Seville, May 17, 2005- This afternoon, he Focus-Abengoa Foundation, together with F.O. Licht, inaugurated, in its Hospital de los Venerables headquarters, the fourth edition of the international conference entitled “World Biofuels 2005”. The inauguration was attended by Javier Benjumea, Chairman of the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, and Abengoa; Isabel de Haro Aramberri, General Secretary for Industrial and Energy Development of the Department of Innovation, Science and Commerce of the Regional Government of Andalusia; Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, General Secretary of the Ministry of the Environment’s Contamination and Climatic Change prevention Department; Alfonso Gonzalez Finat, Manager of the Department of New Energies, Demand Control and Sustainable Development (European Commission, DGTREN), and Christoph Berg, Chief Analyst Officer of F.O. Licht.

This World Conference, structured in six large blocks, will analyze the main Biofuels markets worldwide, European policy and the market impact of Biofuels, the European Biofuels market, technological advances achieved in Biofuels production, the perspective of the oil industry and technologies in vehicles.

Today, Bob Dinneen (Renewable Fuels Association, (RFA) USA); Ramon de Miguel, President of the European Bioethanol Association (eBIO); Eduardo Pereira de Carvalho (UNICA, Brazil), and Raffaello Graofalo (European Biodiesel Board, EBB, Brussels) have addressed the main biofuel markets worldwide, paying special attention to the Europe and North America markets, and to the situation of the Brazil Biofuels market and the ethanol industry’s strategy in that country.

The second day of this cycle of conferences that will bring together, in Seville, representatives from different national and international institutions, and experts and businessmen from Europe, the United States and China, will be dedicated to analyzing the strategies of the European union to implement the directive on Biofuels, the technological advances made in Biofuel production processes, and the expectations for international ethanol trade.

The third and final conference day will be brought to a close with an analysis of the support Biofuels are receiving from the oil and automobile industries, and of the funding of the Biofuels industry.

This cycle is part of the program of activities organized by the Environment and Sustainable Development Think-Tank that, from Abengoa, and through the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, has been established as a valid reflection tool at the highest level that promotes knowledge of, and public opinion on these matters.

Through the three-fold objective of economic, social and environmental development, this Think-Tank, promoted by the Focus-Abengoa Foundation, focuses mainly on the fields in which, for business activity reasons, Abengoa can make important contributions in the different sectors of international, industrial and technological relations, or of any other kind.

The Focus-Abengoa Foundation was established in 1982 as a consequence of the cultural activity initiated in 1972 by Abengoa with the publishing of the works "Sevillian Topics" and "Iconography of Seville". During this same period a collection of documents, books and prints on Seville, or by Sevillian authors, was being put together. This initial cultural activity brought Abengoa's senior management to see the importance of the company being seen outside its essential technological functions through an activity that would be of benefit to society as a whole, which led to the founding of the Fundación Fondo de Cultura de Sevilla.

Abengoa Bioenergía is Europe’s leading bioethanol producer, and currently operates two bioethanol facilities in Spain, Ecocarburantes Españoles and Bioetanol Galicia, with an overall installed capacity of 150 and 170 million liters per year, respectively. In addition, it is constructing a third facility in Salamanca, together with Ebro Puleva, called Biocarburantes de Castilla y Leon, with a 200 million-liter/year capacity, of which five million will be obtained by grain biomass conversion employing a new technology under development by Abengoa Bioenergy R&D. Abengoa Bioenergy is also the United States’ fifth largest bioethanol producer with an installed capacity of 365 million liters. Production in the United States is corn-based which endows the company with experience and technology in the processing of grain into bioethanol.

Abengoa, a listed industrial and technology company with stock capital in excess of 657 million euro (31/12/2004), provides solutions for Sustainable Development, the Information and Knowledge Society, and the Creation of Infrastructures. It currently operates in four large fields of activity: Bioenergy, where it is the world’s No. 2 bioethanol producer; Environmental Services, where it is European leader in segments of the industrial wastes market; Information Technologies, where it is one of the main role players at international level with operations in Europe, the Americas and Asia; and Industrial Engineering and Construction, where it is leader in Spain and Latin America. (www.abengoa.com).