Swedish oil giant Preem is using Guyana’s medium-sweet crude to fuel its flagship Lysekil refinery, linking South America’s newest oil producer to the Nordic region’s energy supply chain. Perched on the rocky coast of Brofjorden just north of Gothenburg, Preemraff Lysekil stands as Sweden’s largest and most advanced oil refinery.
Opened in 1975 and currently owned by Preem, the facility processes around 220,000 barrels of crude per day, according to NS Energy. It operates with a Nelson Complexity Index of 10, a technical measure that reflects how sophisticated a refinery is in converting crude into high-value products like diesel.
The refinery’s configuration features hydrocrackers, fluid catalytic crackers, visbreakers, vacuum distillation, and isomerization units. These are systems designed to break down even heavy crude components into lighter, more valuable fuels.
Sweden took the highest number of oil cargoes from offshore Guyana in April, according to insights from OilX. ExxonMobil-produced Liza and Unity Gold crude (both low in sulfur and medium in API gravity) have been delivered to Lysekil this year by supertankers.
Lysekil’s strategic coastal location and deepwater access allow it to handle very large crude carriers (VLCCs), and it is supported by significant storage capacity of about 8.5 million barrels underground and an additional million in day tanks.
Preem has recently accelerated efforts to make the Lysekil refinery a leader in cleaner fuel production. In 2023, the company announced plans to invest SEK 5.5 billion (approximately US$578 million) to convert part of the refinery to produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“The investment enables Preem to become the largest producer of renewable aviation fuel in Northern Europe, and one of the largest producers of renewable fuels for road transportation,” Preem said in a 2023 release.
This expansion, set to be completed by 2027, will add roughly 1.2 million cubic metres of renewable fuel production capacity while phasing out an equivalent volume of fossil fuel production.
