Guyana’s light to medium sweet crude from offshore fields like Liza in the Stabroek Block is finding its way to global refineries, including the Repsol YPF Cartagena Refinery in southeastern Spain. There, crude is transformed into the gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that power vehicles, industry, and aviation across Europe and beyond.
The Cartagena facility is owned and operated by Repsol, one of Europe’s largest integrated energy companies with refining and marketing operations worldwide. The refinery lies in the Murcia region of Spain, strategically positioned on the Mediterranean coast with access to major shipping routes for crude supply and product distribution.
Repsol’s Cartagena complex has a primary distillation capacity of around 220,000 barrels per day, making it one of Spain’s major refining hubs. This capacity allows it to process a broad range of crude qualities, including medium sweet grades like Liza crude and heavier blends from other sources.
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Once crude arrives by tanker at the Escombreras dock, it enters the refinery’s atmospheric and vacuum distillation units, where it is heated and separated into fractions based on boiling point. Lighter components rise for further processing into fuels such as gasoline and kerosene, while mid‑range and heavier fractions are refined into diesel, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), asphalt, and industrial feedstocks. Conversion units and hydrotreating technologies ensure products meet quality standards for modern markets.
The Cartagena refinery supplies finished products to both domestic Spanish markets and international customers across Europe and beyond. Its Mediterranean location offers logistical advantages, allowing efficient export of refined fuels to regions that depend on reliable fuel supplies for transportation, heating, and aviation needs.
In addition to conventional fuels, the Cartagena complex also leads in renewable fuel production. Repsol has commissioned the Iberian Peninsula’s first industrial‑scale plant within the refinery to produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from organic waste such as used cooking oil, with a capacity of about 250,000 tonnes per year. These renewable fuels can be used in existing infrastructure and help reduce transport carbon emissions compared with conventional fuel.
Through this mix of products, from everyday gasoline to cleaner renewable fuels, the Cartagena refinery is a critical mechanism for exported Guyana crude to become essential energy for consumers in Europe and abroad.
