Thank you, operator. Good afternoon. This is Ramon Alvarez Pedrosa, Head of Investor Relations. Welcome to Repsol First Quarter 2019 Results Conference Call. Today's call will be hosted by Jose Jonimath, our Chief Executive Officer, with other members of the executive team joining us here in Madrid.
Before we start, I advise you to read our disclaimer. During this presentation, we may make forward looking statements, which are identified by the use of words such as will, expert, expect or similar phrases. Please note that the actual results may differ materially depending on a number of factors as indicated in the disclaimer. I will now hand the conference call over to Joseph Jan.
Thank you, Ramon, and thank you to everyone online for attending this conference call. Today, I'd like to cover the following main topics. First, I'll start by reviewing the key messages and main operational highlights of the quarter. Next, I'll go through a summary of the financial results. And finally, an update on the outlook for the rest of the year 2019.
Let me start with the key messages. Repsol has delivered in the Q1 of 2019 a strong set of results despite a weaker macro scenario and a more challenging operating environment. The adjusted net income was 6% higher than in the same period of 2018 despite first lower upstream production due to interruption in Libya, lower oil prices and a tighter refining environment. The company has continued working along the lines of our strategy, committed to increase shareholder remuneration, improving the profitability of our portfolio and developing our long term options, all under a strengthened financial position. Our results in the Q1 make us confident of achieving the main operational and financial targets set for 2019.
Upstream remain focused on the successful delivery of our project pipeline, high trading its portfolio and contributing with significant cash to the group. Compared to the same period in 2018, the contribution from newer projects, a better result in exploration and stronger dollar more than compensated the lower contribution in Libya and lower oil price. Upstream cash flow from operations increased by 25% year on year. In downstream, the efficient management of our industrial sites together with the contribution of our asset light businesses allow us to navigate a challenging refining environment and the negative effect of a milder winter. First quarter results demonstrates once again the strength of our integrated model supported on our 1st quartile refining system and improved chemicals.
In refining, to ensure that we maximize the value captured from the new IMO regulation, we are bringing forward to 2019 maintenance work in our refineries without a material decrease in utilization rates. In the commercial businesses, the expansion in Mexico already reached a positive result last quarter. At group level, 1st quarter cash flow from operations more than cover investments, financial costs shareholder remuneration, including the impact of a significant working capital buildup. Total cash flow from operations increased by 26% compared to the Q1 of 2018. Net debt stood at €3,700,000,000 as of the end of the quarter, an increase of €2,000,000,000 compared to December, driven by €500,000,000 investment in treasury stock.
Total financial liabilities arising from leases stood at €3,800,000,000 I'll elaborate later on the impact of IFRS 16. Liquidity at the end of the quarter represented more than 2 times our short term gross debt maturities. Our €1,000,000,000 bond maturing last February was redeemed and thanks to our sound balance sheet, we decided not to roll it over. Our improved financial position was recently recognized by rating agencies. With regards to the script option, we had a very high acceptance rate in our last dividend payment with more than 70% of our shareholders opting to receive shares.
Lastly, the Board of Directors agreed to propose a gross shareholder distribution equivalent to €0.25 per share under our Repsol flexible dividend program. This will increase the annual shareholder remuneration to $0.95 in 2019 and additionally the board proposed implementation of our share capital reduction to offset the dilution associated with the scrip. Both proposals, of course, are subject to approval at the Annual General Meeting on the 31st May. Now let me move on to the operational highlights of the quarter. Starting with the upstream, first quarter production averaged 700,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
This was 3% lower than in the previous quarter and 4% lower year on year. Compared to the Q1 of 2018, production was negatively impacted by the interruption of Libya, a lower gas demand in Venezuela and the divestment of our position in Mid Continent complete at the end of 2018. These impacts were partially offset by a higher production in Duvernay, Marcellus and Akacias in Colombia, the contribution of Mikkel and Visund in Norway and the startup of Angelin in Trinidad and Tobaiko. Production in Libya was interrupted on the 9th December 2018 due to the security issues in the Sahara field and remained shut down till the 4th March 2019. Average net production in the Q1 was 9,000 barrels of oil per day.
This was 22,000 barrels per day, sorry, lower than in the previous quarter and 29,000 barrels lower than in the same period of 2018. After restarting operations, the quality of the asset at all for a quick ramp up, reaching close to 300,000 barrels of gross production per day by early April. The situation in Libya continues to be complex, but operations have been stable so far in the Q2. Net production has averaged around 36,000 barrels per day in April with the field producing at around 280,000 barrels in gross terms as of today. In Venezuela, production increased modestly compared to the previous quarter, linked to fluctuation in the gas demand of the domestic market.
Our exposure to this country decreased to $490,000,000 from $522,000,000 as of the end of 2018. Looking at our development activity in the quarter, high portfolio flexibility has allowed to increase investments in a more positive commodity environment. Upstream exploration and development CapEx increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2018. In the Marcellus incorporation of our second rig is allowing us to increase production in our low breakeven asset that has a scale synergies and low cost replacement barrels. The acquisition of Mikkel effective since February allow us to grow our scale in Norway and reach our record level of production in this country.
Portfolio high grading continues focus on the drivers set in our strategic plan, margin, value and scale. The development of Angelin reached 1st gas at the end of February according to plan. The facilities have a gross production capacity of 600,000,000 cubic feet per day and Repsol as you know has a 30% stake. This project adds around 300,000,000,000 cubic feet of net incremental resources and additionally Brownfield, Cascia and Matapal projects were recently approved focused to develop the gas reserves discovered in Savannah. In CPO-nine block in Colombia, the Phase 1 of Akacias reached 20,000 barrels per day of grass production, of which 45% correspond to Repsol.
Exploration had a very good quarter with 4 positive wells out of the 7 that were concluded in the period. As of the end of March, 2 wells remain under evaluation while the remaining well was deemed unsuccessful. In Indonesia, the Repsol operated Kalibera Utalam well in the Sakakemang block is the largest discovery in the country in 18 years and the 7th largest discovery worldwide between 2018 2019. Initial estimates are of at least 2 TCFs of recovery reserves with relevant resource upside. This project will allow for a fast track development in an area of good margins due to high gas realization prices.
In Alaska, we continue advancing the development after positive results in 2 appraisal wells conducted during the winter window. These results extend the Pikka discovery further south And in Norway, the Telesto well discover all in the same block where the Bismond field is located. And finally, after quarter closing, the operator of Block 380 in deepwater U. S. Gulf of Mexico announced a significant discovery at the Black prospect.
Also in the Gulf of Mexico, we have just entered into an agreement with LUK to accelerate the development of Leon and Mo Castine Discoveries where proximity between both projects provides the opportunity for synergies and efficiency gains. Moving now to the downstream. Starting with refining, the margin indicator averaged $5.30 in the Q1 impacted by weak gasoline spreads. However, CCS unit margin was around $1.15 higher than indicator as the flexibility and attributes of our system together of course with an efficient management of the crude slate allow for a higher yield of middle distillates. The chemical business delivered a good quarter as well supported by the advantage of fixed stock flexibility, higher sales and healthy international margins.
Our chemicals production system benefit from our ability to use up to 40% of gas feed stock. Compared to the same period of 2018, sales and results were also helped by an improved operational performance. In the commercial businesses compared to Q1 of 2018, the positive contribution from Mexico was partially offset by a lower result in LPG due to a milder winter. In Mexico, the number of service stations operating reached 183 out of 260 contracts already signed. We also start producing and distributing lubricants under the Repsol brand with Mexico becoming our distribution hub for lubes in America.
We also became the 1st international company selling its own jet fuel in the Cancun Airport. In the mobility business, the implementation of new growth levers is allowing us to maintain profitability despite an increasingly competitive market. We also reached an important milestone with the opening of the first ultrafast charging point for electric vehicles in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula. In low carbon, we reached more than 830,000 retail clients at the end of the quarter. Let me underline that today they are 850,000 clients and we continue with our growth plan supported by our customer centric energy supplier strategy.
Turning now to the financial results, I will summarize the main figures for the Q1 of the year and how they compare with the same period in 2018. Q1 2019 CCS adjusted net income was €818,000,000 a 6% increase from the Q1 of 2018. Upstream adjusted net income in the Q1 was €323,000,000 36,000,000 higher than in the same period of 2018. And the stoppage in Libya, lower gas sales in Venezuela and lower realization prices were more than compensated by lower exploration costs, a stronger dollar, a lower tax due to the lower contribution from Libya. Upstream adjusted net income increased by 12.5% year on year compared to a 5.5% decrease in the Brent price.
Downstream adjusted net income in the Q1 was €404,000,000 5% lower than in the same period of 2018. A milder winter in North America and Spain was partially offset by the good behavior of the refining, trading and chemical businesses and the appreciation of the dollar against the euro. In corporate and others, the adjusted net income of the Q1 was €109,000,000 negative, a €20,000,000 improvement compared to the same period in 2018. Lower net interest expenses were partially compensated by higher financial costs due to the application of IFRS 16. For further details on results, of course, I encourage you to refer to the financial statements and accompanying documents that were released this morning.
At this point, I want to take you briefly through the impact in our financials of the implementation of IFRS 16 effective for the annual period from the 1st January 2019 on. In the presentation, you have a detailed summary of the estimated impacts in our P and L and cash flow of 2019. EBITDA and cash flow from operations will be increased, but there is no, of course, impact in net cash as this effect is fully offset by higher financial costs. As of the 1st January 2019, the total financial liabilities arising from leases under IFRS 16 amounted to €3,800,000,000 and if the leases are added or reported net debt as of the end of March will stand at €7,500,000,000 Before moving to the conclusions, let me review the outlook to the end of 2019. Following our results in the Q1, we maintained broadly unchanged our target for the year.
Despite our lower contribution from Libya during the 1st 2 months of 2019, upstream average production is expected to reach the 720,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day budgeted at the beginning of the year. Development activity in back scheme will continue towards achieving 1st oil objective in the Q3. In Akacias in Colombia, the FID for the full development of the field is expected to be taken towards the end of the year with that targeted maximum production of 50,000 barrels per day in the medium term. In refining, our updated margin indicator assumption for 2019 is lower compared to budget, but we expect to offset this impact partially with a higher premium in the actual CCS margin as we managed to achieve in the Q1. This together with a somewhat higher oil price expectation make us maintain our target of €8,000,000,000 of EBITDA at CCS with an organic CapEx of €3,800,000,000 In efficiency and digitalization, we expect to achieve in 2019 more than 50% of our target to 2020.
In Upstream, we target €600,000,000 of recurrent cash flow from operations improvement by 2020 through efficiencies and digital programs and we are fulfilling our roadmap to deliver those savings. In downstream, we are incorporating initiatives to ensure our €200,000,000 of recurrent operating cash flow improvement in 2020, especially through digital initiatives, implementation of cross cutting management initiatives throughout the business as well as crude loads optimization. In the corporation side, we maintain efforts in implementing lean processes and ensuring our commitment to reduce costs by 9% in 2020. I'd like to highlight the achievements in the digital side, in digitalization with more than 130 initiatives and 1,000 professionals involved, allowing us to obtain in 2019 a positive impact in cash flow from operations of more than €150,000,000 for projects already implemented and under implementation. Furthermore, we are working on additional initiatives that are in preliminary stages that we are confident will generate additional positive impacts in 2019.
As discussed before in 2019, we are accelerating the planned maintenance in our refineries to ensure we in the FCC of Bilbao. And this week, we have started the turnaround of the Coker in La Coruna. There will be further work in Bilbao in June and the turnarounds of Cartagena and Puertollano will start in September and in November respectively. 8 months ahead of the effective implementation of the IMO 2020, we are fully confident on a very high level of compliance and a potential structural long term change in marine fuel demand. Compliance is guaranteed because a majority of total fuel consumption is concentrated in only 20% of the vessels, mostly owned by large companies based in OECD countries.
Percent compliance rate in 2020. A structural change in the bunkering business will make gasoil a clear winner, from shielding scrubbers limited penetration and the current restrictions for the supply of very low sulfur fuel oil. IMO could be not only a temporary disruption for high sulfur fuel oil, but a structural effect as well. Finally, our performance so far in 2019 puts us on track to deliver on our targets for the year, working towards achieving our strategic objectives of 2020. We are increasing our shareholder returns and subject to approval from our AGM.
We'll increase our dividend by 6% and implement a share buyback to fully compensate any dilution associated with the scrip option. We continue taking steps in our path to grow cash flow generation. Businesses remain focused on the efficient development of our strong pipeline of attractive growth. In upstream, we have put Angelenos on stream on time and on budget and the important discovery in Sakakemang Indonesia provides long term options in one of our core and more profitable geographical areas. In downstream, our expansion in Mexico that combines service stations, aviation and lubricants is already contributing positively.
Operational excellence, efficiency and digitalization support, project delivery and portfolio improvement. Efficient management of our refining assets allow us to generate a premium to the indicator even in a challenging environment. We are at the same time reducing our carbon footprint in the whole value chain. With investment in energy efficiency, while we develop and operate a profitable low carbon business focused on both low carbon generation and electricity commercialization. We maintain our growth path by having reached 850,000 customers.
And let me highlight that we have accomplished all of these without compromising our financial flexibility. With that, I now hand the call back to Ramon, who will lead us through our question and answer session. Thank you.
[SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Thank you very much, Josu John. In case you run into technical problems during the webcast or conference call, please address any problem to our email address investorsrelationsrepsol.com, and we will contact you immediately to try to solve it. Before moving on to the Q and A session, I would like the operator to remind us of the process to ask a question. Please go ahead, operator. Thank Thank you, operator.
Let me move to the Q and A session. Our first question comes from Alessandro Pozzi at Mediobanca.
Good morning all and thank you for taking my two questions. The first one is on the downstream performance. I think it's been very resilient in spite of the weak macro environment with a premium of 1 point $5 per barrel you mentioned. I was wondering if you can give us maybe a bit more color what's behind that. And also my second question on Diesgo, I think it's 6 months since the completion of the acquisition.
Can you give us maybe an update on the integration and on your target to gain 5% of the market share in by 2025? Thank you.
Thank you, Alessandro. I think that the premium that is $1.15 so $1.15 per barrel is due to the flexibility of our refining system. I mean, you remember, Alessandro, that we discussed about that when we presented the last quarter results. And the rationale behind, let me say, this exceptional premium is that the IMC is calculated on the basis of some yield of products and some prices for the year. But when you have exceptional situation as we have had over the last months of depressed, gasoline, spreads, we have the flexibility to change not only the yield increasing a bit and maximizing the middle distillate production, but also changing the crude oil feedstock obtaining let me say a better deal in economic terms of the refinery comparing with the structure we have defined before in the IMC.
And that is the main reason of course on top of that we have to consider that in operational terms we have had a good quarter behind. Let me say this exceptional premium that that is not going to happen forever. But you could see things like that in case of say, let me say, not very normal or exceptional spreads in some of the products in the market. Related to the low carbon business, I mean, the integration has been done as expected in the plan. As I said before, we started with 750,000 clients at the beginning of November when we started this journey.
And today we have 850,000 clients in this business. That means that in this 1st month not only integration has been the target not only let me say put in place all the systems and so on, but also we have been able to increase 100,000 clients the clients of our low carbon business in electricity and gas. And on top of that, I mean, we maintain of course the target of 2,500,000 clients by 2025 as we had before. And we are working building the renewable capabilities, the renewable generation capabilities and we are doing that organically, internally. And on top of that, of course, we are if we see or we would see any kind of let me say, as I have underlined a lot of times inorganic possibility of building capabilities, I mean, not buying, let me say, a huge amount of assets in operation and so on, I mean, we'll do it.
But the main driver is going to be this combination of organic acquisition plus inorganic capabilities or either pipeline. Thank you.
Thank you, Alessandro. Our next question comes from Oswald Klin at
Bernstein. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you. I wanted to ask about your the upstream cash flow. You mentioned it was up strongly, I think, 25% year over year.
I just want to get a sense of which new fields are really contributing to that. I don't probably wasn't very much from Trinidad, So I guess it's really that your shale plays in North America or Colombia, perhaps a little bit of the Norwegian oil or gas condensate assets. So I just wonder if you could split or somehow that cash flow growth across those couple of key assets, which have been growing. And then secondly, just talking about exploration, which seems to have picked up in the quarter, and you mentioned it was a good quarter. But you've got some interesting new discoveries here in the Gulf of Mexico and obviously Indonesia and Norway.
So how is that making you think about perhaps allocating a bit more capital to the upstream and perhaps looking at some higher levels of medium term production growth given the costs are so low to develop today? Please. Thank you.
[SPEAKER JOSE RAFAEL
FERNANDEZ:] Thank you, Oswald. I mean, what is behind this new production is the growth in Norway. I mean, Vissun and Mikkel are a new production entering in Norway. In Colombia, we have the growth in barrels of the CPO-nine, the JV we have with Ecopetrol in the country. On top of that, we have increased our productions in the Marcellus and Duvernay in North America.
And on top of that, we have also increased EBITDA production in BPTT in Trinidad and Tobago. That is the main reason behind the cash flow and the barrels growth in the upstream that of course has been offset by the disruption in January or February of the production in Libya. I mean, going to the exploration, I mean, we had a real great quarter that is in some way also behind the results of the EMP in this quarter, because we have quite significant discoveries. You mentioned Indonesia, Sakakemang, I could add Calesto in Norway in the block of Gudrun, Blacktip as you mentioned in the Gulf of Mexico. On top of that, we have had also 2 positive price outs in the Pikka B area in Alaska.
I mean, that is behind the reduction of cost in exploration in this quarter. And I agree with your point. I mean, that is an opportunity to apply the capital allocation and to find new opportunities. For instance, we are going to try to accelerate Sakakemang. The next step of this acceleration is going to be a new well that is going to be drilled this year in the 3rd, Q4 in Sakakemang in this exploration bet we have in this area.
And after, let me say, this confirmation and appraisal of assets of resources. I mean, we are going to try to accelerate as quick as possible Sakakemang development project in Indonesia. On top of that, we are applying this additional capital also trying to accelerate the CPO-nine in Colombia. Remember that 4, 5 weeks ago, we announced that we are anticipating the next development phase in the area. We are preparing the taking process of the FID for the CPO-nine at the end of 2019, the beginning of 2020.
What we are going to do this year after the deal, the agreement with LLOG combining the geological capabilities of Repsol and the operational capabilities of LLOG in the Gulf of Mexico with Leon and Mukaseen is another way to try to find opportunities to accelerate the capital allocation. So we are going to go on in that direction and of course exploring also in areas that are important and key areas for Repsol. This year Guyana is going to be there. On top of that, we are preparing the exploration campaign for the beginning of 2020 in Mexico, where we expect to drill in I think that there are the blocks 1029 I have in mind, but perhaps in Mexico, 3 wells in 2020. So we are trying to apply more capital there.
Thank you, Oswald.
Thank you, Oswald. Our next question comes from Thomas Adolff at Credit Suisse.
Couple of fairly straightforward questions, please. Just firstly on the 2019 production guidance of 7.20 kilobytes D. I think it initially assumed 35 kilobytes D from Libya and 50 kilobytes D from Venezuela. And I was wondering what the contingency buffer was to reach that target at the start of the year. And then secondly, just going back to refining, you've now had 2 quarters in a row exceeding a premium of $1 per barrel over the indicator.
And I think historically, if you take the annual average, it was around 0.4, 0.5. Admittedly, that also incorporated a bit more maintenance. So I was wondering, versus the historical average, should we be thinking closer to a 1? Percent? Or should we be thinking about something in between or going back to the historical average?
And then finally, just on the low carbon business, since you I don't think you've split it out, I wondered what the quarterly contribution to the net income was? Thank you.
Thank you, Thomas. I mean, first of all, let me say that today in Venezuela, we have produced in the Q1 a bit more than expected in mainly gas production in our budget and in the Q4 of 2018. That's my first approach. The second one is that, I mean, in Libya, we are not going to be in the 35,000 barrels per day that we expect to produce around 29,000, 30,000 barrels per day as the average for the whole year. These reductions could be offset by an increase of production in Colombia.
I mean, we are accelerating the CPO-nine and we are going to produce more than expected at the end of the year. In Peru, in the Block 57, mainly Sagari and Quinteironi, we are going to increase the
production of mainly of gas.
In the UK, In the U. K, we are going to be 2,000, 3000 barrels per day, above the expectation we had at the beginning of the year. And same thing in Algeria, where we are going to be slightly above the expectation we have in our budget and same thing in Bolivia. I mean, that is the main rationale to say that I mean, that even with the risks that are always there, because I don't have unfortunately, Thomas, a crystal ball, But that the guidance of 720,000 barrels per day is still there. Thank you.
And second one, the premium. I mean, in case of SIN, let me say, average spreads for gasoline, for diesel and so on. I mean, the logical premium will be to have a $0.3, dollars 0.4 per barrel as I said before in historical terms. What is the exception now part of the pie over the last 3, 4, 5 months? I mean, we have seen things that are they have been really new in the market.
For instance, zero spread or even negative spreads for gasoline some weeks. So when you have this, let me say non usual things, you could react and you change the feedstock, you change your the yields, the way to operate the refinery. Remember that we have a 5% of our production of our yield that could shift with any kind of investment from middle districts to gasoline, changing in some way changing the conditions of operations, changing the crude oil and so on. So that is behind, let me say the exceptional premium. What do we expect for the whole year?
That's not easy to answer because that is going to depend on the structure of the spreads. But let me say, I think that is going to be something as average of the year closer to 0.8 something like that than to 0.3 that could be the historical. Of course, here you have to take into account also the contribution of the Q1. Going to the low carbon business, the contribution, I mean, of the guidance for the EBITDA for the year will be more or less €60,000,000 for the current assets. We have the guidance for the EBIT of the year will be at around €30,000,000,000 And this quarter, the EBIT has been €4,000,000 I mean, and the expectation, I mean, is not exactly the Q1 multiplied by 4, because we have to take into account that we are of course starting with the business integrating developing some systems and so on.
But I think that today with the current assets we have in our hands €60,000,000 of EBITDA and €30,000,000 of EBIT will be a good guidance for the contribution of the low carbon business for the whole year. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Thomas. Our next question comes from Flora Trindade at Caixabank BPI.
Yes. Hello. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. 2, first one on refining.
Can you give us the refining margin you have witnessed during the month of April? And also related to this, you don't mention clearly the 7.6 dollars per barrel margin you had given in the previous presentation. Just wondering if maintenance could have some impact here and likely to be compensated with the spread over the benchmark or if you are maintaining the effective 7.6? And then second question on Venezuela. There was some news flow around the potential cancellation of the cargoes from Peverda.
Can you just update us on the situation there? Thank you.
Thank you, Flora. I mean, first of all, I mean, you are right. The spreads sorry, the refining margins in April are weak. I mean, I was checking this morning the full margin we are capturing and it goes slightly below 5 this April. So that's true and you are right, 5 slightly below $5 per barrel.
If we take what could happen in the future, of course, here I'm entering non speculative analysis. We could expect some kind of improving of gasolines in this second quarter as far as the driving season in North America goes on. And on top of that, our expectation is that from the Q3 on and that is going to be clear in the Q4 and that is reflected in some way in the future markets. The effect of the IMO is going to be there. That means that the middle distillate spread is going to increase.
On the other hand, we are going to have at the end of the year a higher discount for fuel oil. And as a consequence of that, we are going to see also our wider spread of heavy lights at the end of the year as a consequence of the influence of the IMO. I mean, I don't know if the $7.6 per barrel of IMC is going to be there for the whole year. But my expectation is that a potential reduction taking into account that we have in April. So on what is happening now is going to impact the average of the year is going to be in a main way offset by a higher premium in real margin terms.
And let me say taking into account what I'm saying now, taking into account what is happening with the oil price and so on. I mean, I'm quite comfortable about the full year EBITDA guidance for 2019 at around €88,000,000,000 for the whole Repsol. But it seems to me that this effect on the IMS MC as we have seen in some way in this first quarter is going to be either partially or totally offset by the improvement of the premium. And the maintenance is not going to impact in a negative way. I mean, first of all, because we have maintained 3 out of our 4 cokers in 2017 2018.
Secondly, because we have 3, 3.5 main maintenance turnovers this year. One of them the FCC of Petronor is over. I mean, we complete in the Q1 this maintenance turnaround. The second one, the coker of Coruna that is smallest of our refineries is on track. And the 3rd is going to be the hydro treatment area of Cartagena in the summer.
So I mean, we are going on with this maintenance period. Some units of Porto Lano are going to be stopped in October, but the conversion utilization rate is going to be similar to what was in 2018. So we are not going to see, let me say, a negative impact on the premium due to this maintenance activities in our refineries. Thank you, Flora. In Venezuela, regarding Venezuela, I mean, let me say, Flora, that we reaffirm our willingness to continue with our businesses in the country as we have done over more than 25 years.
And of course, we are going to prioritize the safety of our people and operations. Of course, we operate in the country with full compliance to local and international laws and all the policies in force in the different countries in which we operate and we continuously monitor potential changes on the effect of these changes in our activities. But let me say that regarding the cargoes from PDVSA, I mean, we are going on with these operations. And we have received since September, I have in mind 4, 5 cargoes, 5 cargoes I think related to the payment of the debt linked to Cardon. So of course, we are going to fulfill all the local and international laws and policies in force in the different countries where we operate, but we are maintaining these operations of all cargoes from PDVSA to pay the debt they have with Repsol.
Thank you. [SPEAKER RAMON ALVAREZ PEDROSA:]
Thank you, Flora. Our next question comes from Giacomo Romeo at Macquarie.
Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I'm going to ask about the headlines that came out today suggesting that you have terminated your negotiation with KKR on Xelio. And I'm wondering if we should read these as a signal that you're struggling to find inorganic renewable opportunities at a price that fits your return thresholds? And since we are on this topic, can you please remind us what sort of inorganic ambitions you have in solar and what type of assets and businesses you are you would consider acquiring?
Thank you, Giacomo. I mean, first of all, let me say that I don't know if I was in and I don't know if we are out now because we don't disclose any kind of participation in any M and A operation we are or we could be potentially involved. So my only point is and I have underlined in these conferences a lot of times, these statements. I mean, we are going to invest inorganically only if we see real value and only if we see returns that fits with what we could expect for an oil and gas company. I mean, and to do that in the renewable business, we have to see a clear integration with some other businesses of Repsol.
We have to see clear capabilities to develop and to take the whole value chain in the renewable side to build the operational capabilities we need and of course to take risk selling a main part of this production in a merchant way. So we are going to invest in an inorganic way. We are going to go on struggling to find opportunities, mainly organic opportunities and hypothetically inorganic opportunities, but only if we see clear opportunities there. On top of that, our ambition is clear. By 2025, we have the target and the ambition to operate 4.5 gigawatts of energy power production to be an actor in the Spanish market having a 5% of the retail market in the gas market to have a market share of 15% in the Spanish market and that is our ambition, is our target.
We are on track and we are going to go on trying to deliver these objectives, but always under our principle, creating value for our shareholders, trying to integrate all that with the different businesses we have today and with the returns you have to expect and you could expect for an oil and gas company. I mean, we are not going to invest everywhere because we have investment targets. We have growth, yes, but many profitability targets on track. Thank you. [SPEAKER RAMON ALVAREZ
PEDROSA:] Thank you.
Thank you, Giacomo. Our next question comes from Lydia Rainforth of Barclays.
Thank you and good afternoon. Three questions actually, please. The first one, can you just talk us through the cash tax number? That seems to be a little bit lower than I'd have expected for the quarter and just what you'd expect for the full year. The second one was just coming back to the refining side and the premium that you've got.
I think it was about a year ago you signed an agreement with Google to talk about the artificial intelligence deployment and say managing the refinery. Are you seeing an impact from that already coming through? And then the third one was I'm sorry, but just come back to the IMO 2020 and the uplift that you expect margins there. Are you disappointed with how the market's played out so far in this year? And is that what you anticipated ahead of the IMO coming in?
Thanks.
Thank you, Lydia. I mean, looking to the tax numbers, I mean, the first point is, if we go to the P and L and the tax percentage is lower in the E and P as you could see. And the main driver behind this tax number is the basket of production we have had over the quarter. And as you could imagine, the impact of Libya is very important because the high tax rate that the Libyan operation has. So that is the main rationale behind this number that has been also translated to the cash side of the tax.
On top of that, you have a small calendar effect that I think that is impacting in some of our Spanish operation. That is the main cash the rationale behind the cash tax number and the guidance going to the guidance of 2019, I mean, in cash terms, let me say that the best guidance I could put today on the table is something in between 45%, 49% tax rate for the E and P production, but that is going to depend of course of the basket of productions, 24%, 25% for the downstream as in general terms and depending on prices and so on, but you could see something close to 31%, 32%, 33 percent for the whole company, 33% sorry, close to 40% for the whole company. That could be guidance for 2019. The refining side, I mean, the Google project is one of the 139 projects we have on track today in our businesses. And we are working in digital initiatives either in the industrial side, mainly refining, also chemicals, in the E and P and in the corporate side.
And it's true that the refining could be in improvement terms perhaps a 30% more or less of the whole digital targets we have. So that means that we could have those sense of initiatives today working in the refining business. And the refining business has improved over the last 15, 16 months, thanks to refining business has been the optimization using the data pool. We have in our refinery and here I'm including the feedstock, the different kind of crude oils, oils, the consumption in energy terms, I mean, in terms of these crude oils, the situation in the market, the yield of every unit, the consumption of energy and hydrogen in every unit and so on. I mean, trying to optimize the programming and the planning of the refinery, substitute in some ways the programming tools we have in the past with the new tools we are developing thanks to the digital.
And I'm including for instance the cyclos initiative that as you know Lydia is the way to translate one operator in a direct way. The operation he or she is leading to the real figures and numbers of the profit of the unit. So that means that we are including in this interface between the operator and the screen everything related to market, to operational features and so on. So the impact over the last 15 months of this digital project in the refineries could be at around €26,000,000 €27,000,000 of improvement over the whole year. Thanks this digital initiatives in the refining side that that could be close to $0.1 per barrel of improvement in 2018.
And on top of this initiative, I mean, we have the aspiration of the target to improve these figures in 2019. Are we disappointed with the impact of the IMO so far? No. Lydia, I mean, if you talk about today's situation in the market, I mean, I have to say, I had to say yes, because we have not seen any kind of impact from the IMO today. But as we have had the opportunity to discuss in the past, we see that the rationale of the IMO is going to come mainly in the Q4 of this year.
And if we see what the future markets is anticipating for the last quarter of this year and by 2020, I mean, I think that our approach of improving $1.5 per barrel of refining margin, thanks to the IMO is quite prudent. And all the expectations coming from future markets from analysts and so on are above this figure. So we are expecting a clear impact from 3rd, 4th quarter on. Thank you, Lydia.
That's really helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Lydia. Our next question comes from Chris Coupland from Bank of America.
Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. Not much left. I just wanted to see whether you can give us a little bit of color on headcounts. Firstly, it looks like it's been a strong contributor to the Q1.
Anything you can tell us about the remainder of the year and how you see that going forward? And secondly, of course, other than low carbon, this is also an area of growth that you've allocated extra budget towards. I'm afraid I haven't spotted a huge amount of progress in terms of growing that business organically or inorganically. So perhaps again, if you could update us on the status quo in that regard. Thank you.
Thank you, Rob. Sorry, Chris. I mean, first of all, as you know, the general business sound of the chemical business this Q1 has been a bit lower than the Q4 of the year or the last let me say the Q1 of 2018 due to the increase of naphtha prices and I mean the difficulty in the short term to translate these prices to the polyolefins. But I think that we have had 2 advantages. The first one that in operational terms, this quarter has been a high performing quarter in operational terms in our chemical business.
Remember that when you compare with the Q1 of last year, we start the quarter having some operational problems in the cracker of Tarragona. And at the end of March, beginning of April, we start with the strong problems in the Sines tracker and this effect is going to be clearer in the Q2 and the Q3 of this year. That is the first point. And the second point is that we have a quite flexible capacity of putting the feedstock in our trackers. And we have been able to feed till 40% of the feedstock of our crackers using different gases LPG mainly and also ethane coming from some streams from our refinery.
So thanks to this combination of flexible feedstock plus quite good performance in operational terms over the quarter, we have been able to have a good quarter. Our best guidance for the year, I mean, I'm going to maintain the guidance we announced at the beginning of this year at around €350,000,000 €360,000,000 of EBIT for the whole year 2019 because we have to take into account that in the last quarter we have the turnaround process of the cracker of Tarragona that you know that is the main unit in operational terms of Repsol. The low carbon business, I mean, the capital allocation we have budgeted for the pay of 2018, 2020 in our low carbon business has been €2,500,000,000 that was announced in our strategic update in June 2018. Up to date, we have invested €1,000,000,000 more or less €750,000,000 coming from Viesgo. Better said, we have on track €1,000,000,000 because we have invested €750,000,000,000 in the acquisition of Viesgo, euros 20,000,000 in the acquisition of the pipeline of Paltes Solar and we are going to invest from in coming months €200,000,000 to €200,000,000 more or less to develop the 2 10,000,000 more or less to develop the 2 60,000,000, EUR 65, I think, megawatts of Paltesolar, the photovoltaic project in the southwestern part of Spain.
So the main growth we are going to push is in the retail, in the gas wholesale. On top of that, we are trying to identify a pipeline that we may acquire and we could construct, develop and operate without our own resources. You have to take into account that we are recruiting people, best class people in our market to operate our assets. In Spain, we have great things, but one of them is that we have a strong operational capabilities in the renewable sector because the history of this country over the last 20 years. So we are recruiting people organically and we are combining these people with the engineering capabilities we have in the company.
Remember again that we develop some projects in the North Sea in the past And we are going to put, of course, a part of the focus in the organic side that is normally is the most profitable way to get returns. But on top of that, we are fully open to be also active in the organic side, but mainly trying to identify capabilities, developers and pipeline, not exactly assets in operation. And the update, I mean, today we are confident to fulfill the targets we establish and we define in our strategic update. Thank you. But let me underline again, more important that fulfilling the targets.
We are always to ask the return you could expect in an oil and gas company to be involved in this business. Thank you.
Thank you, Chris. Our next question comes from Rob Pulleyn at Morgan Stanley.
Hi, good afternoon gentlemen. You've covered a lot of ground. So just one question. In terms of the upgrading of the upstream portfolio that you have talked about in the past, obviously, lots of exploration successes, great to see, and many of your projects are progressing. I just wanted to ask in terms of the inorganic side of the upstream portfolio, As you look at what you may want to keep and may want to acquire, do you consider that you would be an acquirer or a disposer first?
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ro. I mean, the ideal world I mean, I asked Tomas the person leading the AMP business to dispose and to invest at the same time, but that is not possible, I mean, in real terms because you have the you can't match in real time both kind of operation. But I mean, I want to underline that we have disposed over the last 2 years, we have disposed Tangu, we have in Indonesia, we have disposed Teton in Australia, we have disposed the oil side in Trinidad and Tobago, we have disposed Mid Continent, we have disposed our assets in Romania, we have disposed Gabon, we have disposed Angola, we have invested in Norway in the good room, we have invested in Mikkel, we have invested in Vision. I mean, we are active trying to update and to highlight and upgrade our portfolio. We are going to go on and sometimes perhaps you will see a movement in the market where we are acquiring assets in an organic way and perhaps you could see later or sooner, who knows that we are also disposing.
I mean, my message is that under the principle of being, let me say in the whole picture neutral or slightly positive or negative in investment terms. I mean we don't expect a large acquisition of in our portfolio. But under this principle, we are going to try to upgrade and to high grade the opportunities to divest will be more profitable than the opportunities of investing or just the opposite.
That's very clear. Thank you, Rob. Our next question comes from Matt Loftin at JPMorgan.
Hi, afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. 2, if I could, please. I mean, first, coming back to refining and IMO. You've outlined a bullish picture on IMO into 2020.
To ask the question in a more forward looking way, when you look into the second half of the year and beyond, are there any specific industrial data points or events that you'd suggest investors look to as proof of concept that IMO is becoming a reality? And within that, when do you expect commercial marketing of the new very low sulfur fuel grades to take effect? And then second, CapEx, the run rate on the Q1 looked low versus the full year organic guidance. I know that's often the case seasonally, but what are some of the key activities or projects that you expect to get CapEx higher through the rest of the year to take you to EUR 3,800,000,000? Thanks.
I mean, the vision or the view we have about the IMO, I had expressed before this view. My point is in some way supported, but what the forward, the future markets are anticipating today. Because I mean, the enforcement and the compliance is going to be there and the most profitable or the most logical way and the only way for people to adapt to the newer specification in the maritime sector is going to be to shift from fuel oil, from high sulfur fuel oil to gas oil. So the rationale is there. But again, we are flexible to adapt our operation to the different realities.
I mean, we are prepared to have a 0 high sulfur fuel oil production in our Iberian to use to use either the current fuel oil production in Bilbao or the production in Tarragona that we may transport to Coruna, sorry, to feed the coker we have in that refinery. But at the same time, I mean, we are also flexible to produce some small production of low sulfur fuel oil using different feedstock of crude oil and blending in some cases this fuel oil with gas oil. I mean, we are prepared for every situation. My point is that it seems to me that is going to be more efficient, more profitable and with more margins in the market to produce with a full or high conversion system. Middle distillates, when you have 4 cokers in 5 refineries that is going to be more profitable and markets are anticipating all that than produce low sulfur fuel oil blending your bottom of the barrel with low sulfur and gas oil.
So that is my view that we are prepared for any situation in a flexible way. So going to the CapEx for the rest of the year, I mean, we maintain the guidance for the whole year at around €3,800,000,000 for the whole year. And I'm not including here, as I said also 3 months ago, any kind of opportunities in the low carbon business that as you know we are using in capital allocation terms that nut that I consider before. But my best approach for this year for the CapEx is €3,700,000,000 sorry in euros €3,700,000,000 for the whole year. You know that sometimes the Q1 and that happens almost every year, the CapEx execution in the execution in the Q1 is a bit slower than the rest of the year.
And we are of course rescheduling the year, but 3.7% will be our first our best guidance and approach now. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Matt. Very good. Thanks. Matt. Next question comes from Alwyn Thomas at Exane BNP.
Morning. Sorry, afternoon now. I just wanted to quick follow-up on the low carbon business. Would you consider investing outside of Spain, specifically because more areas are now starting to open up and there seem to be a reasonable amount of opportunities available. Sorry, that's it for me.
Thank you, Owen. My answer is yes. I mean, theoretically, yes. But saying that because we are going to prioritize return, it makes sense to invest firstly in places where you have a better possibility to integrate it all businesses. I mean in Spain, we have a significant base of customers.
We have 10,000,000 clients in this country. On top of that, we are the main gas consumer in Spain. At 12% of gas production in Spain comes from our industrial sites. We consume 1.5% of Spanish total market power. We are an actor in the power wholesale market in Spain.
So it makes sense to start investing in Spain to develop these kind of businesses because we have a solid and strong position in the market. On top of that, I mean, after having the capabilities, you have a good developer. I mean, we are ready to analyze some other developments in some other parts of the world. But I think that it makes sense starting from Spain. Thank you, Argo.
Okay. Can I just follow-up with the second question? I appreciate we're very focused on IMO 2020 this year and next. But beyond that and perhaps just for 2025, where do you see your sort of investment plan in the downstream in terms of product output? And how that might change in the slightly longer term?
Could you repeat the question, I will?
Yes. Sorry. I was just asking whether you're able to give a little bit more guidance on what your plans might be for investments and changing your yield output in the Downstream business, maybe Refining and Chemicals beyond Daimo 2020 to 2025 sort of period?
I mean, we see Repsol, first of all, invest in the EUR 1,000,000,000 in our downstream businesses per year, invest in, let me say EUR 600 EUR 500,000,000 to maintain and to have a more efficient system in the downstream and €300,000,000 €400,000,000 per year to grow in light assets. I mean, we have the ambition to have in coming years as we have today, the most profitable and competitive refining system in Europe. On top of that, in the chemical business, we have the ambition to be leaders in the world in some niches like the rubbers, the polyols and so on. On. And in the commercial side, I mean, we are building value and opportunities around the client, around the customer and around the service points we have today in our service station.
So we see Repsol investing in the downstream businesses, including of course, the refining business in coming years in this direction. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alwyn. Our next question comes from Kim Fustier at HSBC.
Yes, hi, good afternoon. I just had two questions, please. The first one is just on LNG. In the last 6 months or so, I noticed that you've signed a couple of LNG supply deals, one from the U. S.
And the other from Russia quite recently. And I was wondering if you could give some color on the rationale and maybe the pricing of these deals. I think you're planning to ship this LNG to Spain to supply your own Gas and Power business, but any color you can share on that would be helpful. And just secondly, just if you could give a bit more detail on the Leon and Moccasin developments in the U. S.
Gulf of Mexico. For example, when do you expect to take FID and when do you see first oil? Thank you.
Going to the gas contracts, I mean, we closed our contracts with ventures, 1 BCM, I remember, in the Gulf of Mexico in August that is going to I mean, to be confirmed coming months after the confirmation of the development of the project taking that in July this year. And on top of that, we have an to analyze the possibility to buy 0.4 BCMs coming from the north part of Russia, from Yamal. I mean, you have to take into account, Kim, that we have a consumption today in our refineries and chemical plants of around 3.5 BCMs. And on top of that, we have a consumption that is close to 0.8, 0.7 BCMs coming from our CCGTs and our position in the gas market. So all in all, our consumption level is at around 4.1, 4.2 BCMs as a whole.
We are growing in this market and the current position we have with all the contracts we have in our hands today, I think that is 3.3 BCMs, 3.4 BCMs coming from the Gulf of Mexico and we are adding to these baskets, let me say some other position coming from some other places. So there is a rationale of having a diversified basket of feedstock, not feedstock, sorry, of gas for our industrial sites and our market. And we have to take into account that Spain is decoupled from the European continent in logistic gas terms. So the real opportunities we have to feed the Spanish market, they come either from the pipe connecting Northern Africa and Spain, all the LNG plants where we have a good position as an Atlantic player very close to the Gulf of Mexico. On top of that, I mean, Leon Moccasin, first of all, we have to have the confirmation, thanks to the or as a consequence of the well that is going to be drilled in coming months to uprise the Leon project.
And probably, we will take the FID of the whole combined project in 2020 at around the Q3 more or less. And the most I mean the closest approach I have today, it will be to see the 1st toll in the project at around the first the end of 2022 or the Q1 of 2023. The gross production of the area will be at around 35,000 barrels per day all. And we have a combination of stakes in 50 Leon, 30 Moccasin, so you could take let me say 10000, 11000 barrels per day more or less net production for Repsol. But I mean, I still underline we have to go ahead step by step.
Thank you, Kim.
Thank you. Thank you, Kim. Next question comes from Jason Kenney at Santander.
Well, thanks for your time, Josu. And I'm looking forward to your field trip next week for analysts as well. I just want to go back to the CapEx theme. What are the chances that your EUR 15,000,000,000 over 2018 to 2020 actually comes in closer to EUR 13,000,000,000, EUR 14,000,000,000
I mean, Jason, we have in our strategic update €11,000,000,000 for our upstream sustain or growth improvement of efficiencies targets. And we have €4,000,000,000 €1,500,000,000 of them for the international expansion of our of the downstream businesses and 2.5 for the low carbon business. I mean, I have underlined this message a lot of times. I'm going to prioritize the return over any kind of consideration of fulfillment of any kind of targets. So in case of having projects, enough projects to grow, we will invest with the returns we expect and in case of having let me say an excess of cash at the end of 2020, the next step will be to proceed to an additional buyback of shares in Repsol.
Today, my first or my best approach, I mean, I think that we could invest in the best guidance I may give you today EUR 10,700,000,000, EUR 10,800,000,000 out of this €11,000,000,000 We have €1,500,000,000 for the downstream growth, €2,500,000,000 for the low carbon businesses that we are going to try to find the opportunities to invest in these areas with the profitability we are looking for. I mean, that is our best guidance today. We are not going to be far from this €15,000,000,000 figure all in all. But I insist, Jason, in case of not having opportunities to invest with the return we expect, we will proceed to an additional buyback of shares. No doubt about that.
Thank you.
Okay. Many thanks.
Thank you, Jason. And next question comes from Jon Rigby at UBS.
Thank you. I just wanted to come back on the combination of the outlook that you've described around CapEx production. And then obviously, the introduction of potentially these LLOG projects in the Gulf of Mexico, potentially I guess Blacktip, which I think Shell are very engaged in trying to accelerate in Indonesia. It seems that given that you have a fairly disciplined view about where you want to be on production and a disciplined view on where you want to be on CapEx. Does that start to say that some of the other projects in the portfolio, some of the predevelopment projects that you've had there for a while start to look a little stale.
I'm thinking particularly about Brazil, where those very large scale projects don't really seem to fit with your philosophy for the upstream. And does that start to or does this whole issue start to raise the prospect 33, 1 or either of those 2 projects? Thanks.
Thank you, John. I mean, I said no in general terms. But as I said I have said over the last month, I mean, if we see opportunities of additional cash because I mean the oil price is above 50 was the baseline of our strategic update. And we see additional opportunities. I mean we are ready to increase a bit the CapEx.
The CapEx like always looking for places or assets where we could have clear advantages. And in the case of the Gulf of Mexico, I mean, it's clear that we have opportunities combining the Moccasin asset and Leon. And in this case, we are combining all that with a very good operator in deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico. We see synergies there. And on top of that, the coal ACDCs project are still core in our portfolio.
And we are going to we have appraised to pick us, Pikka B in Alaska. We have a 3rd drill, a price drill in Alaska on track that is Pikka C, it seems to me that we are going to be on track to take the FID of Alaska probably in 2020 at the end of next year. And on top of that, we are also sorry, excuse me, John. We are also looking for new opportunities in the North Sea, in Southeast Asia and so on. So but let me say today with the CapEx expectation we are applying, we are able to be on track and to go ahead with all the projects we have in our basket.
And in case of seeing new opportunities, profitable opportunities, I think that we have enough cash to cope with them. But as I said before, always putting the return on profitability, a return on stone in our decisions. Thank you, John.
Thank you, John. Our next question comes from Yuri Kotanik at Deutsche Bank.
Yes. Giotto, thank you very much for your time. Two questions for me, please. First on Libya, could you please comment on the liftings of crude oil production in Libya? How frequent are the cargoes currently?
And have you actually shipped anything in March and in the beginning of April from the country? That's the first question. And the second question is on very low sulfur fuel oil. You mentioned in the beginning of the call that there are some restrictions on the market currently. Could you please elaborate on these restrictions?
Thank you.
We didn't have any lifting in March and we had a lifting in April. So I mean that's the situation. The lifting in Verteigali has been done in a normal way. But in Libya, we were under lift in March and we lift the crude the cargo in April. So that is working in a normal way.
When you say the fuel oil restrictions, you are talking sorry, could you repeat that?
Yes. I understood that you mentioned that there are currently some restrictions on the very low sulfur fuel oil market.
And I
was just wondering what you meant by that in the beginning of the call?
I mean, it seems to me that we are going to see a reduction of demand in the high sulfur fuel oil market due to the IMO new rules. And it seems to me also that is going to be more profitable for our refiner in case of having the units, the coking units they need to produce middle distillates, to produce low sulfur gas oil that to try, let me say, to produce for someone that has a low conversion rate in the refinery, taking the fuel oil production, use sweet and light oils to produce low sulfur fuel oil, blending this fuel oil with gas oil that is going to be an expensive product due to the widening process of the middle distillates spreads. And this process is going to be possible, of course, but margin for someone with strong coking capacity able to produce 0 fuel oil and to maximize the middle distillates low sulfur production margins are going to be better in my perception for someone using blending to produce the product to be in specification. That is my perception taking into account the reality in the market. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Yuri. Our next question comes from Peter Lowe at Redburn.
Hi, thanks. Just a quick question on refining and specifically the crude slate. Light heavy differentials have narrowed quite significantly over the past 6 months or so, but your margins have actually remained pretty resilient versus some of your peers. Can you perhaps talk about how your crude slate has changed over this period? I guess specifically, I'm interested in whether you're now running less heavy crude in your system than you were last year?
Thanks.
Thank you, Peter. I mean the heavy and light oil spread has been in slightly in a better way in the Q1 that in the Q4 of 2018. And let me here explain and underline that is not exactly the same division for non European refiner than for an American refiner. Because you are an American refiner and you are comparing the Maya, for instance, the Mexican heavy oil with the West Texas that could be your option in some cases, I mean it's clear that your spread is very low. But if you are in this side of the pond and your alternative is the Brent oil and the discount of this Maya or some other heavy oils related to the Brent is at $10, dollars 11 per barrel that has been the reality in the Q1 of the year.
In that case, I mean, your crude oil spreads and discounts are okay. So the reality is that we have processed over this period, heavy oil, something in between 46%, 48% in the feedstock of the basket for our refineries in this period. So that means that these crude oils, they were there. We were able to operate and to feed our refineries with these crude oils. At the same time, we have been able to get a good margin processing these oils.
And the rest at 28%, 29% were medium crude oils, I mean, like type like the euro and so on. And light feedstock has been something in between 22%, 24% in the Q1. So my point is that we are running our refineries using a 44%, 48% of heavy oil. And of course, we have the flexibility to reduce these figures depending on the reality of the market. But today, I mean, the reality of margins and so on allow us to maintain this operation.
And it seems to me that as far as the IMO effect could impact in the market because this higher bottom of the barrel coming from the heavy oils, we are going to have opportunities for feeding our refineries with heavy oil in the future. Thank you, Peter. Thanks.
Next question comes from Biraj Borkhataria at Royal Bank of Canada.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I just had 2 quick ones left. First one is on the Downstream. There was a fairly large negative in the other Downstream segment. I know you said Visco was a small positive contributor.
Could you just walk through what drove that in Q1? And then the second question is on chemicals. You mentioned you can take up to 40% gas feedstock. Could you just put that in context? It would be helpful just what that number was a few years ago and whether you can push that number up with some modest investment over the next couple of years?
Thank you.
So, Tobias, we didn't catch your last question about the gas Can you repeat that, please?
Yes, sure. So the 40% figure you mentioned, could you just put that in context and provide what that number was a few years ago and whether you can push that number up higher with some investment going forward?
Thank you, Biraj. I mean, going to your first question, you know that sometimes not sometimes, I mean, always our refining business for instance, says their products to the trading that finally put this product in the market sometimes. So if at the end of the quarter, for instance, apart of these products that has been solved by the refining business where you have a margin and a result are not transcended out of the group. I mean, the central of the downstream business has to post a negative result because this sale has not been transcended to the market. It's technically an intra group sale.
Sometimes this figure at the infinite is neutral, it's 0. But sometimes some quarters is positive and some quarters is negative. This quarter in March has been significantly negative. I mean, you could see that we have I think I remember €80,000,000 €85,000,000 as non transcended sales because the refining margin, the refining business has sold this product to the market, but this is still in the hands of our trading business. So it's an intra group operation technically.
So that means that in coming months you are going to see theoretically all the result that today is included in our P and L as not transcended, but that is not new. That is always there. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's negative and is increasing due to the increase of our activity coming either from the upstream side and the growth of our trading activity. So that is the reason of having this negative result that is going to be offset in coming weeks of course. Going to the gas feedstock, I mean, I remember that in 2012 for instance, and I remember quite well because at that time I was running the chemical business of the company, We could have a maximum of 20% something like that of the capacity of gas feedstock.
For instance, in Sines all the feedstock was NAFTA and in Tarragona we could have 20%, 25% and even reduced capacity in Porto Lano. Thanks to the change of furnaces, thanks to the change of logistics and so on. And thank you also to the use of streams coming from the refineries, the fuel gas that technically is an ethane. Today, we have the possibility to increase this feedstock. And let me say that we have the best of being in an European market, but at the same time we have one of the gaseous feedstocks in the crackers in Europe.
So decoupling in some way of operation from the risk of being fully exposed to the NAFTA. Thank you, Biraj.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Biraj. Well, that was our last question. At this point, I will bring our first quarter conference call to a close. And thank you all for your attendance.