Swedish refiner Preem AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corral Petroleum Holdings AB, Stockholm, is progressing with its previously announced plan to expand vacuum distillation capacity at its 11.4-million tonne/year refinery at Lysekil, Sweden.
With delivery of the 37-m long tower that will form the heart of Lysekil’s vacuum distillation unit (VDU) completed in mid-August, the refinery is scheduled to receive the VDU’s furnance—the project’s final piece of major equipment—in October, Preem said.
With a revised estimated cost of 1.6 billion kronor (Swedish) from its earlier 1.5-billion kronor price tag, the VDU expansion remains on schedule to be completed in 2018, the company said.
Granted environmental clearance to proceed from regional regulators in July 2016, the proposed project will add a second VDU to supplement the refinery’s existing 64,600-b/d VDU to increase the plant’s production of vacuum gas oil (VGO) and eliminate Preem’s current monthly VGO import requirements of about 50,000 cu m.
The VDU expansion at Lysekil also will position the refinery to maximize its current crude through capacity, as well as enable it to upgrade residual oil from other refineries in the region, Preem said.
Planned with a nameplate capacity to process 215-240 cu m/hr of residual oil, the VDU will increase the Lysekil refinery’s VGO production capacity by about 50% from current production rates, according to official project documents.
In 2016, Preem let a contract to Amec Foster Wheeler to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management for the Lysekil VDU expansion (OGJ Online, Jan. 7, 2016).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
