Repsol has been awarded with the "Boldest Strategic Merger" award at the "Financial Times Global Energy Awards 1999". This prize is a recognition of the efforts carried out by Repsol in the acquisition of the Argentine company YPF. The complimentary natures of both companies and the strategy followed in their integration has resulted in a multinational company ranked among the world�s top ten oil companies and with important perspectives for expansion in the future. The operation was valued very positively by the market and, since the announcement of the Public Share Offering, Respol�s share price has increased by more than 40%. The integration has created value for the shareholders of both companies. In this sense, estimates by analysts foresee target prices in the range of 23 � 25 Euros.

The Chairman of Repsol YPF, Alfonso Cortina, has expressed his satisfaction with this Award, which represents "a recognition by world energy experts of a operation which has already been received very favorably by international financial markets".

In contrast with the majority of operations of this kind carried out in the sector, its objective is not cost reduction, but growth. The integration has quadrupled Respol production and reserves and formed a more balanced company between "upstream" and "downstream", bringing about the creation of the only integrated gas company in the Southern Cone market.

The Repsol-YPF integration process is being carried out at a good pace and the forecasts of synergies, integration and cost savings are being revised upwards. Thus, the total cost savings, originally estimated at between US$ 300-350 m per annum, could surpass US$ 500 m starting in the year 2002. In refining and marketing, the contribution of Repsol�s experience will represent an improvement in efficiency and savings of US$ 70 m per annum in Argentina and Peru. In the LPG business, in which Repsol is the principal operator in the European LPG market, this will support a strong expansion in this activity in Latin America.

The influential economic newspaper "Financial Times" has conferred for the first time the "FT Energy Awards 1999", sponsored by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, one of the world�s leading professional service firms. The object is to reward the most important achievements of the industry and, specifically, the energy sector. To this end, there are different categories which cover distinct fields � electricity, oil, renewable energies -, which refer to different business aspects: technological development, environmental practices, security, market strategy, investments, marketing campaigns, etc. In the "Boldest Strategic Merger" category, the strategic rationale and future perspectives of the operation have been taken into account.

Repsol YPF was also nominated for the category "World�s Best Oil and Gas Company", along with BP Amoco, TotalFina, and Unocal Corporation.

The award ceremony took place in the Hotel Waldorf Astoria of New York this past November 8th, before a numerous representation of the world energy business sector. The jury was composed of Vicky A Bailey, commissioner of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; Robert Corzine, energy editor of the Financial Times; Dick de Jong, director of the gas and electricity business of Shell; David D. B. Morrison, chairman of Wood Mackenzie, and Kurt E Yeager, president and CEO of EPRI of Palo Alto (California).