He also pioneered and built successful businesses in tank containers, offshore oilfield services and aquaculture.
There, he was briefly associated with Charles Steuber Sr., at whose house he was married in 1957, and the two conceived of the idea for a new pump and pipeline system for tank ships which would permit a tanker to safely segregate multiple grades of dangerous chemicals, after first converting the MT Freddy.
Based on the new design, Stolt-Nielsen started his own company, Parcel Tankers Inc, Liberia, in 1959.
The company was subsequently renamed Stolt Sea Farm Ltd. (SSF) and grew to become the third largest salmon producer in the world.
In January 2003, Solt-Nielsen S.A. voluntarily entered The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) amnesty program, amid claims of anticompetitive activity and industry collusion.
The cost in grey hair and stress was worse… We proved the hard way that justice can be had in the U.S. if you have deep pockets and the nerve to fight.
I am glad it is over.” On 15 December 2009, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the company, Jacob Stolt-Nielsen stepped down as chairman of the board.
After 50 years in the chair it is time to leave the tiller to someone else… As I now take my place among the other directors, I do so with utmost confidence in Christer Olsson (Chairman), Niels Stolt-Nielsen, our Chief Executive Officer, and the outstanding management and personnel of Stolt-Nielsen S.A. worldwide.”[4] In 2011, Stolt-Nielsen suggested that captured pirates should be executed and their boats sunk, the historical response to piracy, as an effective solution to the problem of piracy around the Horn of Africa.
[5] He was criticised by Norway's Foreign Ministry's state secretary, who said that "human rights" apply even to pirates.