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Enhancing margins at low capital expenditure — The strategic imperative
Sweden's largest refiner Preem AB has unlocked margin-increasing opportunities worth $63 million a year after undertaking a hydrocarbon margin improvement programme (HMIP) with Shell Global Solutions. Significantly, just $16 million in capital expenditure is required.
Preem launched the initiative in 2006 after making a major investment in a new hydrocracker and other process equipment at the Preemraff Lysekil refinery in order to help optimise operations and maximise the return on investment. The highly complex
220,000-barrels-a-day Preemraff Lysekil facility was one of Europe's most modern refineries, but the refinery's management identified that it operated in isolation and felt that it might benefit from external support provided by a broader organisation that could offer multidisciplinary and process knowledge.