Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras ($PETR4)

Good morning, and welcome to Petrobras' webcast for investors and analysts about our results for the first quarter of 2026. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. This event will be held in Portuguese and English. You can access the links to both languages on our Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions] We have with us today Magda de Regina Chambriard, CEO of Petrobras; and Angelica Laureano, Executive Logistics and Commercialization Director; Clarice Coppetti, Executive Director for Corporate Affairs; Fernando Melgarejo, Executive Director and Investor Relations, [indiscernible], representing the Engineering Technology and Innovation Directors; Ricardo Wagner, Governance and compliance Executive Director; Sylvia Anjos, Exploration and Production Director; and William França, Industrial Processes and Products and Temporary Energy Transition and Sustainability Director. To start us off, we will begin with Fernando Melgarejo -- excuse me for CEO, Magda, who will make her opening remarks. Go ahead, ma'am.

Thank you, Eduardo. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here with you to present our good results once again for Petrobras. I'd like to agree Fernando Melgarejo, our Financial Director; Clarice Coppetti, Corporate Affairs; Flavio Bretana, Representing Renata Engineering; Sylvia Anjos, exploration and production; and Angelica Laureano, Logistics and Trade; William França, Industrial Processes and Refinement; Eduardo De Nardi Ros, Investor Relations, who just started us off and all the investors joining us today for this earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. And the press as well as all the other executives who are here with us, who will support us in answering your questions. I'd like to greet all of them and congratulate all of our employees for the results that they delivered this quarter, which have made us so proud. So I'd like to welcome you once again. We are happy once more to present this quarter's results, which have been marked by operational records. Our oil and gas production has reached unprecedented levels, which is the result of the exceptional effort we've made and a strong partnership between all the different areas of Petrobras. This is what has allowed us to reach these results and overcome the several challenges we faced. I would like to highlight two of the main milestones we reached in oil exploration and production in the first quarter. Our average production was 2.58 million barrels of oil per day, of which 2.18 million barrels were directly produced from the pre-salt layer. We're very proud of this result because it was much higher than last year's average. However, this has already been surpassed in April. So it was a production of 2.58 million on average last year, which has already been surpassed as we reached a milestone of 2.73 million barrels per day in April, up 6% versus the average we had in the first quarter. As I said, every day, Petrobras has been overcoming and surpassing its own results. So when we see these results, it might seem like reaching these records has been simple. But this is due to a joint effort from our teams, like I mentioned before. It's a highly complex job with high levels of technology involving capacity expansion projects, managing our reservoir operational efficiency and using all the opportunities that we have to offer our investors from the government or from the private sector, increasingly more oil and gas and byproducts. At the end, we are providing energy in general with safety first. Since we're talking about surpassing our own results, I would like to remind you that Petrobras has been doing this also in capacity. When we remember that FPSO Almirante, Tamandare, the biggest one we had was an oil rig designed to produce 225,000 barrels of oil per day. It was the biggest in Brazil, and we were able to expand its capacity to reach 270,000 barrels a day. We have simply increased in this platform, our production by 45,000 barrels of oil per day. In the future, we have 3 more rigs which are exactly like this that will be delivered and are being built in Singapore. And we will have a total of 4 with this capacity expansion of 45,000 barrels of oil per day beyond their original design. So 45,000 x 4 is 180,000. So as a result of this capacity, expansion. And as we overcome the challenges we have in Petrobras, we will deliver 180,000 barrels a day rig in addition to what we already have. So this is all the result of the excellent work we have done in the company. But I would like to say that beyond the technical excellence of our teams in developing these opportunities, we are also counting on rising productivity from the pre-salt wells. So when we say that we're expanding by 45,000 barrels a day of oil at Almirante Tamandaré and that we have 3 other rigs that can do that. In these 4 rigs, we will add 180,000 barrels of oil a day, and that's because this can only happen due to the exceptional production capacity of the pre-salt layer that we have in our hands. Currently, we have the biggest deepwater oil field in the world, which is the Buzios field, a giant field that produces a little over 1 million barrels of oil per day, which will soon reach 1.5 million. And we might be able to deliver a field some time from now that will produce 2 million barrels of oil per day. Now we have 2 fields that have surpassed the milestone of 1 million barrels per day, which is Buzios and 2P. And going back to Buzios, now we have 8 platforms in operation in Buzios, on May 1, the P-79 platform, the eighth platform of the Buzios field started production 3 months before the scheduled start of operations. We expect to reach the capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day with only 3 to 4 wells. As a reminder, the original project was based on 4 wells and we will be able to reach the capacity of the platform with 3 or 4 wells, which is amazing, both in terms of our productivity and the productivity of the pre-salt area. But when it comes to project capacity, we also need to say that Petrobras is delivering more than what was initially designed. And we're looking at this platform of 180,000 barrels per day. I'm telling the team that, well, now you've spoiled us. Now we need 200,000 barrels per day. And the teams are working on that and making it possible. As I said, we are overcoming challenges every day. Recently, we also took a very important step for the production of oil and gas in the Northeast of Brazil. due to the increased prices in the international oil market, we decided to expedite the possibility to fund the Sergipe deepwater project. You probably remember that in our group of projects with guaranteed funding, one of the Sergipe platforms had undergone a value increase in terms of crude oil. So we can guarantee the funding of 2 of these platforms. So Sergipe has now 2 projects approved that will have the capacity so far to produce 240,000 barrels of oil per day and to process 22 million cubic meters of gas per day. When it comes to natural gas, Petrobras has been consistently investing to expand the capacity to produce natural gas and also to expand its capacity to deliver energy coming from thermal power plants. So we're going to have a gas pipeline that will be able to produce in this deepwater project to deliver 18 million cubic meters of gas in addition to what had been initially planned, which corresponds to half of our supply of natural gas for the first quarter of 2026. And we're also proud to say that we have contracted all of our thermal power plants that had gone out of contract in the last auction that was promoted in Brazil. And with that, with the delivery of another 9 thermal power plant contracts, we're being able to add to Petrobras' annual revenue another BRL 4.5 billion per year. When it comes to refining, the team spirit is the same. And the goal to surpass our challenges is equally the same. We're permanently in search of excellence. and in search of more and better results. In March, we reached yet another record in the production of S10 diesel with a low or lower sulfur content. We are producing 512,000 barrels per day for the S10 diesel, a result that reflects the investments we've been making to modernize our refineries and to increase the supply of greater added value byproducts. Our S10 diesel is our highest added value product as a reminder. Last year, we started to operate this new hydro treatment unit at [indiscernible], our refinery, and we completed the modernization of RVAP which shows that these investments are already creating results in terms of a higher S10 diesel production. In terms of our refining park, the utilization factor reached 97.4%, which recently due to the war between the U.S. and Iran has now surpassed 100%. As I said, Petrobras does not like limitations. Our goal is to surpass limitations each and every day. And going back to the 97.4% figure, it is the highest level of utilization since 2014, since December 2014 in total safety, a level that we're very proud to have reached, but something that we've already left behind in April and in May. in addition to the diesel in terms of processing capacity, we've expanded it while keeping the yield profile for diesel and gasoline, also for aviation kerosene. This increased processing capacity is very important in a scenario of higher prices of oil byproducts, which has been intensified by the recent conflicts in the Middle East, which bring about restrictions to the global supply of products and a higher pressure on our prices. It's also important to say that Petrobras constantly asked about price volatility and how we as a company, how we see the increase in international prices, whether we're talking about crude oil or byproducts. We're proud to say that we're having excellent results in terms of the sales of crude oil to international markets. And we've also been working alongside the Brazilian government in terms of providing funding to sales in the national territory of our byproducts in the domestic market. Just to give you an idea, in March, up until mid-April, our diesel, which reached a BRL 2 per liter of increase for Brazilian consumers was funded, which represented an increase in diesel prices of over 46%. These results have not yet been fully seen in the results of the first quarter, but they will appear in the results of the second quarter. We're also working on the issue of gasoline. And very soon, you're going to hear good news concerning our gasoline. Our efforts towards increasing the production of byproducts for the Brazilian market in a profitable manner has been contributing to mitigate the effects of this global context in Brazil, strengthening the energy security of Brazil and preserving the expected returns for the company. The increase in the processing of oil and in the diesel supply is one of the pillars of our refining strategy. We are committed to offering high-quality products and to being the best alternative for our customers. When we look at the outcome of this war, we see a big opportunity in our business plan for 2026 to 2030, we expect to supply 85% of the Brazilian demand for diesel with the results achieved by the company and due to the confidence of the Brazilian market in Petrobras we are looking at an opportunity that will probably come with our next business plan, which is to achieve self-sufficiency in the diesel supply for Brazil. What I'm saying is that we're now analyzing projects that will have the capacity not only to produce 85% of the entire demand for diesel in Brazil up until 2030. But once again, to surpass these milestones, this is something that's on our radar every day with our possibility to surpass milestones and challenges. And we will likely be able to deliver a refining plant that will be able to supply 100% of the Brazilian demand for diesel. And when we talk about diesel, of course, gasoline always comes in the wake of diesel. So we're talking about supplying 100% of the demand for diesel and gasoline in Brazil. We've increased our processing level. We are committed to these milestones, but even more importantly, we're committed to offering high-quality products and to being the best alternative for our customers. We keep on monitoring the international scenario, the impacts of volatility on the oil and gas market and our commercial strategy remains the same. Our governance remains the same. we attempt to compete in a more efficient manner, taking into account our market share, the optimization of our refining assets and the profitability of our company in an ever sustainable manner. And since we do not transfer to Brazilian consumers, the abrupt price changes. And since we can also rely on the support of the federal government in terms of funding these products so that the price increases due to the war do not impact the Brazilian market, we've been very open to this partnership with the federal government. After all, the federal government is keen on maintaining Petrobras' capacity to remain stable at difficult times and also to keep offering products that are accessible to the Brazilian consumers. This is our market. We take good care of it. We make money from it. The Brazilian government has been acknowledging our role in delivering to the Brazilian market accessible products and this partnership between Petrobras and the Brazilian government has been, I can tell you, very fruitful for Petrobras and for Brazilian society. These were my operational highlights because they're the foundation of our financial results, especially in a context of high Brent prices. one where we look forward into the future, and we see every possibility to increase our production and also to increase the capture of the returns of this market to Petrobras. We are now in the midst of a virtual cycle. Our investments are being converted into more production and higher added value products available on the market as well as higher revenue for the company. More revenue for the company, more taxes for society in addition to increasingly more profitable projects in the company's portfolio. This cycle results in the creation of more job positions and a greater economic development for Brazilians as well as a wider and deeper presence of Petrobras abroad. We've been reiterating our interest in producing oil for international customers. The Atlantic margin of Africa has been one of our goals in addition to possibilities in other countries as well. You probably heard that a while ago, we were in Mexico. We now have a delegation going to Mexico soon to analyze new business opportunities. And we remain persistent in our search for increasingly better results for the company and for expanding our business portfolio, always attempting to -- while maintaining our focus on return and tax discipline. And to give you details about the excellent operational performance that was reflected in the financial results for the first quarter of 2026. I'd like to give the floor to our Financial Officer, Fernando Melgarejo. I'd like to thank you for your presence and remind you what we've been saying. If you place your bets against Petrobras, you're going to lose money. We're very proud to say that.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us, and good morning to all here in this room. And we're going to present our results for the first quarter of 2026. We're very pleased with our operational performance as well as our strategic position. These are strong points that are highlights for this company's management. We're going to start on Slide 3, talking about production. Last year, we discussed CapEx frequently on our webcast, always emphasizing our focus on executing the business plan and delivering on projects often ahead of schedule. That goes for deliveries and for production. So the chart on the left-hand side shows the results of this strategy, a rising production curve. In the first quarter of 2026, we produced 2.58 million barrels of oil per day. And in April, we significantly produced 2.73 million barrels of oil per day, a new monthly record for Petrobras. And this all is the result of our focus and commitment. If we compare the first column on the left, which represents 2024, where we produced 2.152 million of barrels per day with April 2026. This is a 30% growth, which is truly significant. 3 factors have sustained this production growth, more projects to increase capacity such as new oil rigs, increased operational efficiency, which has strengthened the stability of our operations and in efficient reservoir management. This shows that we are more efficient in managing our reservoirs better. Here on this slide, we have some concrete examples of this strategy. In the Buzios field platforms, P78 and P79 have come online, both have a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day. Let's continue on Slide 4. Petrobras invested $5 billion in the first quarter, with nearly 90% going to E&P projects. Our CapEx is focused on high return projects. On the right-hand side, you can see the evolution of investments in wells, subsea activities, oil rig construction and others. We increased our investments into wells by 11%, 75% in subsea activities and in rigs. All of these investments have been focused on production. We also increased the number of physical deliveries. We recently delivered 78 and 79 with their related investments already completed and our focus is now on the well interconnection campaign and the construction of P-80, 82 and 83. These 3 rigs will have a capacity of 225,000 barrels per day each. And all of them, it's important to highlight, are owned by us and are no longer chartered as was our previous strategic model before Alexandre de Gusmão and Almirante Tamandaré. On Slide 5, we can see that in the first quarter, we increased both our oil production and our fuel production. Our refineries produced 1.8 million barrels of byproducts per day. with S10 diesel production hitting a record high of 512,000 barrels per day in March. Another highlight is our utilization factor, which went up by 6 percentage points in the quarter and in March exceeded 97%, the highest level since 2014. And we did this safely and profitably with a 68% yield of diesel, gasoline and QAV. As a result, we have more fuel for the Brazilian market with fewer imports. I'd like to emphasize the importance of this increase in processing capacity in the current scenario of global supply constraints and price pressures, producing more refined products helps mitigate the effects of geopolitical conflicts on the domestic market. Petrobras is demonstrating once again that it is fundamental to the country's energy security. We are self-sufficient in gasoline. And as we heard before, in the future, we will also be self-sufficient in diesel. It's a matter of time. Let's move on to Slide 6. Now we highlight the key figures for our financial results. We achieved an EBITDA excluding onetime items of $11.7 billion, driven mainly by higher production volumes. Our net income, excluding onetime items, reached USD 4.5 billion, and our operating cash flow stood at $8.4 billion in the first quarter. There are 2 important points here. First, the rise in Brent prices is not reflected in the first quarter results because the price surge began in March and exports recognize this month are mostly priced in February when they are traded and shipped from Brazil to their destinations. So all the prices we got in March or most of them was still priced before these higher oil prices. And we will start seeing this increase in the second quarter of 2026. Furthermore, the record production levels had virtually no impact on earnings because we had a backlog of exports amounting to around 80,000 barrels per day, which is another important point that will sustain our results for the second quarter. This inventory will be monetized at a higher price than it would have been in the first quarter. Let's continue on Slide 7. Looking now at gross debt. We remain within the limit set out in our business plan below USD 75 billion. We closed the quarter with $71.2 billion in gross debt, a slight increase, but the trend is downward. I reiterate our expectation of convergence to $67 billion in 2026 and $65 billion by the end of the plan. It may be even smaller -- lower than that. As stated in our business plan, our priority is using cash to invest in the profitable projects in our plan that were left out of the approved budget due to a scenario that was very different from the current one and our responsibility to the company's capital discipline. When we made this plan, it was a different moment and a different scenario. But we laid out some flexibility on this plan, which allowed us to include projects or postpone them. What we call base and target CapEx. We have to emphasize that over 60% of the total debt comes from leases that under accounting standards must be recognized as debt. These amounts are associated with assets that generate production and consequently, revenue for the company. We have an efficient and flexible capital structure even in more challenging scenarios, and we remain committed to capital discipline and the efficient allocation of resources. So we will continue to invest to generate value, always maintaining our debt level. And we maintain a robust liquidity position. We closed the first quarter of the year with $9.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Our minimum cash is BRL 6 billion. On Slide 8, we show the status of some indicators in relation to our targets for the 2026, 2030 plan. Oil production reached 2.6 million barrels per day in the first quarter, therefore, within the upper range of the target for the year. We highlight the continued ramp-up of the new production systems, P78 and P79 in addition to complementary projects. Efficiency in reservoir management and improvements in asset integrity and management were also key to our excellent operational performance. We're working to deliver production above the midpoint of the target and the first quarter 2026 results indicate that we are on the right track. This is not a promise, but rather a pursuit of greater operational efficiency. We're maintaining our guidance while making every effort to produce even more. We invested BRL 4.5 billion in the quarter out of a total of BRL 16.9 billion projected for 2026. We continue to strictly adhere to capital discipline, prioritizing projects that create value and accelerating deliveries whenever possible. Our commitment is delivering value. Operating expenses totaled BRL 5.6 billion for the quarter. It's worth noting that the exchange rates, transportation costs and increased production all impact this metric. For the year, we are maintaining our forecast of BRL 20.2 billion. As for lease cash flow, BRL 2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 compared to BRL 10 billion for the year is also in line with expectations. It is under control from our perspective. In summary, our projections remain unchanged, even though we are working to accelerate projects and exceed our production targets. We continue on Slide 9. Here, we present our contribution through tax payments. It was BRL 72.4 billion total for the first quarter, of which BRL 27.3 billion were paid in federal taxes, BRL 29 billion to the states, BRL 700 million to municipality and nearly $15 billion in government royalties. On this last slide , we have a few final remarks. Oil prices have risen, but we remain committed to the same goals set out in our business plan, a focus on capital discipline and responsible investment execution. We also remain focused on increasing our production through operational efficiency and the proper management of all our assets. Last but not least, our commitment to governance, an essential pillar for value creation in the company. Thank you once again, and I will be available along with the other directors to answer any questions you may have. I'll now hand it over to Eduardo, who will begin the Q&A.

Thank you, Fernando. Thank you, Magda. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] The first question will be asked by Leonardo Marcondes from Bank of America.

would like to hear your perspective on the downstream market. What can you tell us about the market and prices in a broader sense? Can you tell us about what the supply dynamics are like in Brazil right now. And if you can tell us if there's any risk of shortages and considering the recent price increases, how do you assess the need for adjustments in diesel and gasoline prices.

Thank you. Thank you, Marcondes. I'll start answering your question, and then I'll hand it over to Angelica and William. So we are keeping track of prices. And we also know that when things are set in the press, oil goes up, and then we hear something else in the press, and it goes even higher. So sometimes you see a difference of $15 per barrel within a single day. Our governance and our price policies is not passing this volatility on, so we are reducing the anxiety that we see in international prices. When we set prices for Brazilian consumers, even though we're following the market in general, and we have a tendency to follow international prices. So this is what we've done. In March, the war broke out on February 28. So in March, exactly on the 12 we had a subvention from the federal government about diesel prices. So within 12 days of the war, we got a $0.70 subvention. After 15 days, we also got another one with an additional $0.80. So the domestic market currently has a subvention of [ $1.50 ] and there's also one for imports, which has been approved and is being applied retroactively. So when it comes to diesel prices, we are keeping track of it accompanying it, and we understand that we are 100% compliant to our pricing policy as international prices change. Gasoline is a little bit more complicated because not only does it -- not only is it affected, but it competes with Brazilian ethanol. So we're looking at gasoline prices internationally hiking up. But at the same time, we know that here in Brazil, we have ethanol, which competes with gasoline and in Brazil, we also have a flex fuel fleet. Most passenger vehicles in Brazil allow drivers to decide between gasoline and ethanol in every station, so they can choose between gasoline or ethanol, whatever has the lowest price. As gas prices go up, and you heard me saying about a potential price increase for gasoline. We are always keeping track of that in comparison to ethanol prices in the Brazilian market. About 15 days ago, ethanol prices were going down significantly in the Brazilian market. It is a competitor for us. So we are always keeping track of our market share and how the international market is changing as well as the ethanol market in Brazil. There will be a gas price increase, but we have to be sure that this market is still partly ours. We also had an increase in QAV prices. As you know, QAV is a product that follows parametric formulas for its prices with signed contracts. So airlines and distribution companies had trouble with QAV. So we had to extend deadlines and the Financial Director will explain it to you better. But we diluted prices for payment in the second half of the year. It's as if we were finding a higher QAV prices passing this guaranteeing that this will passed on, but with an extension financed by Petrobras. We recently had an increase in natural gas prices. And again, this is compliant to our current contracts and we're looking at figures for August to see if this increase will also require something from us. We might need to support these price increases with extended payment dates. But as I'm seeing here, we are always analyzing how prices are changing in the international market. And our policy is not to pass this volatility to consumers. The most important thing is that we are maintaining the company's market share in the Brazilian market. We understand that this is our market, and we're not willing to let go with it. Okay. Angelica will now talk about the price evolution and Front will also tell you how we are going to increase the production of byproducts.

Well, it's also important to say that there is no indication of any risk of structural shortage on the market because in Brazil, we have multiple agents and A&P as a regulatory coordinator, and they've been constantly monitoring the volumes available on the market. Petrobras has been contributing with our production and also within the safety parameters. We've been monitoring the market constantly in order to define the prices of our products.

Thank you, Leonardo, thank you for your question. Concerning refineries. We've entered the quarter at [indiscernible]. We're operating at 102%, 103%. Since yesterday, we've been at 103%. And concerning self-sufficiency, since last year, we added 70 new S10 diesel barrels with replants new diesel HDT and the revamp of the Paraiba Valley refinery. This year, we started to expand Train 1 at [ Green Ash ]. We were operating at 85%. Now we're at [ 140% ] due to huge efforts by President, Magda. And this increase has been achieved within the regulatory safety limits. We are now at 140,000 barrels. And [indiscernible] producers more than 100,000 worth of diesel, an additional 30,000. Our plants are expecting to achieve another 30,000 barrels of diesel and we are quite advanced in terms of our plans, '27 '31 to reach 500 in terms of barrels of diesel. This is our goal, and this is also a challenge at Petrobras.

Thank you, President, Magda, William, Angelica. [Operator Instructions] Rodrigo Almeida from BTG, you have the floor.

Thank you, Eduardo and good afternoon, Magda, Fernando, everyone. I'd like to keep on discussing the fuels, and I'd like to dive into more details about the funding. So in terms of working capital, this is possibly what stands out the most looking from an outside perspective. The first quarter had a slight effect due to the funding or subsidies. So I'd like to further understand from you first about the discussions with the government concerning the sharing of invoices and information with A&P so that they can start making payments and also the current scenario in terms of internal projections concerning the receipts time line at about diesel and all of the other products such as aviation, kerosene and natural gas what's the impact of these products in terms of working capital for the company, given that these volumes tend to grow very quickly. Those are my questions.

thank you, Rodrigo, I'm going to ask directors Fernando and Angelica to answer your question.

Rodrigo, starting with the subsidies in March, it's -- they're in accounts receivable. They've been accounted for in our $740 million results. Concerning -- now it's only a matter of procedures and we expect to get paid within this quarter. As for the other ones, there is still an ongoing operational workflow that needs to be completed before we get paid. And the impacts are reflected in the increased operational cash flow of the company and the free cash flow that we'll be seeing in the next few days, much closer to the current market prices not paid by the end customers. The end customers are being protected as a result of the efforts made by the government. And part of these revenues come from the end consumers and part of them come from the government. Therefore, the prices will be within our expectations in a few days. Diesel is still being operationalized. We signed also subsidy in April, we signed a declaration of adhesion to the subsidy program and that will also have a positive impact in terms of working capital and cash flow for the company actually, it's not natural gas. It's a liquid gas. And Petrobras is able to receive subsidies, both for imported and domestically produced diesel.

Next question comes from Vicente Falanga from Bradesco.

it's about the visit of the committee to Mexico as President Magda mentioned, that's also related to Braskem. Now that Petrobras has a new shareholders agreement and probably a few things have already been discussed and decided, my question is, what can Petrobras do to strengthen Braskem in terms of competitiveness, capital structure. I read an article about the committee and the press and one of the items in the agenda that was the polyethylene plant in Mexico and who's on the risk of losing control and et cetera. So I mean, what can Petrobras do to contribute to petrochemicals and to invest in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks for your question, Vicente. But our trip to Mexico involved multiple goals. One of them was to talk to the President of Mexico about the opportunity of entering a partnership with [ Pemex ] to explore the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico. If you look at the Gulf of Mexico that's been split into 2 parts, you see that the North American part of it is highly developed, and the Mexican portion with very little development especially in the ultra-deepwater environment, which is our specialization at Petrobras. So the strip to Mexico had the goal of opening up new markets, which is what we're doing, like I said, in Africa, we're also doing it in Mexico, and we'll also likely do it in Venezuela. So this is our goal to have a future incorporations of oil and gas reserves. And in that regard, we think that the Mexican area of the Gulf of Mexico cannot be forgotten. Partnership with Pemex would be beneficial in order for us to assess new possibilities to operate and do new explorations in these areas. The partnership with PEMEX is also positive in terms of expanding synergies to use oil and gas that may start to be produced as the result of a partnership between Petrobras and Pemex. The Mexican Gulf of Mexico has mature fields. It's not restricted to exploration opportunities alone. It also offers opportunities for us to make partnerships in the operation of mature fields. This is also another analysis that we're going to undertake alongside PEMEX. And if that's possible, what are we going to do with this oil? Well, we are thinking about refining it in Mexico itself. So if it's being produced in Mexico, and being refined in Mexico. And if we can use the gas surplus in Mexico, that's the best case scenario. And if we're able to do that to the benefit of the synergies that are possible between exploration, production and refining and the production of gas and gas processing in Mexico that will be the icing on the cake of all of our efforts. What we have so far in Mexico are the best intentions. They have not yet become a reality though. But since you asked the reason for a trip. Well, that was the reason those were the subjects that we discussed, the possibility to do exploration and production in Mexico and the possibility to increase production in mature fields in Mexico and possibly also using gas surplus and also a synergy with petrochemicals, which should also happen in Brazil. That's what we are working for in Brazil. And as a reminder, we have 46% to 47% of the shares with the right to vote at Braskem, which is the sixth largest petrochemical plant in the world. And as Petrobras, we are totally interested in being more present at Braskem and to make the most out of all synergies resulting from our manufacturing plants, whether in Brazil or abroad. And the synergies -- given that the synergies that are possible to which [indiscernible] achieved. We have a scheduled meeting that will occur on the 13th, group in charge of refining will go to Mexico and another group in charge of exploration and production will be arriving in Mexico on the 13th to keep having this conversation.

William is telling me that you asked about [ ADESA? ] And if we're going to lose it, Well, I can tell you that our intention is not to lose anything. We just want to win and conquer new things. Our development phase is over. And now as I used to say, we no longer like to sell. We only like buying and increasing our shares. Thank you, Mona. Thank you for your answer. Thank you for your question, Vicente. Now on to the next question from Gabriel Barra from Citi. Over to you, Gabriel.

I'll try to cover something that we didn't touch upon about CapEx and production. I think the week before last, I don't know if I'm wrong, but there was an event to talk about Buzios and we had the opportunity to talk about increased production in Buzios, not only in Buzios, but for the company as a whole. And now the oil scenario is much stronger than we had imagined during the company's last investment plan. And to paraphrase a few things that were touched upon during this conference call. The company has been focusing on increasing production regionally. So my question is, this plan that we're currently following that was designed last year. How much of it can be modified just started in Buzios, the will begin next year. So what can we do in terms of increasing CapEx given this new oil scenario. Does anything change or it does not change. So my question to try to summarize it is basically related to CapEx. What we should think about in terms of CapEx and if there should be an upside in terms of the numbers we've been working with given the new oil scenario.

Thanks, Gabriel. I'm going to ask Fernando to answer your question.

Thanks for your question, Gabriel. Well, our focus, like we said in our strategic planning is the same. We still see a very volatile Brent price we do believe that these prices will increase between now and the end of the year. And this will bring about additional revenues in the short term. The decision to include new investments do not involve only a short-term perspective rather, it's a long-term and it involves identifying the resilience of the assets. Nothing has changed in terms of governance. It still has to undergo the technical assessments of strategic committees, the Executive Board and depending on how much we're investing, some of them need to be submitted to the administrative council of the company. We've just included [ CAP ] with 22,000 million cubic meters. That's the capacity that we're talking about. They were not on our budget. And now we have included them on our budget. They were outside of our base CapEx. So we are evolving in that regard. There are -- I mean, there could be others that have not yet been analyzed. And of course, it's also a matter of opportunity. If we see that there is anything that we can invest in to increase the company's value, we'll do that, of course, always focusing on the long term and not the short term. The cash surplus, certainly, our main goal is to focus on investments and to anticipate it, we created a certain flexibility on our plan, stating that we could postpone investments, but that was based on the old scenario. And now we -- if there are opportunities, we will bring things forward in terms of our 2030 plan.

Well, just to add to what he said. We are in the waiting list for Buzios 12 [indiscernible], which is something spectacular that can be done much more easily. And yes, it's already on our plan. So the plan gives us the flexibility of having assets and absolutely irrelevant projects. So yes, so it's all about drive. This is our 2030 strategic plan. Thank you, Fernando. The next question will be asked by Tasso Vasconcellos from UBS.

My question is a follow-up question to the last one, Fernando. Obviously, the company started the year with a certain plan. Maybe they were budgeting at around $60 per barrel, but now it's a much more positive scenario in terms of cash generation. I know how difficult it is to predict oil prices, but at the same time, the company has its own internal plan with a course correction when necessary. You've talked about not passing on the price volatility to the consumer. You yourself talked about investing or resuming investments in the Sergipe Alagoas project. So if you can tell us a little bit more about how much course correction you've been talking about, how frequently does the company talk about this or actually do it when necessary. And what oil scenarios have you been working with for the second half of the year.

Thank you, Tasso. I'll hand it over to Fernando, who will answer.

Thank you for your question, Tasso. I'll start with the end part of your question. The company has been getting prepared to work with a Brent balance of $59. So this is what we foresee in the company regardless of our future Brent prices. We stated this in our strategic plan. I ran the company last year at around $81 for a balanced Brent. And we expect it to reduce until the end of 2030 to around [ $48 or $50 ] regardless of what happens. And after that, we have prices. What if prices are higher? Our priority is to continue to invest, we can postpone or advance these investments. But this is all being analyzed within the company and our technical analysis, and we also are always looking at the long term, never the short term. This assumption will facilitate some things, but this is not the decision driver if we have to hedge the project. The second point is that we are directing additional resources that we might have this year to reduce our debt to converge towards [ 65 billion ] as quick as we can or even below it. And if we find any excess cash where we don't have any profitable projects for if we don't have any opportunities that might be an alternative for investments, then our path will always be the same that we've always said. We don't want to work with excess cash. our minimum cash is $6 billion We're running the company with $8 billion, $9 billion -- between $8 billion and $10 billion. And if we find an excess that will not be missed in the future, in any case, our projects are always aiming at the next 20 to 30 years. So if we don't find any then we would consider extraordinary dividends, but we don't believe there's any possibility for that this year.

Thank you, Fernando. Thank you, Tasso. The next question will be asked by Lilyanna Yang from HSBC.

I would like to get a little bit more color about your appetite for Mexico and Venezuela. And if you can compare this with the equatorial margin. I'd just like to get an understanding if, for example, Venezuela and Mexico would be $1 billion or $5 billion in the next 2 years or the next 5 years.

Thank you, Lilyanna. But I think you're in a bit of a hurry -- like Sylvia said, short while ago, we are about 1,000 meters from our goal in the equatorial margin. So that is our main goal. The first goal in our explorations. Beyond that, we also have efforts, or let me say it this way. We have much more concrete ongoing efforts on the Atlantic margin of Africa, for example. So we're talking about Cote d'Ivoire, Namibia. We're talking about South Africa, maybe also Ghana, we have projects in Colombia, Peru. So we are focusing on South America and Africa. Along with that, we also discuss other opportunities. Notice that 10 years ago, we talked about the Golden Triangle which was Africa, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico is relatively unexplored. So naturally, we would look at it and think what might happen there. But so far, all we've done is a visit the Mexican President Sea. So there's still a long road ahead before we can quantify any kinds of investments in the Gulf of Mexico. I hope I can do it. I hope that Petrobras really has a good opportunity to work in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico, but this is still a wish list item. And Venezuela is a similar case. Venezuela has relevant resources found. They are our neighbor. So naturally, we would want to consider Venezuela. But right now, we still have it just as a wish list item. So I still can't look at Venezuela, or Mexico to see any investment value because this is still an initial discussion.

Thank you. We will now receive a question from Regis Cardoso from XP.

Thank you to the Petrobras team. If I can ask a specific question about Braskem. I think this is an important milestone from the recent shareholders' agreement being signed. And as the company's governance changed, Petrobras will have a much more active role over Braskem. And this might be a crucial moment in which Braskem was moving towards a debt restructuring and at the same time, petrochemical spreads improved significantly since March. So my question is, what changes with this new role for Petrobras? Does Braskem still require debt restructuring? Is there really a greater spread level? I'd just like to hear your take on these changes. hedges. What we have now is a willingness at Petrobras to work strongly on Braskem. If you look at the last 10 years, Petrobras was basically absent from Braskem. Our understanding is that this was not the right way. Braskem and Petrobras have very relevant synergies especially with our refinement plants and the Brazilian gas consumption. And the Petrobras' participation in Braskem is so relevant that it cannot be absent from this work, and we have to be strong like Petrobras usually is. So this is what we're saying. We want to be active participants in the Braskem operation. because if anyone understands about cracking here or this kind of work, it's us. So of course, Petrobras can have this refinery infrastructure this presence in Brazilian refinement and gas production and the share of the gas and byproducts market in Brazil and let all of these discussions run at Braskem without Petrobras being included as a relevant partner. So I think that's what changed. It was just the company's willingness to work with Braskem in a stronger way. And I'll let William and Angelica add to my answer.

Just adding to that answer, it's true since we joined the company, we had a mission of facing the issues of Braskem. -- first, so we have the right political power vis-a-vis the economic capital that Petrobras have there. It took longer than we wanted. We had to experiment with several designs until we got to the current one with IG4 representing banks that hold shares. Since then, we created a shareholders' agreement reflecting our intention, and we believe that, that's the best for the company. We're going to focus on the operational issues. As we heard, we know their operation. We know the situation in the petrochemical industry. We're very connected, and we have a lot of synergy between them and oil and gas. So that's what we did. Right now, the company is in a transition. And after signing the agreement without the closing, we are already taking greater action, not fully as we have set out in the shareholders' agreement, but we've advanced significantly. As soon as the closing happens, this should take place. This is expected for the next 30 to 90 days. So this G4 will also be more active in the company. And all of the decisions will be made there with their structure during the transitional period, we're also going to assess and understand the best alternatives we have. And whenever we have a material fact from the company to Petrobras, we will assess it. I can say that we do not intend to consolidate debt. We will continue to be a minority in the company. And all the decisions made within Petrobras will happen according to the best practices for what will be best for our shareholders, always following this concept of investing investments creating value for shareholders. Going into details about this management. We got an important position with G4. So we're working in a joint manner, assessing their operations, their logistics, their trade, the synergies that we have with our refineries. This is being assessed in work groups with the new G4 -- this is expected for the next 30 to 60 days. But we are already doing this together. That's very important because we have several issues that need to be discussed immediately because of the spread, which is very good with the war and that will tend to be extended. The Middle East represents 25% of global petrochemical supplies. We know that they had issues because of the war. -- which is providing us with a better spread. So this is a part of our discussion. We're speaking to Braskem about the working capital so that they can have the right working capital levels to really capture and monetize this excellent spread that will be longer. So we're doing this together and our expectations are very positive. As Magda and Fernando said about Braskem. And as a reminder, highlighting what Fernando said, we will continue to have a stake of 40%, 46%. We don't want to consolidate the debt. We want to be partners with Braskem, and that's how it will be. And we're not going to let go of our percentage in Mexico.

Thank you. We will now hear a question from Rodolfo De Angele from JPMorgan.

My question is about the diesel and refinement market. We can see that Petrobras is doing its part, trying to supply the most it can to the market with refinery utilization reaching record levels. So what do you think will happen in the future? And what can you tell us about other levers to help supply the market with sporadic imports?

Rodolfo, this is Angelica. So we frequently assess our plans and how we're going to supply the market. We're always looking at this from an economic perspective, but also from a physical perspective, how we're doing, how much we're producing. Right now, we have been producing well. This is not the highest seasonal moment for diesel. But right now, we've produced enough volume to comply with our commitments. We believe that probably in the second half of the year, we will need to import diesel. In June already, but in the second half of the year, without a doubt, will require diesel imports since that's usually when harvests happen and that has a higher demand. We had 2 stops. The war helped us with Brent, and it got us at a very favorable moment because we don't have a lot of programmed downtime. So that allowed us to raise the food above 100. We're going to have one stoppage in Quebatã and one in Parana at the end of the year. So this will be in the middle of the second half of the year, and that also helped us to produce more. We're producing an additional 100,000 barrels of diesel with this increase in the utilization factor and the expansion of Renest. This is allowing us to reduce and eliminate any need for imports, which is very good. Just adding to that, there is no diesel shortage in the market, even in the foreign market. If we need to import, we will do that without any trouble. It's important to mention one thing. Renest had a significant participation in the increased load. We're going from 75,000 to 115,000 after the first engineering assessment. Magda went to CPRH, the Environmental Agency in Pernambuco, ANP. She spoke to the governor. We're always being supported by our refinery engineers. and our engineering directors. So we were able to raise the load to 140,000, and we're testing for 150,000 barrels a day. This was a refinery that was projected for 115,000 and an additional 5,000. We are currently at 150,000 in each train. So we're going from 230,000 to 300,000. So this is a part of our self-sufficiency project for 2030.

Also add to your response, it's also important to say that the BRL 1.52 subsidy that's being proposed by the government is enough to let us import diesel and supply it to the Brazilian market, importing without any losses, we have to highlight that. Petrobras is not incurring any losses when it comes to any type of action to avoid the volatility of prices for the Brazilian consumers. Petrobras is making profit, and we intend to continue to make profit -- and one thing that I must say is that the generation that preceded my generation used to love oil and gas. And now I must say that our current generation, what we like is money. So please rest assured that what we like is money. We do not want to simply make any social -- to do any social initiatives. Our social initiative is to provide more value to our brand. Thank you. And now let's move forward to the last question. The last question comes from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs. Over to you, Bruno.

I have a follow-up on Fernando's comment that there will not be an extraordinary dividends this year. According to my calculations, the company's cash flow should be above the dividends to be paid according to the policy. So I'd just like to confirm if the priority will be given to reducing indebtedness or with any additional cash flow or if you see any extraordinary item in cash flow such as the consumption of working capital that might produce the cash flow to something closer to the dividends defined by the policy.

Bruno, the first thing is that when there is an increase in the working capital that will have an impact on the net cash flow. And automatically, there is an increase in the extraordinary dividends to all shareholders. So 45% of what we see in terms of additional revenue will be made available through ordinary dividends. Then our priority becomes investments, and that's why we decided to have the base and target CapEx so that we can securely add new funding projects there. And we have already added a few. And if there are no additional projects for the period, the next item in the agenda would be to pay the debt so that we can convert towards BRL 75 billion or less. And if we have already paid the debt, yes, the investments this year are already adequate. And as long as this has no negative impact on the next year, so we do see the possibility of paying extraordinary dividends. That's always been our line of thinking that hasn't changed. We don't want to operate the company with a cash flow that's seen as an excessive cash flow. This year, the situation is still pretty cloudy to allow us to say that there will be a surplus that will allow us to pay extraordinary dividends. Right now, I can tell you that the possibilities are quite low so far. As Magda said, we've seen the brand go from 110 to 90 overnight, $20 of volatility over the course of 1 day does not make us feel secure enough to make any decisions to distribute dividends. We'd be happy to get to the end of the year, with such a high amount of surplus that will allow us to distribute dividends, but I cannot tell you that yet that, that will be the case. As I said, the situation is pretty cloudy so far. But we've been doing that during the construction of our strategic plan. So we're going to revise it towards the end of the year.

Thank you, Bruno, for the question. And thanks, Fernando for your answer. I want to thank everybody that participated. And I'd like to apologize to those of you that we could not answer on this occasion. This is the end of our Q&A session. If you have any additional questions, they can be answered through our Investor Relations team. I will now give the floor to President Magda, so please President Magda, you have the floor.

I want to thank everybody for patiently listening to us talk about the results of the first quarter and investment priorities for Petrobras. It's very important that we can count on your trust in our operations. After all, it is this mutual trust. On the 1 side, Petrobras that it has the interest of investors in mind and investors on the other hand, that -- their interests are taken into account. This is why it moves us forward. We can tell you that we're going to continue to deal with the company with a lot of capital discipline and compliance with all of our governance standards so that we can contribute to the growth of Petrobras in a way that's secure and profitable catering to the interests of our shareholders, be they governmental private or society in general. So we are certain that we reached a great level during the first 76 years of Petrobras and that we still have a lot to deliver and contribute to Brazil for the next 72 years of Petrobras' existence. In order for that to happen, we need to be strong, thriving with a consistent free cash flow. Petrobras is a strong cash generator. I don't have to convince you of that. That's something that you can see, even before we can, so we keep on willing to deliver an increasingly strong Petrobras. Thank you all. Our doors are open. Our investor relations channels are always available. Eduardo is constantly available to all of you as well as all of us. Thank you.

Thank you, President, Magda. Thanks, everybody. This presentation will be been available on our Investor Relations website. And we will also make the audio recording available. Thank you, and have a great day.