Brava Energia S.A. (BRAV3) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, everyone. Welcome to 3R Petroleum First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. The conference call and comments about the results will be presented by Matheus Dias, CEO of 3R; by the CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Rodrigo Pizarro; and by the Chief Operating Officer, Mauricio Diniz. [Operator Instructions] This conference is being recorded, and will be available on the company's Investor Relations website, www.ri.3rpetroleum.com.br. The presentation that we will show here is also found there. [Operator Instructions] And then we will begin the question-and-answer session when further instructions will be provided. Before proceeding, we take this opportunity to stress that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of 3R's management and on current information available to the company. Forward-looking statements may involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to future events and therefore, depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors, analysts and journalists should understand that events related to the macroeconomic environment, the industry and other factors may cause results to differ materially from those expressed in such forward-looking statements. Now we will start the presentation with the company's CEO, Mr. Matheus Dias. Please, Mr. Dias, you may begin.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the conference call to discuss first quarter 2023 results of 3R Petroleum. The presentation will be led partly by myself, and I'll bring you the main highlights of the period. By Mauricio Diniz, our Chief Operating Officer, who will be sharing the relevant operational aspects of our assets in production and by Pizarro, who will present the company's financial results and related performance metrics as well as information on our capital structure, cash position and obligations, debt in general. Now starting on Slide 3, we have an overview of the period. As the first highlight this quarter, the update of the company's reserves certification report was published with the assets now grouped into 4 basins, Potiguar Basin, Recôncavo Basin, Campos Basin and Espiritu Santo Basin. The certification was prepared and now consolidated by one single certifying body, DeGolyer and MacNaughton as already informed, and the perspective was maintained of a robust portfolio focused on projects with certified reserves and low execution risk. As key elements of this report, we have that the company now has 516 million barrels of oil equivalent of 2P reserves, proved plus probable reserves. Of these, 71% or 367 million barrels are of 1P approved reserves, and 32% of the 2P reserves are classified as BDP or proved, developed and in production. The NPV10, in other words, the net present value here calculated at a discount rate of 10% per annum, estimated for the portfolio is $6.32 billion for the 2P reserves and $4.71 billion for 1P reserves. Regarding the highlights of the operation, daily average production reached more than 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent in this first quarter. And this period was marked by the start of operations at Papa Terra, an asset of great importance for the company and even more so for the current portfolio of assets being operated by 3R. There are challenges in the asset, and they are linked mainly to the status of many systems on the platforms, even causing production to be halted in March for a period of 21 days. But the existing production potential is already clear. And consequently, the capacity that the asset has to be -- that the asset has to be an effective cash generator for 3R. And this very month the current production of the asset is already on average between 16,500 and 17,000 barrels produced daily, representing approximately 10,000 barrels per day for the stake belonging to 3R offshore. Regarding the assets of Potiguar Basin also of note in the period, we had greater stability compared to the last quarter, and a return to production at Macau of approximately 600 barrels of oil per day after the completion of corrective maintenance of the oil pipeline that drains production in CNB. The company spares no effort to adjust the separation plans 100% without impacting the current production and thus to be able to increase the clusters production as soon as possible. As for Potiguar cluster, the company is in the final phase of fulfilling the obligations of the acquisition contract with Petrobras, the SPA. All that remains for the company now is the transfer of the Ubarana operating license, which will be issued by IBAMA. Since the emissaries license, which was also pending, was issued just yesterday, April 26, in the name of 3R Potiguar by IDEMA, the state agency in charge. This asset will represent approximately 46% of the total production of the company's portfolio and brings in its perimeter relevant mid-downstream structures that directly contribute for a verticalization of part of the chain, and brings logistics and economic benefits as well as commercial flexibility to 3R. In view of the proximity that we now see at the closing date, it is worth remembering that in addition to the obligation tied to the acquisition amount foreseen on the completion date, there is also the need for 3R to acquire an inventory of tools, equipment and spare parts which are vital for the smooth continuity of the operation as well as the inventory of products, oil and oil products, in this case, also according to the perimeter of the deal and which will be measured on the effective date of the closing. Lastly, still on the highlights. We remind you that 3R currently enjoys a SUDENE tax benefit in all of its assets, with the exception of Papa Terra and Campos Basin. This benefit gives us a 75% income tax reduction, which together with social contribution, gives us an effective tax rate of 15.25%. Moving on to the relevant highlights of our operating and financial results, which will be better addressed by Diniz and Pizarro momentarily. We see an increase in the company's oil production of 56% quarter-on-quarter, totaling an average of 13,500 barrels of oil per day and as I mentioned earlier, with Papa Terra accounting for most of this growth. Compared to the same quarter of 2022, we see a 76% production increase. Considering our consolidated oil and gas production, 3R averaged 20,700 barrels of oil equivalent daily, a positive increase of 35% over the last quarter of 2022. As for the financial metrics, I would like to highlight here briefly the quarter's net revenue of BRL 574 million and EBITDA of BRL 156 million. Please note that net revenue and consequently, EBITDA were negatively impacted during this quarter, as Pizarro will discuss later due to the 21-day stoppage of Papa Terra. Moving on to Slide 4. We bring you again the update on the company's reserves through the publication of the new reserves certification. First of all, in the chart on the left, we highlight the 516 million barrels of 2P reserves and compared to the 2022 report of 534 million barrels of reserves. We have the reduction of last year's production, the addition of 8 million barrels of reserves and the momentary exclusion of 11 million barrels of Malombe reserves in Peroá, which is classified as contingent until we have the declaration of commerciality and therefore, all regulatory issues are addressed. On the right-hand side of the page, we have some relevant multiples and how they compare with the previous certification. I stress that there were no substantial changes in them. But here, I highlight an enterprise value of BRL 632 billion, the NPV10. And it should always be noted that this amount already includes income tax and social contribution. Another element worth mentioning is the CapEx per barrel ratio for the development of 2P reserves, which stands at $6.1 per barrel of oil equivalent. As satisfactory as it is, this ratio posted a small increase, not very relevant in relation to the previous one, mainly due to inflation. Lastly, on this page, I stress that oil accounts for 88% of the company's reserves, which clearly shows the robustness of our portfolio. We always remind you that this proportion in the portfolio is very positive for 3R because the worst possible oil contract will certainly still be higher than the best gas contract we can sign. Moving on. Please go to Slide 5. And wrapping up this topic, we observe in the chart on the left, the breakdown of reserves by basin, considering the stake held by 3R Holding. Please note the great share of Potiguar Basin with approximately 60% of total 2P reserves in the Reconcavo Basin and Papa Terra with a balanced share in the portfolio around 20% each. Again, the highlight goes to the share of oil around 88% of total reserves in the bottom part. On the right side, we touched on some important elements for you to understand the company's portfolio in which we have 367 million or 71% of total reserves as IP proved reserves. And the evidence here that 79% of 2P reserves are in onshore and nearshore projects. Now to continue the presentation, I turn the floor to Diniz, who will present the main operational highlights of the period by basin.

Thank you, Matheus. We will now go into a little more detail about production starting with the Potiguar cluster. What we can see is that the various problems that occurred at Potiguar cluster are beginning to reverse. And now we are effectively starting to solve those problems, highlighting during this month, the return to operations of the pipeline, which already allows us to start reopening for wells. We can clearly see in this graph in this first quarter, a stabilization of the production that was declining throughout last year, and we effectively now start to see better results starting in April. Another important point that we have to highlight in Potiguar cluster is the number of rigs. We were operating in the last quarter of the year with 2 rigs. Now we already have 4. And this has allowed us to carry out 65 workovers in some wells, broke them into workovers themselves, pull ins, conversions and reactivation of wells. So we can already see a CapEx being invested in the area, and we are beginning to see an improvement. And another important point to highlight in this area is the beginning of well drilling. So to date, we have recently started here, and we already have 2 wells drilled, 2 more will be drilled in the next few days. And then the completion of these wells will begin during the second quarter of 2023. Turning now to the Reconcavo Basin. We can already see in this chart an increase in production when compared to the fourth quarter of '22. And this increase is due to the number of rigs that are already operating in the area. We had 2 rigs in the beginning of the year. Now we have 5 rigs doing workovers in the Reconcavo Basin. This has already allowed for 41 well interventions being 13 workovers, 14 pull ins, 2 conversions and 12 reactivations, which clearly shows the importance of having these rigs operating in mature fields. In addition, we are doing intense integrity work in the Reconcavo Basin, and the well drilling campaign in the area starts in the second half of the year with 2 rigs. Analyzing the onshore part considering the Potiguar Basin that I mentioned before, the Reconcavo Basin and the future Potiguar cluster, by the end of the year, we will have contracted 5 drilling rigs, 16 rigs to do the workover and 4 rigs doing the pull-in that is the simple exchange of well equipment. Detailing now the offshore part splitting between Peroa and Papa Terra, we emphasized that in Peroa, the gas production remains constant. Recalling that today, we are producing around 450,000 cubic meters of gas per day. This could reach 600,000 to 650,000 depending on demand. And during this period, this first quarter, demand still remains around 450,000 cubic meters per day. The agreement with Petrobras is in the final stages of negotiation, and we hope that in the next quarter now in second Q of '23, we will conclude this negotiation and Petrobras will start handling this gas, and we will be able to sell directly to other consumers. As for Papa Terra, as mentioned by Matheus, we started production, and we have already mentioned here a few times that we have integrity issues that are being addressed throughout this year. The integrity issues have to do with automation problems, as mentioned here in the disclosure, the production outcome. And this automation problem led to problems with the batteries, and the problem has been solved, but that caused production to stop for 21 days in March. So to date, production, as mentioned by Matheus, is around 16,000 to 17,000 barrels per day. Therefore, production expected for the fuel is in line with the forecast for Papa Terra. Moving to the next chart on Slide 9. The total production of the first quarter, looking at all the figures since the second quarter of 2020 when we started, shows a constant increase in production in the upper part of the slide, only 3R's working interest, where we see the 20,700 barrels per day, of which 65% of that is oil, and 35% of these 20,700 refers to gas production. The oil production itself only emphasizing oil production alone is around 13,500 barrels per day. 3R's working interest distributed in the 4 clusters, Potiguar, Recôncavo, Papa Terra and Peroa of which 39% is Papa Terra's production alone. We will now turn to Pizarro, who will give us more details on the financial performance.

Thank you, Diniz. Let's start the financial performance part of the first quarter of 2023. Let's move now to Slide #10. With the inclusion of the Papa Terra cluster since the beginning of the first quarter, we reported consolidated net revenue of BRL 575 million, a 29% increase when compared to the last quarter of 2022. It is worth noting that this quarter, although 28% of revenues came from Papa Terra, we were impacted by a period of 21 days between production stoppage and resumption. Oil accounted for 78% of revenues. And it should be noted that we have not yet included the Potiguar Cluster in this calculation, which will further increase the proportion of oil revenues in the coming quarters. From the macro point of view, it is also worth noting an 8% drop in the reference price of oil. On the next slide, we present the company's adjusted EBITDA which amounted to BRL 156 million with an EBITDA margin of 27%. If we disregard the transition expenses related to Potiguar, we would reach BRL 174 million. And of course, if we did not consider the interruption of Papa Terra's production, both EBITDA and the margin would be much better. The breakdown of EBITDA by Sedimentary Basin in response to requests from sell-side and buy-side analysts is detailed in our release facilitating the modeling and eventual comparison with the reserves report. On the next slide, Slide 12, we present the company's consolidated lifting cost and broken down by sedimentary basin. In the first quarter, we reported $23 per barrel of oil equivalent in the consolidated view, weighted by our working interest in these assets. It is worth mentioning that the proportion of fixed cost in Papa Terra is quite relevant. And this quarter, we posted around 10,000 barrels per day of production for 100% of the asset, that is much below the production potential, which may substantially dilute this lifting cost. On the same slide, we present the CapEx invested in the first quarter. It totaled $33 million, of which 30% were wells, 32% facilities, 24% inventories, which already reflects the preparation for taking over the Potiguar cluster and 14% in other items such as IT systems. The next slide, we present our capital structure. At the end of the first quarter, we had $136 million in cash and net debt of $71 million. In line with the material fact we released on April 16, we expect to conclude the capital subscription process in May resulting in a capital contribution of up to BRL 900 million to the company. As already mentioned, the original plan had been to increase liquidity through debt but some aspects were decisive to alter this strategy. First, we saw a very challenging market locally and externally for that aggravated by the retailers crisis in Brazil, the bank's crisis abroad and uncertainties about the American recession. All of this made access to credit more difficult in addition to increasing the cost of new debt, especially medium and long-term debt. On the other hand, short-term debt alternatives besides being expensive or with prepayment difficulties could impact certain leverage metrics especially in 2023 and 2024. Added to this, the oil curve depressed when compared to the curve we had in the second quarter of 2022, and a delay in the expectation of closing of the Potiguar Cluster due to recent events also impacted our cash position. Against this backdrop, in order to maintain healthy leverage ratios in 2023 and early '24, even considering more conservative brand scenarios, the management chose to optimize the company's capital structure through a capital increase. On the next slide, Slide 14, we present our hedge position and the company's obligations related to asset acquisitions. In terms of hedging, as the closing of the Potiguar Cluster is approaching, we will comment on our position throughout the quarter, especially in collar type contracts. At the end of the first quarter, we had almost 2.8 million NDF contracts, with an average price of $80.1 per barrel and about 3.7 million in collar type agreements with a floor at $56.4, and a ceiling at approximately $101 per barrel. In relation to our obligations, the total value, without considering corrections and other contract adjustments, is about $1.437 billion, most of which is tied to the Potiguar cluster. Out of this amount, $136 million are earn-outs and $261 million are deferred installments, mainly between 2024 and 2027. Finally, on the last slide, we highlight that our efforts are concentrated on the conclusion of the Potiguar cluster. With a lot of sweat and a great deal of diligence, we are moving forward. And fortunately now, there is just one condition precedent related to IBAMA that is missing. We are also working hard to increase reliability, improve integrity and reactivate redundancies in the systems, especially in Papa Terra. A major effort is also being made to mobilize drilling rigs and fulfill the CapEx plan. And last but not least, our operational team is in charge of solving the processing bottlenecks in the Macau cluster and keeping our activities safe. as we've been doing since the beginning of our operations. Thank you very much for joining us, and let's start the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Mr. Bruno Montanari with MS.

I actually have 3 questions. For Potiguar cluster, thinking about IBAMA, what are the next steps by IBAMA to have a final position regarding the license transfer so that you can match the capital increase with the closing of the deal? And also regarding the deal, I'd like to have a sense from you after the initial days, which were a little bit more turbulent. How do you see evolution? And how receptive are you reference shareholders regarding this? The third question regarding Papa Terra, 2 fronts, actually. If you could mention the improvement in lifting costs as production increases and you achieved good operating stability and you -- could you remind me when -- what is the validity of the SPA? Because today, correct me if I'm wrong, I think the demand for heavier oil should provide a much better price for this oil. So I'd like to get a sense from you what would be a more fair discount for this type of oil in the opinion of the company. Oh, by the way, and I'd like to thank you very much for breaking down the information by cluster. This is very helpful for our modeling. Thank you.

Thank you, Bruno, for the questions. Indeed, we tried to address the requests of some sell-side analysts and buy-side analysts. We are trying to make information as transparent as possible so that you can compare with the reserves certification. And so that we'll have looking forward, always this dynamic of looking at the results per basin, but I'll turn the floor to Matheus to answer your first question.

Hello, Bruno. Referring to your first question regarding Potiguar cluster and considering that now, indeed, the transfer of Ubarana operating license is the last condition precedent for us to close the asset. But we received one last communication by IBAMA, and they had some questions. And we wanted to have some comfort of a sharing agreement that we should have post closing with Petrobras. So we responded this communication together with Petrobras on the 14th of the month. So we and Petrobras just have to be diligent and available to answer any possible questions by IBAMA. There are no more specific obligations to be fulfilled either by us or by Petrobras. We just have to monitor, and we just have to be available for a possible meeting that they ask for or for further clarification on their end. Our expectation is that we are approaching the closing. I believe that in the coming weeks, between 1 and 2 weeks, we should be able to complete the process. And then we will have some bureaucracy, the fulfillment of several contracts until we actually get the closing with Petrobras, so that we can complete the deal. Our expectation is that more towards the end of the month, we should complete the deal.

And Bruno, just to get into more detail regarding the subscription process. May 19 is the deadline for us to have the subscription and for us to give our opinion on what remains. On May 23, the proceeds will be credited in the account of the company. On the 26th, we will communicate what is left. And then we have 5 business days for the subscription of those remains. And then on June 5th these remains will be deposited for the company. So I should say that with the incentive given a discount on the reference price in the last 30 days, so prior to the effective subscription date, we'll have some visibility. Our expectation is that there will be relevant subscription. In other words, very little will be left will remain. And we expect to have massive people adopting this. I cannot answer on behalf of our reference shareholders, but looking at how the negotiation is unfolding, we expect that it's practically a no-brainer to exercise this right of preference so that this will happen with the Potiguar closing much more advanced. So that is regarding the subscription and the unsubscribed share. Well, regarding your third question, if we hadn't had the stoppage at Papa Terra, we would have about 2,000 barrels more as a result of the operation of the general results of the operation for the working interest of 3R offshore. And with that, we would have a much lower level of lifting cost. Our expectation is that by year-end, we'll be close to $33, $24 already considering that Q1 had this negative effect. In other words, we should move towards a lifting cost close to $20 at Papa Terra. And the consolidated -- the average for the year should be something around $23. Next question, I'll turn the floor to Matheus. But yes, and we are still in the SPA contract, which has a very high discount, but we do have some alternatives being addressed by our commercial area. Matheus?

Well, Bruno, to give you a little more color on this theme, we had 3 types of commercialization agreements. The first has a very, very high discount also in the scope of the SPA. And this contract carried an obligation linked to the inventory of oil remaining. So there was that process when we bought part of the inventory and sold it subsequently. If we didn't have a limitation of tanking, it should be 1 or 2 shipments. But at the end of the day, we had 6 offloads and this had the A&P reference price. And then there were the embargoes of Russia last year, the Ukraine war, and the fact that the heavy oil inventory of Russia was sold to China, Singapore, so heavy oil in Canada, et cetera. So the market for heavy oil plummeted and this has a direct correlation with the reference price and because of that, we have a very great discount. Now we are finalizing a second type of contract where there is a discount of 17.80, which is COSA 2. And in May, we'll have a Brent minus 16.70 discount. This should be applicable to the whole month of May, perhaps the beginning of June, but the company is already thinking beyond June. So we are assessing some options in the market. Of course, given the needs of specific vessels, we are restricted to some players. Petrobras, Shell, PetroChina, also has this type of specific vessel. So what we see is that there is a slight improvement in the price of heavy oil in the global market. So that will enable us to capture better discounts. We do have some options to work through an offtake with a fixed discount. So we mentioned that this should vary between 13 and 15 at this point. So we are not even interested in signing very long contracts at this point, but more limited offloads so that we can follow the market. And as the market evolves and as we have a stabilization in the price of heavy oil, we can migrate to a market agreement to capture gains from the traders themselves. So being pragmatic in mid-June, we should have the new contract. This contract has an average discount of $13 to $15 and more towards the end of the year, we should be able to work with it -- to work with a market agreement modality enjoying better discounts. Well, based on reference, the idea is that by 2024, we should stabilize a discount at around $12. This is what the company is expecting and thank you, Bruno, for your questions.

Our next question comes from Mr. Pedro Soares with BTG Pactual.

I would like to talk about cash inflows and outflows in the short term, thinking about Q2 and Q3. Perhaps you could explain to us what is the expected interest rates corrected for Potiguar based on the $1 billion stipulated for the closing. And could you give us more detail on the net result, the cash generation of the asset that you have enjoyed in the acquisition of inventory with the net result of this operation being $1 billion corrected by interest rates and the rest would remain unchanged. And perhaps, you could give us an idea of the CapEx of the company for Q2 because Potiguar should only take over in May, the Reconcavo campaigns will be for the second half of the year. So should we expect a significant change from Q1 to Q2 in terms of CapEx? And my second question is about Macau. Perhaps address to Diniz because he talked about the asset. With the pipeline already operational and more workover rigs operating at Macau and the well drilling starting in Q1, could you give us an estimate of what these initiatives will produce or generate in terms of production from Macau, if we imagine the cluster resuming to last year's first quarter? And could we have a reduction in costs, I think that's it.

Pedro, thank you for the questions. We actually included in our release what are the restatements that we have in each one of the contracts. For Potiguar it's LIBOR plus 3.5%. In other words, if we use the LIBOR plus 3.5% from the effective date we have a restatement that gets close to $1.1 billion. In terms of cash generation, I always remind you, cash generation is not EBITDA. It is the operating result minus fictitious rate of 34%. Actually, it shouldn't be so because we have SUDENE tax incentive. Petrobras also enjoys this SUDENE tax benefit, but that's the agreement in the contract, 34% reduction in the operating result, and we also have the CapEx result. So another reduction in CapEx volume implemented by Petrobras. And in CapEx, I'd like to mention that, well, this is one of the only onshore assets in which Petrobras continues to have some investment. Such as in drilling the other day, and analysts getting ANP data. I realize that, yes, they are drilling wells in Alto do Rodrigues and Estreito cluster of Potiguar. So we also have this CapEx effect and we only got greater visibility of this more recently when Petrobras made the first preliminary versions available. It's very preliminary with a lot of disclaimers, a lot of preliminary data, but achieving a cash generation post tax and post CapEx of around $30 million. There are some items that we are still debating that could improve these $30 million, but we still haven't got a final answer and the value agreed on at this point. Other items, which are discussed and negotiated under the SPA, but which are not related to asset acquisition are the consumables for the operation, which are today at Potiguar Cluster. We are talking about storage rooms, cost operations, small storage rooms in the collecting stations. All of that should amount to BRL 120 million. And lastly, one final item that has an important influence on the total volume to be agreed on at the closing of Potiguar is the volume of refined products. Diesel S10. They might have been imported or brought from another refinery to Potiguar cluster. Naphtha boosted, which has that high octane enough to use to mix and blend with gasoline and other dilutant. And this is the volume that we are most uncertain about. But being conservative, this could amount to BRL 200 million. And this will come in as a working capital for the start of operation. I'd like to remind you, you all know this, but I should remind you that Potiguar accounts for about 45% of our portfolio. So this is in line with the volume of spares that we buy for the rest of the operations. So yes, there is a necessary working capital that is needed for us to take over Potiguar. Now the second question is CapEx, right, CapEx for 2023. To give you a ballpark figure. This is what we have been saying in the latest public events of the company. We are talking about $300 million in 2023. Of course, this 2-month delay of the Potiguar closing, of course, we were expecting this in the end of March, beginning of April. Now we're already assuming that this will be more towards end of May, possibly June, for us to start operating there. So we have an extension of the CapEx time line, but the order of magnitude remains at around $300 million. Matheus, do you need to add anything?

Well, Pedro, this CapEx volume this year is quiet relevant greater than in the coming years in facilities. So out of the total about 35% of the CapEx would go to infrastructure systems, redundancies of assets. And we have a very significant volume around 55% of the total CapEx of volume, referring to workovers and drilling activities. And this first quarter -- in the first half, actually, considering the plan the company had a volume of about 130 interventions, workovers, conversions, well reactivations. We as the company performed a little over 80% of that. We had a gap, partly because of the Potiguar delay and partly due to a learning curve in the first interventions that we performed. And we also had planned some wells being drilled in the first half. And this was also delayed. There were 4 planned, they were expected for Q1, but they migrated to April. We completed the second drilling and should have another 2 drilling activities still this month. So we performed about 80% of those workovers. What was planned for this quarter in terms of interventions in facilities, that accounts for about 20% of the total of the year of this $300 million to $320 million that Pizarro mentioned. And now we have a plan to catch up with this delay. So for drilling, we had planned in our budget to have 4 rigs. We have contracted another one, so we'll have 5 rigs in total so that in the final weighted average for the year, we can catch up, have a higher peak, so we can get to the annual average production. We already have 1 rig drilling another one being mobilized this year to drill 2 in July and 1 towards the end of the year. So we are bringing forward some drilling rigs so that we can catch up with the delay. And as regards workover rigs, we have 15 planned for the year, 9 already mobilized. 4 in Rio Grande do Norte, 5 in Bahia, the 6 that are missing, we are just waiting for Potiguar cluster. Physically, they are located at Potiguar. We just need to close the deal, so that they will remain mobilized on site, and so that we can have a plan to recover the workovers that were delayed, about 20% of activities that were delayed. If for this recovery, we need to mobilize another asset, we have already done an in-house analysis to possibly mobilize in a shorter period of time. But we believe that we'll be able to catch up. And at the end of the day, we actually had a good performance despite this gap, this delay we were 20% below what we had expected to perform, but we were able to perform a relevant amount of workovers, conversions and reactivations. We have started drilling the first well. Well on the first well, we had a learning curve. The second well was drilled exactly as planned. So I think that the company has everything on board if we're able to have the right resources and maybe mobilize more resources in shorter-term contracts, of course, we will probably be right on plan and deliver the average production expected for the year. I'm going to turn the floor to Diniz because you addressed the question on Macau to him.

Okay, Macau. Last year, we had a production of about 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent daily. There were several problems along the year. So we ended last year and started this year with around 4,300 BOE. We have 4 major activities in that area. One was the pipeline that was effective. And then we had to separate the fluids, water treatment to inject and gas treatment. So we completed the pipeline that allowed us to increase from 4,300 to about 4,700 to 5,000, which is where we are at and with the other 3 items. Fluid separation, gas treatment and water treatment for water injection. With those three remaining activities by the end of Q3 or Q2, Q3, we intend to get back to 5,600, which is what we had planned and what we communicated in the previous call. These works are being improved at the plant in terms of gas and water injection, and this will allow us to increase production until the end of the year. I'd like to remind you that we already have the drilling rigs there and they're trying to get to the field and offset the natural decline of any oil field. So the works are moving forward well, and we expect to complete all this in the coming months. The first part, the pipeline has been resolved, so that's the update that I have for you.

Our next question is from Monique Greco from Itau.

I would like to learn from you what can we expect in terms of transition cost in the coming months, even when we compare that to other assets, what kind of mismatch between OpEx and revenue could be expected going forward? And my other question is that we saw your share not performing so well once we heard about taxes on oil exports. And I mean, I know that there is no direct impact in your particular case, but the market did not react so well at the end of -- at the end of February and early March. But I just want to know whether you felt some direct impact or whether you have been indeed impacted and whether the amount of the tax is something that worries you or it's something very far-fetched?

Thank you, Monique, for your questions. On transition costs, we noticed that from the last quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year, there has been a significant decrease given the fact that in the previous quarter, the preparation for Papa Terra, demanded a significant mobilization from large suppliers and contractors. And for Potiguar, we also have transition expenses, but these are assets that allow us to get numbers closer to the cluster of Potiguar. Now we are getting close to Potiguar cluster. That's why we have to have a well-trained team in place, and that's why we believe that we will still experience the first order of magnitude of 1 or 2 months to get the same position in the half year like we had in the last quarter. So that will be up to BRL 20 million in terms of costs and transition expenses until the closing of Potiguar. This could vary a little bit if we're able to anticipate by a few weeks, and that's what we've been trying to do at Petrobras, together with IBAMA and Petrobras, all we want is to expedite that condition precedent. Now in terms of this mismatch between OpEx and revenue. Once Potiguar is closed, this disappears. We are still carrying over some working capital that "we have to freeze when we buy refined products at the moment of the closing that things that were acquired by Petrobras", but things will gradually normalize in the coming months after the Potiguar closing. And finally, in terms of export taxes, we just got a question from [ Andrea ]. I think he is an individual shareholder, and he posts the same question about export taxes. I would say that for 4 months, this tax -- I wouldn't say that it's totally 0, but the effect is almost 0 on 3R. First of all, because part of our production is sold onshore. Well, still, before Potiguar. And the part that we sell and that we could export right now, it should be Papa Terra's oil, but as Matheus already explained, we sell these oil through SPA predefined contracts, meaning that there is no variation in terms of the negotiation due to export taxes. And finally, if this tax lasts for 4 months, the effect is almost null. On the other hand, if the tax perpetuates, I mean, stays on for a longer period of time, the effect will be felt by other members of the chain. Onshore/offshore, of course, there are different ways in terms of the impact. Those that already exported will suffer more. But those who sell internally to the domestic market, almost all of its production will also be impacted by rebalancing because exporting companies may try to direct oil to Brazilian refineries. Therefore, indirectly, that internal parity in Brazil is lower. But as I said before, the expectation that this could be taken to the Congress and that is approved. On our side, we believe that there is a very low chance. But in the worst-case scenario, I mean we always have to take into account the possibility of that happening or going forward. So I hope I have addressed your questions.

Our next question comes from Mrs. Milene Carvalho from JPMorgan.

Well, first of all, I would like to thank you so much for that improvement in the disclosure. I think that breakdown helps us a lot. So thank you so much for giving us that information. Some of my questions have been already answered, but I would like to revisit Potiguar. So my question is addressed to Diniz. What is the production level that you are anticipating with the Potiguar transfer? And what is the drilling workover plan for the field? And what is your expectation by the end of 2023. And the other question refers to a comment by Matheus because you mentioned a sharing contract with Petrobras that you negotiated for post closing. Can you tell us a little bit more about that agreement?

Okay. Referring to Potiguar cluster. Today, at the end of the year, Potiguar cluster's production, I mean, still by Petrobras, was around 18,017.5. Today, it's around 16,500. These are the numbers that we got from Petrobras. So just like some other assets we have, it was -- I mean, assets that we acquired from Petrobras, in that tail part, there was a decline in production and the same thing is happening to the Potiguar cluster. So the large figures, 18,000 in the last quarter is now around 16,000 today. Now in regards to drilling throughout the year, in general, when we look at our entire portfolio, with these 5 rigs mentioned by Matheus, we will drill about 60 wells around the year and around 480 and 500 workovers in general. Out of that 500, we have pull-in, we have exchange in production areas and reactivation of wells. So large numbers, 18,500 -- I mean, 60 wells to drill and 500 for workover. Potiguar, I'm referring to, I'm referring to the basin as a whole. The numbers I mentioned in terms of drilled wells and wells in workover refer to Rio Grande do Norte and also those in Bahia. Matheus?

Now adding to what Diniz just said, out of the numbers that he mentioned when he talked about 600 workovers or interventions, approximately 50% of that number, and I'm referring to workover, conversions, reactivations, approximately 50% corresponds to the Potiguar cluster between 20% to 23% at the Reconcavo Basin, in Macau, more specifically, 22% and 2 in Papa Terra. 2 wells for wet completion. Out of the 60 planned drillings, we anticipate 39 for Macau, 12 in Bahia and 9 in Areia Branca. This year, in our planning, we haven't contemplated drillings at the Potiguar cluster. And as I said in our previous earnings results call, this could be reviewed in case we see that we can get a quicker response in terms of cash generation and production increments. So there might be a trade-off. And in this case, we may decide to change the direction of some drilling or maybe if we see a quick response somewhere else, we can exchange for some drillings in Bahia. But in general, this is the umbrella plan for the company this year, the macro plan. Milene, I just have an additional comment in our operations, whenever we initiate something, we don't start with drilling but we managed to have a significant increment both in our Bahia assets and also in the Macau cluster. So proceeding 20% to 30% in production increase with all of these activities throughout a period of 12 months workovers, activations and operating improvements. So without even considering drilling or contemplating drillings, even then we see many opportunities to make operating improvements in the Potiguar cluster. Milene, now moving to your second question on the environmental programs. This type of transitory modality is something very common in the projects. And in fact, as I said, it's something transitory because it works more in terms of expediting things and having the same programs from the company who sold the asset. And we end up by sharing things during a very short period of time, we use the programs until the company can come up with new programs that are presented to the agency. And in this case, we would have some time until the agency approves everything. So it's more like a remedy of the transition. And so that there won't be a longer period of time for the agency to analyze. That's very common. Part of these environmental programs, Petrobras shares those programs with us because it helps us to present things in due time, preventing -- taking a longer period of time to get licenses approved, but this is very common in these types of agreements.

Perfect. And if you allow me another question still related to this relationship with Petrobras. Do you see any evolution in terms of Clara Camarão and Guamaré or maybe there is nothing to be said so far?

Milene, in fact, we strictly follow the letter of the contract. The SPA is what we have. There is no other possibility, be it because of Petrobras or 3R wants to change it. We have to follow the contract strictly as it says. We cannot make any changes until the deal is concluded. And the future is still unknown. We are very anxious to take over the asset in its entirety. And future phases will be analyzed according to the demand or according to a possible reevaluation of our strategic plan. In this instance, we will then reappraise or reevaluate it. This is all I can tell you at the moment.

Our next question comes from Mr. Tasso Vasconcellos with UBS.

Matheus, Pizarro, Diniz and all officers. I have 2 actually. The first it drew my attention the possible civil liabilities of BRL 2.6 billion, having increased BRL 1.3 billion in the quarter and of half in Papa Terra and half in Peroa. Could you give us an overview of this process? Apparently, this was a claim made by the association of fishermen of the region. Where these liabilities mapped during the acquisition of Papa Terra and Peroa. Do you have any contract with Petrobras protecting you from this process? Or did this arrive after you took over the field? Secondly, we have some difficulty reconciling the operating cash flow and that's what Pizarro mentioned in Potiguar with EBITDA. And part of that difficulty comes with these values, prepayment of expenses. And you took over Papa Terra in Q1 2023, could you give us an idea regarding the operating cash flow? And when should we have a release of these prepayments for Papa Terra where eventually, when you take over Potiguar, what is the expected timing for normalization, so we can have generation closer to EBITDA. These are my questions.

I'm going to start with the second question, and then I'll turn the floor to [indiscernible], our Legal head, who's also on the call. Second question has to do with cash generation. I have to split what operations are. This quarter, we had about $12 million generated operationally considering everything involved and not just EBITDA, but also taxes, taxes on income. In the G&A effects, not just lifting costs, it was about $12 million around that. But as you mentioned, this also includes transition expenses. So we can only have a very clear view, [indiscernible] view of our results when we have the closing of Potiguar in a full quarter. So this would happen in Q3 of this year, when we will have that asset integrated in the portfolio and the effect on our results. We're trying to make this very clear in our results and in our release, but we are available to clarify anything that you see in the income statement or in the release that may be causing any discomfort or difficulty for you. And about those liabilities, [indiscernible] is going to explain this to us.

Hello. Well, we had two legal suits, one involving Papa Terra and the other one involving Peroa. And these are similar claims to other 20 claims made in the whole industry. Altogether, this totals some billions of BRLs for fishermen in [indiscernible] and similar claims against the Petrobras, PetroRio and in many other oil companies, all with the same object. So the claim goes from the issuance of the license to present date they claim that the license, the license says that there should not be fishing activities there. And they claim that this would influence them. But that's a determination by the environmental agents. So we think that this claim is very unlikely to succeed. We included the full amount of the claim because the 2 claims are at a very initial stage. So there was no analysis of the merit of the matter. So this is a full claim on their end. And since they include the period when we acquired the asset from the issuance of the license, it would be a number of disbursement during the SPA while Petrobras was still operating the asset, but we are not considering that. We are considering the full amount, just to be informative. I don't if you have any other questions. But in a nutshell, this is it.

Just a follow-up. It's clear. But I just want to confirm, I'm thinking about the worst case scenario, you would be eventually be held responsible for the period from which you took over, right? And not considering the whole process agree?

Yes. Yes. You're correct.

Our next question comes from Mr. Leonardo Marcondes with Bank of America.

Hello, everyone. Well, most of my questions have been answered. I would have a follow-up question regarding Papa Terra. And could you please give us some color on the improvements that you're doing there on the platforms and how these improvements will prevent shutdowns as we saw in March. My goal here is to try and understand how many stoppages should we expect during the year and how frequently this would happen?

All right, Papa Terra. Well, we did have this problem that was solved. Was the problem caused by automation and then it involved the batteries, so we exchanged the batteries. So the problem has been resolved after many items that were taken care of. So what is the priority at Papa Terra that we are working on? Now, well, first, we have a very large frequency -- a very high frequency of offload. So considering the tanks today, there are tanks that have a delayed inspection and maintenance. Some of these things have wells connecting them. When floating a vessel, you have to balance the forces in a certain vessel and with that, the tanks get impacted. So #1 priority there is repairing a pump that can pump out fluid from the tanks, so we can clean the tank. Somebody can go down the tank and isolate that problematic tank. So that's priority number one. And with this priority, we'll be able to improve the offload. We can do it instead of weekly, do it monthly once a month or once every 40 days to do the outflow. So that would make things easier. At the second moment, we have to work to ensure greater efficiency. So we're talking about transfer pumps. We are talking about compressors, treatment systems. All of these systems have a task force organized for several of these spare parts. So these would take a year to get here. So we're putting together a super task force to try to bring many of these items here as quickly as possible. In addition, we are scheduling a downtime most likely in Q1 of next year. And this downtime would be to perform a great repair maintenance in the units so that we can get more flexibility and improve operating efficiency. In other words, little by little, we are improving the efficiency of the unit. We expect to have fewer problems in what can happen with the electric submersible pumps, ESPs. Now we are working to mitigate problems there. We are contracting ESPs and rigs. The rigs, we're trying to bring them forward as quickly as possible, the hydraulic rig on 3R too, and the rigs still operate on wet Christmas trees. So we are trying to do that as quickly as possible, bring it forward so that we can drill 2 wells in this year with wet Christmas tree. So the hydraulic rig has been contracted. The wet Christmas tree and [ DP ] has been contracted. We have the LOI. We just have to sign the contract and it is expected to arrive in Q4 of this year. In the ESPs, well, we have contracts signed with Schlumberger and the first ESPs will be arriving in August or September. So I believe that from now on, we should have a positive evolution in the efficiency of Papa Terra field.

The Q&A session has now concluded. We would like now to turn the floor to Mr. Rodrigo Pizarro and Mr. Mauricio Diniz, for the final remarks.

Thank you all very much for joining us. We had more than 300 people joining us during this call. And I think we try to summarize well our intentions and our efforts going forward with a great focus on resilience, increase in system redundancies in general, especially in Papa Terra. So now we can start a new phase to dilute our fixed costs, not yet in the second quarter. We are still taking over a major asset. And as we often say, it has a huge punch list in terms of what we need to do in terms of resuming the original characteristics. But we are digitally -- we are putting all of our efforts to have the entire portfolio integrated, taking advantages of synergies and shareholding opportunities. I mean we don't need to have a lot of subsidiaries. So now we are having single operations, very, very similar to the format that we are disclosing to the market, a very unique operation within the Potiguar cluster. Of course, there will be a mid-downstream in the [ EIP ], and we already have a consolidated operation in Bahia, in Ventura, Reconcavo with the leadership, everybody is sharing equipment, rigs, assets, inventories and the same thing applies to Peroa. This is a very simplified operation. That's a non-inhabited platform, but certainly, we are always very cautious. We try to work with the sale and purchase of gas according to the agreements we have with buyers, Petrobras currently and eventually with other future buyers in Papa Terra with this very relevant operation where we see a very significant production increment that we pretend to implement in the coming quarters. Thank you all for joining us. Now I'll give the floor to Matheus and next to Diniz.

Well, in view of Pizarro's comments, all its left for me to do is to thank you. I think he summarized it quite well. He even got some of the things that I was going to say, but thank you so much for your questions. Thank you for participating with us here today. And I would just like to emphasize that we've been working on our structure because we aim at being a more systematized company with quicker responses, looking at our -- focusing on our production and processes we realize that with the conclusion of Potiguar, we will be able to be fully dedicated to our demands. Our CapEx plan is very challenging. We've been working hard on this plan. And I believe that in the coming quarters, we will certainly be able to give you excellent news and improve even more as we move forward. So I think Pizarro said it all. Thank you all very much. Now Diniz?

I think almost everything has been said. I think you -- what you can expect from us is that we are a very well-integrated team. We help one another. This is a very good team. We were able to build a company that has a strong focus on the integrity and safety of our operations. We are constantly trying to innovate. We look at new technologies, and we try to find new ways of doing what we do. And also, we share resources with other operators. This is something that is also part of our operation. This is what you could expect from us, a transparent company. We always show you what is happening in a very transparent way, because we want to increase production following all of the safety measures. Thank you all very much.

3R Petroleum conference call has now concluded. We thank you very much for joining us, and we wish you a very good afternoon. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]