This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at Cepsa anuncia nuevas inversiones en refino

The company has allocated until September 350 million euros of its investment plan

Cepsa announces new investment in refining

Drafting QU01/12/2005

After having invested 350 million euros since the beginning of the year, Cepsa has just announced new projects for its refining business, in particular in its refineries of Huelva and Cadiz, which will be operating so staggered between 2008 and 2009.

Ertisa

According to the objectives set out in its strategy, Cepsa continues to develop the investment plan, depending on which invested 350 million euros in the period January-September, which are distributed by areas according to figure 1.

The most important investment projects undertaken during this period are:

Investments in wells and facilities of the deposits in exploitation in Algeria and in other areas with potential reserves of oil and gas
Completion of new production units for production of petrol and gas oils with new specifications, extensions in other units of distillation and conversion in the refineries "Tenerife" and "Gibraltar" and home of the construction of the new reformed light naphtha in refinery "La Rábida"
Construction of points of sale in the network of stations of service and refurbishment of existing ones, with special attention to the "non oil" of these activities
Extension of the Park of cylinders and facilities for the sale of domestic butane and other liquefied gases
Construction of a new plant of phenol in Ertisa, branch 100 percent of petrochemical derivative, which will substantially expand the capacity of this and other products

Refinery La Rabida, Huelva. Night view

With investments in refining, Cepsa will increase its production capacity of distilled 2.7 million t / media

New investments in refining

The new investment plan of Cepsa, recently, submitted to the Executive Committee of the company provides construction at its refinery "La Rábida" (Huelva) of a new unit of conversion of type "hydrocracker" that allows to obtain larger quantities of middle distillates (petroleum and gas oils). These new projects are added to the already started construction of a plant's reformed light naphtha, also in Huelva, with a production of 220,000 tonnes/year of benzene and 75 tons per day of hydrogen.

In the same vein, Cepsa intends in its refinery "Gibraltar" (Cadiz) the realization of a new unit of vacuum distillation and the improvement of the "mild-hydrocracker" already existing conversion unit, also in this refinery to increase,, the production of middle distillates.

As a result of these projects, which would be operating so staggered between 2008 and 2009, it will be necessary to increase the capacity of distillation of crude oil at the refinery in Huelva. This refinery would be by its capacity, its conversion and its integration with the petrochemical, within the Group of the most efficient facilities in Europe, which is now the refinery "Gibraltar".

Thus, the total capacity of distillation of crude oil of Cepsa could exceed 25 million tons per year which will make it possible to increase, efficiently, the production of distilled media at 2.7 million tons per year. Currently, in the European market of petroleum products there is a growing deficit of petroleum and gas oils requiring, in the Spanish case, the import of 13 million tons of these products.

On the other hand, Cepsa Additionally allocated resources in order to make energy efficiency improvements in their refineries to reduce their emissions of CO₂, to adapt its refineries to the prevention and integrated pollution Control (IPPC) directiveincrease the production of raw materials for petrochemical area and optimize production processes.

These investments will be presented for approval at next meetings to Council administration Cepsa.

Cepsa President, Carlos Perez of Bricius

Cepsa expected to raise its profit 40 percent in 2005

Cepsa provides to the net profit for the financial year 2005 grow 40 per cent on the 2004, so thus exceed the barrier of 900 million euros, according to recently advanced the President of the petroleum, Carlos Perez of Briciusthat he described it as "important and great" this results increased.

On the evolution of enterprise refining margins, Bricius Pérez said that they oscillate between months, because it depends on the position of refining in the world and the price differences between the crude oil. "At this time is worse than in October, but in normal situation," he added.

The results obtained in the area of petrochemical derivative have had a significant recovery to those generated in the previous quarter, although they are lower than the of the first three months of the year. Gross economic quarterly operating result amounted to EUR 50 million, with increase of 7 per cent compared to the second quarter, while operating profit soared up to 32 million euros, 11 percent more than the previous quarter. The difficulties to move to contracts of sale prices strong increases in the cost of their raw materials and the stabilization of the demand in some products are still marking the evolution of the area in the short term.

After participating in a day of discussion on the present and future of the energy sector in Spain, organized by the Spanish Club of energy and the World Energy Council, the President of Cepsa also referred to the shareholding situation of the company. In this sense, he dismissed a possible merger of the oil with its shareholder Union Fenosa and ACS, main partner of this electric. "There is no plan, Union Fenosa is a shareholder who has a 5 per cent of the company and nothing more," he noted.