Repsol YPF

Refining & Marketing

The Repsol YPF Refining & Marketing businesses comprise the refining, logistics and marketing of fuel, including liquefied petroleum gas, on wholesale and retail markets. Repsol YPF is the largest refiner of petroleum in Spain and Argentina, also conducting operations in Peru and Brazil.

In marketing, the company operates in 12 countries, is leader on the Spanish and Argentinean markets, and serves as a benchmark for the Peruvian and Ecuadorian markets.

Investments in the Refining & Marketing area in 2005 totalled €995 million. This amount was mainly spent on current refining projects.

In February, the new Vacuum Distillation Unit started operations at the La Pampilla refinery in Peru, complemented by a Visbreaking Unit that went on stream in April. In March, the Light Naphtha Isomerisation plant at the Tarragona refinery (Spain) also went into operation, as part of the program for adapting refineries to the new gasoline specifications.

The European Union Anti-Trust Authorities unconditionally approved the acquisition by Repsol Butano of Shell's LPG business in Portugal in March. Repsol YPF took over the company, now called Repsol Butano Portugal, on 1 April. The culmination of this transaction places Repsol YPF as the third-ranking LPG operator in the Portuguese market with a 21% market share and sales of 191,000 tons.

In November 2005, the company presented a new refining investment program for the Downstream area. Repsol YPF's refining strategy in Spain is focused on increasing the distillation and conversion capacity adapting the units to future product specifications, encouraging the use of bio-fuels, and improving our performance in energy efficiency, safety and the environment. Within this framework, the company plans to invest €3,870 million.

Main investments will be earmarked for the Cartagena refinery to increase refining and conversion capacity, and in the Bilbao refinery to reduce fuel oil production and upgrade product quality, with special emphasis on environmental improvements.

Repsol YPF announced on 9 December an investment of $30 million in the construction of a plant in Ensenada (Argentina) for the production of some 100,000 tons of Biodiesel per year, using cutting-edge technology. Building is due to begin in 2006. This new product is developed via a suitable combination of traditional gasoil and the energy value obtained from vegetable oils (such as soy, rapeseed and sunflower oil, etc.).

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