner GATX.

Early in 2002 the CEO Ton Spoor left with immediate effect, officially because of 'personal reasons', but it was rumoured that the break of trust between him and the company was caused by the €150 million write-off in 2001 caused by a failed attempt to introduce a pan-European IT system. Spoor was succeeded by Gary Pruitt.

The new combined company Vopak has a difficult start: there is only very limited synergy to be found in the storage services and the chemical distribution services and the company lacks the funds to realize her growth strategy. Because of that Vopak decides to split off and then sell the distribution services as Univar.

From Wikipedia’s article on Vopak, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5

Timeline

  1. 1999Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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