Our role is to secure society's fuel supply. During the pandemic, we proved our ability to ensure the continuity of our business by adapting and finding new ways to provide quality service to our customers. In 2021, our operational excellence enabled us to not only meet our volumes but also increase our market shares in certain convenience retail (CR) markets.
St1 provides private and corporate customers with a wide range of products and services. The main products sold are premium traffic fuels, heating oils, middle distillates for machinery, and marine fuels. Bioproducts, which make up an increasing share of our liquid fuels offering, accounted for 19% of our net sales in 2021. We continued to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations as part of our retail offering, especially in Norway, and we expect to grow massively in this segment going forward.
Our offering also includes a wide range of enhanced payment cards, methods and services, for fleet customers, commercial road transportation customers, and private consumers.
Altogether, the nationwide energy station network, consisting of approximately 1,240 St1 and Shell energy stations across Finland, Sweden, and Norway, is the forte of our retail business.
The journey from gas stations to energy stations
Retail station network
Altogether, the nationwide energy station network, consisting of approximately 1,240 St1 and Shell energy stations across Finland, Sweden, and Norway, is the forte of our retail business. The network of unmanned stations and service stations with shops, convenience stores, restaurants, and car washes, serves many needs of hundreds of thousands of people on the go.
Additionally, the St1 mobile refuelling concept and St1 Mastercard increase the convenience for our customers. Our app has become a significant sales channel for car wash services and coffee offers and the like.
Our EV charging network is expanding in tandem with the sales of electrical vehicles in the Nordic countries, turning our network of fuel stations into energy stations.
In Sweden, we have successfully introduced E10 petrol, and many sites now offer renewable HVO diesel for personal cars. We have also put outdoor payment terminals at the car wash bays for increased customer convenience. We also opened 4 new PLOQ food shops. Our new gas distribution network consists of 50 public distribution sites.
In Norway, we built a new retail station in Trondheim, Shell Klett, which offers 16 charging points for electric vehicles alongside the traditional gasoline pumps. In Norway, we kept investing in EV charging and already in July we exceeded total numbers of charging sessions in 2020. As CR sales are increasing, we also take market shares with a growing customer base.
In Finland, we built a new unmanned St1 station with a boat refueling point in Kuopio and a new unmanned Shell TruckStation in Sipoo. We successfully launched renewable HVO diesel to both St1 and Shell sites in August. This was the first official Shell HVO product launch globally. With more than 12 million transactions, our loyalty program reached an all-time high.
In all countries our entrepreneurs and partners, together with our operational team, performed extremely well. Although they quickly and constantly had to adapt to changing conditions, regulations and standards, due to the pandemic, they did an excellent job of serving our customers. We have introduced new ways of working and processes to ensure a safe customer experience and operations.
Our new gas distribution network consists of 50 public distribution sites.
Keeping up the momentum by fostering talents
Corporate sales
Our strengthened Nordic organizational structure continued to show its value, and our ability to solve challenging situations and find new solutions to maintain sales has created new business opportunities for St1. Our customers are increasingly asking for ways to reduce their environmental footprint. Together with our customers we have developed multiple solutions and programs to help them mitigate their climate impact.
Significant emission reductions can be achieved by using biogas, especially for heavy-duty transport. We have identified this as a strategic focus area and invested in several biogas projects to enhance our portfolio in 2021.
In July 2021, St1 acquired E.ON Biofor Sverige AB. It is now operating under the name St1 BioGas AB, making St1 the leading biogas player in Sweden with a market share of about 30% in the traffic segment. The company produces, imports and exports biogas and delivers it to customers through several channels.
In Norway, St1 purchased 33.33% of the shares of Biogass Energi AS with the aim of building a national infrastructure of biogas filling stations. The Norwegian state-owned enterprise Enova has allocated 7.1 million NOK (approximately EUR 710 000) in support of building Biogass Energi AS’s first filling station for liquid biogas (LBG) in Norway. Enova’s grant will fund the construction of a filling station in the village of Aksdal in Rogaland.
In Finland, St1 and the food company Valio established a joint venture to produce renewable biogas from dairy farm manure and other agricultural by-products, mainly for heavy-duty transport. The company is targeting up to 1,000 GWh (1 terawatt-hour) of biogas production by 2030, which amounts to a third of the biogas needed for Finland’s fossil-free transport roadmap.
In addition, efforts to maintain existing customer relationships and gain new corporate customers have resulted in a strong cooperation within our Nordic sales team. Despite the prevailing COVID-19 situation, our marine volumes have hardly decreased at all.
Our terminal in Gävle, Sweden, which was acquired in 2019 to complement our terminal network, has continued to strengthen our customer offering in Sweden. Our sales team, together with our supply and logistics teams, have succeeded in growing volumes. The terminal enhances our ability to provide our customers with a wider energy mix to meet their future needs.