472019 ANNUAL AND CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY REPORT

Additionally, the Research Centre has carried out other projects, the deve- lopment of which would not be possible without the cooperation initiatives we es- tablish with very diverse partners, among which we would highlight:

Strategic alliances with experts in technology and catalyst manufactu- ring such as the UOP, Haldor-Topsoe, BASF or INNOSPEC.

Joint R&D initiatives with corpora- tions such as SINOPEC, GRACE DAVI- SON and Zeolyst.

Collaboration with universities and other entities such as Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Politécnica de Valencia, the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the Institute of Chemical Technology and Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.

Moreover, through the development of engineering projects we improve our production processes, having completed in 2019 the construction and implemen- tation engineering of various projects in order to increase the production capacity, the conversion to higher value products, and the energy efficiency of the following units:

At La Rábida refinery (Huelva), we have increased the bencene produc- tion capcity at the Aromax unit, as well as the production of hydrogen and the production capacity of the Hy-

drocracker unit, making it the largest Hydrocracking unit in Europe.

At Gibraltar-San Roque refinery (Cadiz), we have made a substantial improvement in the gasoline produc- tion capacity of the Alkylation unit. We have also increased the propylene production capacity in the FCC unit and the production of the ISOMAX unit.

These projects have involved an invest- ment exceeding 200 million euros and they will enable us to have refineries with the latest production technologies available on the market, and to make our processes more efficient and sustainable.

We have also completed the start-up of our first wind farm in Jerez de la Frontera (Cadiz), which is, with and investment of 39 million euros, our first step in the ge- neration of renewable electricity.

During 2019, the IPA (International Pro- ject Analysis), an international entity, has analysed in detail the Project Execution methodology applied in our company by comparing it with the ones used by the best international project execution companies. As a result of this analysis, we have drawn up and improvement plan which will be implemented in 2020.