The Repsol YPF Board of Administration has approved the construction of a new plant to produce high performance automotive gas-oil with excellent environmental quality at its Tarragona oil refinery. Engineering work has already begun and the plant will go on stream in the first half of 2002.

With a capacity of 1,400 kt/per year, a cutting edge refining technology will be used in the new Hydrocracker to transform heavy oil fractions into more than 900,000 m3 per year of automotive gas-oil and other high quality products, such as lubricating oil and petrochemical naphtha.

This gas-oil will fulfil European Union 2005 specifications to reduce fumes and pollution emitted by this product: a matter of concern to manufacturers of diesel driven vehicles, which are becoming more and more popular in Spain and the European Union.

The aforementioned plant forms part of an ambitious investment programme undertaken by Repsol YPF to upgrade the quality of its automotive products. Thus, in the period 1997 to 1999, 35 billion pesetas have already been disbursed to fulfil new European quality specifications for the year 2000. A further 100 billion pesetas have been estimated for the period up to 2005.

European Union specifications refer to the reduction of certain components in gasoline and gas-oil (mainly benzene, aromatics and sulphur). In the case of gas-oil, from January 2000, this should not contain more than 0.035% sulphur (currently 0.05%) and in 2005, the proportion will shrink to 0.005%.