A device for desulfurizing crude oil comprises a desulfurization system for sulfur-containing crude oil which forms a hydrogen sulfide-containing acid gas; a system for extracting elemental sulfur and a hydrogen sulfide-containing tail gas as exhaust gas from the acid gas; a device for generating electricity and gypsum from the tail gas; and a gas line system for supplying acid gas from the desulfurization system to the system and to the device, and for supplying tail gas from the system to the device. The gas line system has a gas distributing apparatus which supplies acid gas solely to the system in a first position, supplies acid gas solely to the device in a second position, and supplies a first part of the acid gas to the system and a second part of the acid gas to the device in a distributing position.