When Preem's CEO Peter Holland today presented the supplement to their environmental permit application, he emphasized that the expansion would be used for two things: conversion of heavy oil and to be able to start working with renewable raw materials.

Inge Löfgren, chairman of the Nature Conservation Association in Lysekil, believes that the company here should have taken the chance to completely back away from the thick oil and instead invest all resources towards the renewable.

"They both want to eat the cake and have it left," he says.

"Should not increase at all"

That the plant would now be smaller than what was previously communicated, he sees as a bracket, as emissions will increase compared to today's level.

"We from the Nature Conservation Association are just as critical today, this type of plant should not increase at all," says Inge Löfgren, who is still of the opinion that the government will give a rejection when the issue ends up on their table next year.

Releasing crude oil expansion

A positive detail that he has seen is that the company released the original ambition to process more crude oil. The first application approved by the Land and Environmental Court in Vänersborg wanted to go from today's 11.4 million tonnes to 13.9 million tonnes.

- But they have not backed that much, but only reduced a little. If they had instead proposed halving crude oil handling, I think everyone would have supported it. But now they are getting stuck, says Inge Löfgren.