OMV Petrom S.A. (SNP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the OMV Petrom earnings call. Today's presentation will last around 30 minutes and will be recorded. By now, you should have received the presentation by e-mail. The slides and the speech are also available online on www.omvpetrom.com in the Investors section. These also include the cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements. Now let me hand over to Simona Crutu, Manager of the Investor Relations and Stakeholder Engagement Department, who will moderate the event.

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. We will have a presentation, followed by a Q&A session. Christina Verchere, Chief Executive Officer, will provide key highlights about the macroeconomic and regulatory environment as well our operational performance in the third quarter. Alina Popa, Chief Financial Officer, will give you more details on our financial performance and a brief outlook. Afterwards, they will be available to answer your questions. [Operator Instructions] I'm now handing over to Christina.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and a warm welcome to our conference call that will take you through our performance in the third quarter of 2025. Please let me first draw your attention to our legal disclaimer, which you can read in detail on Slide 2. On Slide 3, we present the key highlights for the third quarter. Operational performance was strong in the third quarter. However, the context of lower and volatile commodity prices and margins and also the gas regulatory environment impacted our financials, partially offset by integration benefits and by the removal of power-regulated regulations. At RON 1.4 billion, our third quarter Clean CCS operating result was 16% lower year-on-year. Our operating cash flow in the third quarter of 2025 increased by 13% year-on-year and reached RON 2.2 billion. The Clean CCS return on average capital employed reached 12.8 percentage points. I'll go into details on each business division later on in this presentation. However, I would like to point out that in a volatile market, our results reflect the benefits of our business integration with increased refining margins partially offsetting lower crude price. Gas and Power results returned to positive territory after 3 consecutive quarters of negative values, reflecting the power market deregulation and a year-on-year slight improvement in the gas business. During the third quarter, we further focused on delivering on our 3 strategic pillars. In our strategic pillar Grow regional gas, our Neptun Deep Project is progressing as planned [indiscernible] in the Pelican South field, while progressing with the fabrication of equipment and construction of the natural gas metering station. In offshore Bulgaria in the Han Asparuh block, adjacent to the Neptun Deep block, we signed a rig contract with Noble Corporation for the drilling of two offshore exploration wells. The drilling campaign in Bulgaria is expected to start by the end of this year. We continue to make significant progress in our strategic pillar, Transition to Low and Zero Carbon. In September, we closed the acquisition from Enery of a 50% interest in the Gabare photovoltaic project, one of Bulgaria's largest solar projects. Final investment decision is scheduled to be taken in the first part of next year, with the start of commercial operations roughly 18 months later. We are progressing with our renewable projects, with more than 800 megawatts under construction, around [indiscernible] already operational and the rest in various stages of the development phase. Last week, the General Meeting of Shareholders approved the distribution of a special dividend of RON 0.02 per share. The payment will be made starting from the third of December. On HSSE, the total recordable injury rate for the period October 2024 to September 2025 was 0.57. Moreover, we continued our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas intensity with projects in all three business segments. Now let's just take a look at the evolution of commodity prices in the third quarter of 2025. Oil prices in the third quarter were impacted by additional OPEC supply. However, increased crude processing by refineries driven by strong refining margins provided some support to absorb this additional supply. On average, Brent crude was priced at $69 per barrel in the third quarter, representing a decrease of 14% year-on-year and a slight increase quarter-on-quarter. OMV Petrom indicator refining margin reached $14 per barrel in the third quarter, almost double year-on-year, supported by strong gasoline and diesel crack spreads. European gas prices have traded in a narrow range in recent months, with muted Asian demand easing competition for flexible LNG and allowing prices to drift lower. The CEGH price averaged EUR 36 per megawatt hour during the quarter, 3% lower year-on-year and 8% down quarter-on-quarter. Gas prices on the Romanian centralized market declined quarter-on-quarter by 13%. Day-ahead prices averaged around EUR 34 per megawatt hour, marking a 9% increase year-on-year. Based on [indiscernible] quarter-on-quarter, but decreased by 27% year-on-year to an average of EUR 93 per megawatt hour. The average CO2 price slightly increased by 2% year-on-year -- sorry, [indiscernible] to EUR 70 per tonne and by 4% year-on-year. Looking now at the Romanian macroeconomic environment, the latest available data shows that in the second quarter of 2025, GDP increased by 0.3% year-on-year. In October, the IMF reduced its projected [indiscernible] 2025 for Romania from 1.6% to 1%. And for 2026, Romanian GDP is now forecasted to grow by 1.4%, reduced from the previous forecast of 2.8%. The Consumer Price Index for the month of September 2025 versus September 2024 was 9.9%, driven by the removal of the electricity price cap and by increase in the VAT and excise rates. Looking at the Romanian energy sector. [indiscernible] Based on our internal estimates, the demand for our products started to reflect the slower economic growth. Demand for retail fuels was stable year-on-year. Commercial total demand was down by 2% year-on-year due to weaker [indiscernible]. Gas demand decreased by around 2% year-on-year, as the low industrial offtake was partly offset by the higher consumption from household and small and medium enterprises. Power demand was 4% lower year-on-year, while domestic production decreased by 3% year-on-year, making Romania a net importer of power in the third quarter of 2025. The contribution of hydro, gas, coal and wind to the overall generation mix decreased year-on-year, while electricity from solar and nuclear sources increased year-on-year. Let me now summarize the key highlights of the Romanian regulatory framework. Regarding the fiscal regulatory environment in Romania, the power market was deregulated as of the first of July. In parallel, the government has introduced a series of measures aimed at protecting vulnerable consumers. [indiscernible] gas, Ordinance 6 of 2025 maintains the regulations until the end of March 2026, after which the gas market is also [ to be ] liberalized. We continue to emphasize that free market principles are essential for fostering investments, and that any market intervention should remain temporary. And we welcome the state's efforts to establish mechanisms to safeguard vulnerable consumers. The 0.5% tax on the net value of certain construction introduced at the beginning of this year is estimated to have an impact of low double-digit million euros for 2025. The newly appointed Romanian government has enacted a series of fiscal measures effective from the first of August 2025. These measures include, among others, increases in VAT rates and excess duties. While these changes are already in force, we have begun to observe the initial impact on demand for our products. Looking ahead, these fiscal adjustments may potentially influence product demand in the medium term. Let me now move to the performance of our divisions, starting with Exploration and Production. Clean operating results in Exploration and Production almost halved year-on-year, reaching RON 437 million in the third quarter of 2025, driven by lower oil and gas prices, lower crude oil sales volume, unfavorable foreign exchange effect and higher production costs. These were partially compensated by higher gas sales and lower taxation mainly following lower prices. Hydrocarbon production in the third quarter decreased by only 2% year-on-year, as the natural decline was partially offset by successful workover operations, new wells and lower plant maintenance activities. Quarter-on-quarter, we recorded an increase of 3%, which reflects also the impact of maintenance which occurred in the second quarter this year instead of the third quarter. Production costs for the -- production cost per barrel of oil equivalent increased year-on-year by 8% to $18.19, reflecting unfavorable foreign exchange and the construction tax, which together accounted for almost 80% of the $1.40 per barrel of oil equivalent increase. In addition, we also had lower production and increased costs. For the full year 2025, we largely maintained the guidance provided in July. We keep our estimate for the Brent oil price at around $70 per barrel. We expect to produce around 104,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, considering no divestments. We now see the production costs above $17 per barrel of oil equivalent given the foreign exchange effect, the new construction tax and the expectation of persisting inflation pressure on our costs. E&P CapEx is expected to be around RON 5.8 billion. Alina will provide more details on this later. In Refining and Marketing, the Clean CCS operating result increased by 6% year-on-year to RON 836 million in the third quarter of 2025, reflecting higher refining indicator margin, partially offset by slightly lower refining utilization due to crude supply challenges and lower sales channel margins. Retail sales were 1% higher year-on-year. However, total refined product sales volumes decreased by 3% year-on-year, driven by a decline in commercial sales due to a lower availability of equity products given the lower refinery utilization. Recent market evolutions have improved the outlook related to refining margins. For the full year 2025, we now estimate the indicator refining margin to be above $9 per barrel. The guidance for refining utilization rate is maintained between 90% and 95%. For our total refined product sales, we see lower year-on-year sales, with retail fuel sales broadly flat, in line with demand evolution. In Gas and Power, we achieved improved performance in both business lines and especially in Power, supported by deregulation of the electricity market effective from July this year. The clean operating result was RON 106 million, more than double year-on-year. In the Gas business, we had good operational performance with sales volumes 14% higher year-on-year, compensating the slightly lower total realized margins affected by logistics costs and imported volumes. The Power business turned positive in the third quarter, following market deregulation starting July 2025. We achieved good results from improved margins on volumes from third parties and from the balancing and ancillary services market. The Brazi power plant generated 1.27 terawatt hour in the third quarter, covering 11% of Romania's generation mix. For the full year 2025, our total gas sales volumes are estimated to be slightly higher and the net electrical output to remain stable year-on-year. Please let me now hand over to Alina for more details on the financial results of the third quarter of 2025.

Thank you, Christina, and good afternoon also from my side. I will continue the presentation with Slide 11, starting with some highlights on the income statement and also presenting key development in our cash flow statement. Group Clean CCS operating results decreased by 16% year-on-year to RON 1.4 billion, with lower results in E&P and improved results in R&M and Gas and Power. The clean consolidation line was RON 18 million in the third quarter of 2025, mainly as a result of lower crude and fuel product stock volumes and margins, partly offset by higher volumes of natural gas. For the third quarter of 2025, we recorded inventory holding losses of RON 52 million compared with losses of RON 98 million in the third quarter of 2024, mainly as a result of the downward price evolution for crude oil in both periods. We also recorded net special charges of RON 170 million mainly related to impairment in Exploration and Production segment. For comparison, in the third quarter of 2024, we recorded net special charges of RON 12 million. The net financial result was positive RON 466 million, mainly due to interest income in relation to a positive outcome from litigation. As a result, in the third quarter of 2025, the net income attributable to stockholders increased by 4% year-on-year to RON 1.3 billion. The 0.5% tax on revenue introduced in 2024 amounted to around RON 55 million, mostly booked in the Refining and Marketing segment. As for the newly introduced 0.5% tax on construction, we booked in the third quarter around RON 17 million, mostly in the Exploration and Production division. With regards to our cash flow statement, in the third quarter of 2025, the cash generated from operating activities before net working capital movements were RON 2.8 billion. For comparison, the amount recorded in the third quarter of last year were RON 2.4 billion. Working capital changes led to cash outflow of RON 621 million in the third quarter of 2025 compared to RON 442 million in the third quarter of 2024. The cash outflow reflects mainly an increase in inventories due to higher volumes of imported crude oil in stock and natural gas in storage. Overall, the operating cash flow in the third quarter of 2025 amounted to RON 2.2 billion compared to RON 1.9 billion in the previous year. Our net payment for investing activities amounted to RON 1.9 billion, including a cash outflow for organic CapEx of RON 1.7 billion. The net cash position, excluding leases, decreased to RON 7.5 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2025 versus RON 10.9 billion at the end of September 2024. Our special dividend proposed last week by the General Meeting of Shareholders amounting to RON 1.2 billion will be paid starting December 3, 2025. Moving now to Slide 12. Organic CapEx for the first 9 months of 2025 at RON 5.1 billion was 28% higher year-on-year, with total CapEx of RON 5.2 billion, 9% higher year-on-year. 75% of this amount was spent in Exploration and Production, the biggest project in Neptun Deep. In addition, we finalized the drilling of 21 new wells and sidetracks and performed more than 410 workover jobs. In Refining and Marketing, investments increased by 16% to RON 1 billion, mainly for the Petrobrazi shutdown and ongoing projects related to the Transition to Low and Zero Carbon activities such as SAF/HVO unit and e-mobility. In Gas and Power, we invested RON 251 million, reflecting the progress made on the renewable power portfolio and the planned outage of Brazi power plant. For the full year 2025, assuming a predictable and competitive regulatory and fiscal environment, we plan organic CapEx of around RON 8 billion, more than 25% higher year-on-year and in line with our previous guidance. Additionally, we lowered the guidance provided in July for inorganic CapEx, which is now estimated at up to RON 0.2 billion, mainly in connection to the M&A transaction in the Gas and Power segment. Moving now to Slide 13. I'm pleased to announce the following shareholders' approval last week, OMV Petrom will distribute, starting December 3, a special dividend of RON 0.02 per share, amounting to a total of RON 1.24 million. And this marks the fourth consecutive year with special dividend for our shareholders, reflecting our [indiscernible] to delivering value. Including the previously approved paid dividend of RON 0.0444 per share, the total dividend for this year will be RON 0.0644 per share, resulting in an effective dividend yield of 9.1%, as well as a 62% payout ratio from 2024 operating cash flow, in line with our dividend guidance. Between 2016 and 2024, we have distributed progressive paid dividend each year, while the average dividend pool, including the special dividend, stands approximately 10% per year for the period. Let me move to outlook on Slide 13. We have presented already our expectation for the relevant indicators for 2025. As a result, this year, in the context of higher planned investments, we expect free cash flow before dividends to be broadly neutral. We are closely monitoring events on the global and local agenda and permanently assess their impact on our business. The assumptions and targets for the period 2026-2027 are currently under review as part of our annual mid-term planning process. We are confident that our strong financial position and integrated business model put us in a competitive position in this volatile environment. With this, we close our presentation, and thank you for your attention. We are now available for your questions.

Thank you, Alina. [Operator Instructions]

We will take our first question. And the question comes from the line of Ioana Andrei from UniCredit Bank Romania. Please go ahead.

I have a couple of questions. First, could you please give us a little more info on the litigation that led to a positive outcome in the financial result? Does it have anything to do with the litigation from the second quarter? And is the impact is only seen in the financial results? Second, in G&P, the guidance for the regulated market sales remains at 10 terawatts for the full year, leading to less than 2 terawatts for the fourth quarter. Or -- does anything change in this respect? And third, if you could please disclose more info on Neptun Deep Project, if anything changed regarding the expected output, the estimated OpEx, maybe? What production level is expected for 2027? Anything would be helpful at this point.

Thank you very much for your questions. I will take your third question, and then Alina will take your first and second one. So on Neptun Deep, yes, we are on track for first gas in 2027. At plateau, we will be at 70,000 barrels oil equivalent net to OMV Petrom. At this point in time, we are not disclosing yet, the start-up time in 2027, so we don't actually give a number yet, but ramp-up should happen relatively quickly. With regards to the progress of the project right now, we are drilling our wells in Pelican South. As a reminder, we have 4 wells in Pelican South and 6 wells in Domino. So we're currently drilling the 4 wells in Pelican South, and then we will move to Domino. We have good activity going on. Actually, we have finished the drilling of the microtunneling under the beach. For those of us who are in Romania, this takes the pipeline to about 1 kilometer offshore. We are also underway with the natural gas metering station here in Romania and Tuzla. And then with regards to the platform construction, the top side is being built in Indonesia, the jacket in Italy, and those are progressing well. So overall, the project stays on schedule and on cost and ready for startup in 2027. Alina, maybe question 1 and 3?

Hello also from my side. I start with the question related to the litigation. And indeed, it is connected to the -- what we have announced in Q2. So it's a late payment interest, it is clearly a one-off. It's related to an old litigation outcome in the favor of the company, came basically in two stages. First part in Q2, and the second part in Q3, further to clarification. This litigation is more than 10 years ago old. Legal process took very, very long. And yes, it was concluded in Q2, but further clarified in Q3. Financial impact, where the impacts were reflected in Q2 and in Q3. In Q3, we only have financial revenue effect. So we don't have any EBIT impact. The impact in financial result is high double-digit million euro, representing late interest payments related to this old litigation. I hope I covered all the questions related to this. And moving now to the Gas and Power. You're referring to the volumes sold to households and district heating for household regulated prices. We have announced now for Q3 2025, 2.6 terawatt hour, a similar level with Q2 of 2025. And if we look into Q4 2025, it will be 1.9 terawatt hour. So if we add up all the quarters, we are slightly above 10 terawatts for the year.

We will take our next question. The question comes from Daniela Mandru from Swiss Capital.

Turning back to the litigation. Please be kind and disclose the figures because they are significant. So -- and first of all -- and secondly, I do not understand why, yet I knew that. But I do not understand why in the second quarter, they were booked both in the E&P [ EBIT ] and in the financial result, and the third quarter only in the financial result. And firstly -- and the first question -- question mark related to this litigation is why you put them in the Clean CCS net income? After all, they are one-off.

Okay. Thank you, Dana. I think most of these questions, I think, were related to the litigation that Alina was talking about, yes? Okay. So Alina will take it.

Dana, happy to hear you. So what is -- why EBIT and financial result. So Q2, we have -- this litigation has a principal amount that was litigated. And being so old, it has an interest from the moment of the -- in starting the litigation until today. And then the principal is always reflected into EBIT and the interest into the financial result. If we look at why not special, we looked at the original treatment. The original treatment was not special when we booked originally, the expense, as I said, more than 10 years ago. Therefore, the reversal cannot be special as well. This is the general principal, we follow the original treatment. Now it was a lack of clarity around the interest. That's why the interest was booked partly in Q2, and then the second part in Q3. And that's why in Q3, we only have additional interest. We don't have principal anymore because that was clarified by the litigation itself as at the end of Q2. Thank you for the question.

Okay. But what is such a big -- big, how to say, big issue not to disclose the exact figures? So for example, just judging by my -- I don't know, because I don't know -- I don't have all the lines in the financial results. But to give you an example, just from my estimation in the third quarter, this financial gain, let's say, it's around RON 350 million. So it's big, only in the third quarter. In the second quarter, the interest income from this litigation is estimated by me by what, RON 170 million and RON 200 million in E&P. So that's why it is important to note these figures. I don't know why you don't disclose it by [ Drizla ], yes, because we know to adjust a little bit, the model?

Yes. I mean, we give an indication, and I can give you the indication, but we don't disclose exact figures. As you might understand, there is a lot of confidentiality around these topics. So we try to guide you as good as we can. So for Q3, we talk about high double-digit million euro. So I think you are not far away from the -- from it, of high double-digit million euro, all in financial result. This is Q3. If we look back in Q2, we talk again about high double-digit million euro in total. In EBIT, mid-double-digit million euro, and the rest in the financial result. And it should help for the modeling. Thank you for understanding, Dana.

Still, I have some questions related to not litigation or other things. For example, G&P. G&P is another segment, very hard to model. So if it's possible to have an outlook for the last quarter of the year. I don't know, the budget -- budget, but because I think it's pretty clear for you, where the result of the segment will end in the last quarter of the year.

Dana, maybe you can give us all your questions, if that's okay, rather than go question by question. That would be very helpful for us.

Good. Then the other question regard to the one-off. Should we expect other one-offs in the last quarter of the year? I have another question. Do you believe that the refining margin in the last quarter will remain about $10 a barrel? And regarding the G&P, maybe you can disclose, at least for the first 9 months of the year, what were the volumes sold in the Power business from third parties?

Okay. Thank you. I will take your question with regards to the refining margin and then hand back to Alina on that. So I mean, I think it's fair to say, obviously, we saw a strong refining margin in the third quarter. And that led to us increasing our full year number with regards to being above 9%. What we have said, so far, the fourth quarter has started strong. There's no doubt about that. We are anticipating that, as you would expect in the fourth quarter, there is an easing off of gasoline sales, so we should expect some softening in the fourth quarter. However, I think it's fair to say on the diesel side, there is more volatility that could maybe keep the prices -- keep the refining margin higher in the fourth quarter, particularly around the diesel side overall. So we do anticipate -- although we think it will come down in the fourth quarter, it will continue to stay strong, but we don't give an absolute amount. Thank you.

So when it looks to Gas and Power outlook for Q4, we appreciate high volatility to continue. However, considering also seasonality and Q4 being generally better, we expect this result in Q4 to be, first of all, positive. And you have seen, we already started to be positive from Q3, if we expect to continue in Q4. And also in the context of seasonality, we expect to be broadly higher than Q3. That would be what I can say about the outlook, Gas and Power result. Moving to any other one-off. Now every quarter, we evaluate triggers for impairment. And in the same way, we will do also for Q4. Also in Q4, we will have a revision of our MTP prices. If any impact, of course, we will announce accordingly. There is nothing that we know already with regards to that. And coming to your last question related to volumes of -- power sales volumes, we do not disclose this figure, but it's quite sizable.

It's sizable? Sorry, I didn't know that.

Yes. Yes, that's all I can say, Dana.

Thank you. We will take our next question. The question comes from the line of Oleg Galbur from ODDO BHF.

Yes. So I have a few questions. The first one, when you had announced the workforce reduction program, which I believe will also have an impact on OMV Petrom, so can you please provide some details with respect to the expected impact on operating costs? When are the measures expected to be implemented? And to what level of onetime costs would you expect, if any? My second question relates to your exploration activities in the Black Sea. Can you please share with us the exploration time line for the Bulgarian perimeter? How many exploration wells do you plan to drill? How much CapEx have you planned for these activities for next year, for example? And how long do you think it will take to assess the reserve potential of the block? And I have another question on CapEx. I noticed quite some difference in the first 9 months figures between the cash CapEx and the reported CapEx, yes. So it's RON 1.7 billion difference in favor of the cash CapEx. And I was wondering if we would assume RON 8.2 billion, as per your guidance, organic and inorganic CapEx for the full year, does it mean that the cash CapEx can be closer to RON 10 billion? That would be my third question. And I have one more question, but it's a longer one. So if you don't mind, I will ask it afterwards.

Okay. I will take your first and second question, and then Alina, I will leave you to cash and -- cash CapEx and CapEx, if that's okay. With regards to your question on workforce reductions, I mean, overall, I think we assured that we are looking at cost challenges, we are looking at the trends in regard to oil price. And we have, as we have talked about, programs in place with regards to drive the efficiency of our costs overall. Which is one component, but not the only component of that is looking at the size of our workforce. So we have been actually making some reductions. We have roughly an expectation of about 1,000 reduction in headcount, which we are more than halfway through that actually already. Probably with most of it being done this year, but some of it will be done actually in '26 and '27. Yes, we are continuing to do that. And we continue to work, and many of this is underway actually already. And I hope that answers your question. With regards to costs, Alina, on the -- might you? Maybe we come back to that -- we come back to it in a few minutes, then. Sorry. Sorry, Oleg, do you want to say something?

Yes. I wanted to ask, maybe you can put also some numbers on the table in terms of, I don't know, cost reduction expected or whatever it's possible to be announced at this stage?

Okay. Let's just give us 5 minutes on that, we'll come back to you. I'll take the exploration activities in Bulgaria, and I'm glad you're as excited about it as we are overall. So yes, we have now brought in a partner. Just as a reminder, we're operator at the Han Asparuh block, which is the neighboring block to the Neptun Deep block in the Bulgarian Black Sea waters. We have brought in a partner, NewMed. We have contracted a rig, Noble's Globetrotter I rig, to come in and drill 2 offshore exploration wells. The campaign is expected to start by the end of this year, the first well, and we have 2 wells to drill. So I hope that we will be finished probably by the middle of -- by -- at the very latest, the middle of the year. Overall, the expenditure for the 2 wells in total is about EUR 170 million. However, we are not paying for all of those because that's part of the planned carry of NewMed coming into the block overall. So with regards to timing of results, we'll need some time to analyze results and see. But as soon as we have something exciting to tell you, we will, of course, tell you. But I think we are very excited about this activity. And I think it fits in very well. I mean, let's talk about the bigger picture and just the overall regional gas and our position with regards to Black Sea, the improving geological prospectivity that we see in the Black Sea and how we believe we have positioned ourselves very strongly as that regional player with our position in Romania and now, our position in Bulgaria as well. So again, a strategic thing. Neptun gas in 2027, and we'll drill some exploration wells in Bulgaria. So glad to see your excitement, too. Thank you. Do you want to go to costs, [ Alina ]?

And we're talking about RON 170 million, right?

No, no, no, euro.

That's important. Okay. Okay.

These are deepwater wells. These are deepwater wells and deep deepwater wells. So yes, they're not RON. Euro.

Yes. Okay. Okay.

Hello, Oleg, from my side. So continuing on the question around cost. So we have a very comprehensive cost program in all divisions where we work on rebuilding our resilience overall. And total saving target is approximately RON 150 million to be achieved in 2027 versus 2024. And this includes people, includes services, includes simplification, automation, everything we can imagine, and we really spent a lot of time to really make sure that we are resilient for challenging times that might come ahead. So that was on this. And then CapEx, I propose that we take this separately. Generally, there is a difference because we are paying some advances. We have a CapEx recognition based on percentage of completion, but I could not reconcile the number that you referred to. So I see higher cash CapEx, but not by that much. But I propose that we take it separately with the IR team, and we will explain exactly, the difference. But advances are normal in the industry.

Understood. And then let me ask my last question, please. Now that Petrom's exposure to renewable energy projects has increased, I would like to kind of ask you to consider providing regular updates on these projects, which will help us reflect that, the future earnings contribution, right? And today, maybe I would like to ask for more color on the projects expected to be put in operation this and next year. Can you tell us, for example, what are the main challenges that you are facing with the development of these projects? Are those challenges related to the accessibility of grants and nonreimbursable funding? Or is it about getting all necessary approvals or issues related to the supply chain? Have any of these challenges caused delays in the implementation project of -- implementation of specific projects? Anything would be very helpful, just to get a bigger picture and a better sense of how this business is being implemented and developed.

So thanks, another exciting new area. So we are pleased. I think as we mentioned in the speech, we have 800 megawatts currently under construction. We have 70 actually in operation, so a smaller amount actually in operation overall. And the rest that we're working towards is actually still in the development phase overall. Our goal is to get to 2.5 gigawatts by the end of the decade overall. So in regards to sort of challenges, I would say, overall, generally, we are pleased with the costs that we are seeing in the tendering side. So overall, I think this is going in the right direction. Generally, most of the projects, we make sure that the access to the grid is a requirement for us to be in the project. So this is a derisker for us, Oleg, this is really important. But as always, permitting takes a bit longer. So I think that is a fair challenge for us. And obviously, we know our jurisdictions well. But I would say that's probably where we're seeing a little bit more of the delay overall. But certainly, we are moving through the portfolio overall. I'm looking at Alina, do you have a view on timing of -- I think Oleg wants to know when the money is coming in.

I'd point Oleg around the disclosure. We will look into it and to do more on that. Now it's -- I will add to the challenges mentioned by Christina. Also the new funding, it remains a challenge in terms of timing. Nothing else, but it requires a lot of patience and a lot of documentation and so on. When it comes to the timing, we do not expect something major next year. It's rather, '27, '28. And when we come closer, definitely, we will think how to provide better disclosure on that.

[Operator Instructions]

We will take our next question. The question comes from Tamas Pletser from Erste Bank.

I'm actually interested in -- you mentioned these two taxes, the construction tax and the oil and gas revenue tax. Can you tell us what is the amount you had an expense on these two taxes in 2025 and what it could be in 2026? And where exactly you booked these items in your P&L statement?

Hello, Tamas, from my side. So when it comes to tax on construction, we had approximately 77 -- RON 80 million for full year 2025. And this is in EBIT. This is even in production cost as a tax. That's a tax on construction, and this will continue to be in the future as well. Relatedly on the same level, I mean, slightly higher with the CapEx because it's a tax which is on the net book value of the asset, 0.5% of net book value of the assets. With regards to the second tax, 0.5% tax on turnover was the second one. The impact for Petrom and COPM will be up to RON 250 million for 2025. That's our estimation. Similarly, it's a tax that is reflected into the EBIT result. Biggest part goes into Refining and Marketing segment. And when it comes to this, it is planned to expire by end of this year. So this tax should not exist for 2026. Yes.

But can we expect that your results will be higher by this figure on the EBIT level per se in 2026 because this tax will not occur again?

0.5% tax. So clearly, of course, always, we should consider all the other effect in results like the volatility of prices and all that. But when it comes to this tax, it is planned to expire, so this will not exist next year, yes.

We will take our next question. The question comes from Irina Railean from Mosaiq.

Good afternoon, and thank you for your presentation and for taking my last remaining question regarding the gas market outlook beyond the deregulation next year. How do you see prices? Have you started to sign contracts with delivery in 2026? And generally, after all these network improvements that have been made in Romania, how correlated are Romanian gas prices with regional hubs or with European benchmarks?

Thank you, Irina.

That's it, Irina?

No. That's -- yes, that's all. That's all.

Thank you. Yes. So when it comes to gas market, indeed, we are looking forward to liberalization, the regulation of the gas market. Starting with Q2 next year, we expect that gas prices will be correlated with the general hub prices as well. What we see is that -- yes, Romanian -- I mean, whenever Romanian and Bulgarian markets are well supplied, Romanian markets are in line with [indiscernible] and Bulgarian market. So -- and while Romanian market is tight, prices tend to align with Hungarian prices, so to go above [ tax ]. So generally speaking, if we look in Q3 2025, we see the BRM was below [ tax ], like 2%. And Q2, similar. But if we look in Q1, we had a premium to BRM versus [ tax ] by 3%, so EUR 3 per megawatt. So it depends a lot on -- it's very volatile. It depends a lot on how the supply/demand goes. But generally speaking, it should be aligned overall. We are also, yes, looking quite forward to the -- how the things will be next year. And definitely, we'll come back with more news in Q4 with Q4 results.

Okay. And then maybe just a follow-up here. Regarding this LNG terminal in Greece that have been put into operation, how does this impact Romania and OMV Petrom imports? Can actually physically reimport gas, LNG gas from that point? Will that help balance the market?

In principle, I mean, we say yes. I mean, any supply is good overall. That's what we could say. But we will have to see also what is happening with all the latest news around Russian gas as well when we see the big picture. That's something that it's quite recent, and we are trying to understand as well. But overall, the more sources of supply, the better for the market. And this also shows the importance of natural gas that will come in 2027.

Since there are no more questions, I want to thank you again for taking part in our conference call. For further information, please do not hesitate to contact the Investor Relations team. Until our next call, we wish you all the best. Thank you.

That concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation, ladies and gentlemen. You may now disconnect.