Morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to MOL's second quarter 2022 results conference call. My name is Zoltán Fogarasi, the head of investor relations. We have a line-up of management to discuss recent developments of the current quarter. Today we'll have Dr. György Bacsa, Executive Vice President of Group Strategic Operations and Corporate Development. Mr. József Simola, Group Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Berislav Gašo, Executive Vice President of Upstream. Mr. Gabriel Szabó, Executive Vice President of Downstream, and Mr. Péter Ratatics, Executive Vice President of Consumer Services, guiding us through the results. We continue to use Microsoft Teams as a platform to hold our conference call. The presentation can be downloaded from our website, molgroup.info, and we will be sharing the slides in Teams too.
After the presentation, we will move to a Q&A session where you will have the chance to ask questions by using the raise hand function of Teams. Please keep yourself muted throughout the call except when asking a question. Before we start, I'd like to draw your attention to the cautionary statement on slide number two. Let me now hand over to György Bacsa, who will take us through the highlights of the second quarter of 2022.
Thank you, Zoltán, and I would like to welcome everyone to this quarterly call. Definitely, I think one is looking back and analyzing the second quarter figures, but most important, I think everyone is worried or interested how we see and how you see the upcoming half year. Let's look at the financials. The delivery of the group is in line or even ahead of our targets. You could see that in the second quarter, our EBITDA, group level EBITDA is $1.65 billion. The first half result is around $2.2 billion. The CapEx standing is a little lower than 50% for annual guidance. You also experience that in our sector, the first half is always lagging behind. There's always a slower start.
Operational KPIs are also largely in line, and we will go into details of the segments in other parts and sections. However, I think that if you look at the right side of a column of our usual chart for guidance 2022, we updated our guidance, but this update also represents the uncertainties. I mean complex set of uncertainties, regulatory uncertainties, market-driven uncertainties, macro uncertainties, state, EU, and global level as well. We need to take a cautious approach. We definitely cannot extrapolate the first half results to the second half. If you see our update is around $3.3 billion EBITDA for the whole year. This cautious approach is fully justified. We have increasing government takes, especially in Hungary.
It was just recently announced that the Brent-Urals spread increased from 25% to 40%. We have to pay extra utilities, we have to pay increased retail taxes, and we are still having a price cap in wholesale and retail in effect. Price capping is also in effect in other countries, and special taxes can or windfall levies are also applied in several jurisdictions. There is a clear symptom of increasing government takes. The most driver behind is to help the fiscal issues of the host countries. There is also an early sign to slow down. I wouldn't say that recession, see, because the economists say that it's still not recession. However, the probability of recession is very visible, the increasing probability. Petrochemical margins are shrinking. Refining margins also came off from the highs.
Our guidance also assumes a global slowdown or even a recession in the second half of the year, which will come sooner rather than later. I didn't even want to go into details how the sanctions, how the war, how our supply, vulnerability could affect our operation, since we are mainly exposed to the pipeline, supply for our crude intake. Going back to the guidance, the financial guidance, the same, similarly free cash flow generation ability of the group is still above $1.5 billion, even if the CapEx spending picks up. If you go to the next slide. May I? We don't normally show Hungarian operation on a standalone basis, but this time we have to do it.
We have to do it because here you can see that what would have been the Hungarian operation, MOL Plc and MPC, the combined petrochemical and refining, marketing and upstream operation. It's just that I got muted for I don't know why. The standalone Hungarian operation, on the left side you can see the EBITDA generation potential. However, you could also see the very significant impact of the government take. $580 million only in Hungary. It's 90% of the total government take affecting cooperation. There is a fuel price cap imposed in retail. There was a 25% virtualized tax, special tax payable. Now it will be increased to 4%, and it is introduced retrospectively.
The 25% was introduced retrospectively, so we should have booked it for the entire period. There is increased retail tax, and of course, in the second half, we have to calculate also with monthly basis. There is, of course, a significant working capital change that we have to also finance. All in all, you can see that the cash flow of the Hungarian operation turned to red, so it's -$1.57 million. If you go to the next slide, I don't want to go again into details. You can see the summary of the financial results. Two main points again to be highlighted. The total government take is around $640 million and 90% relates to Hungary.
There is also a positive news that finally the ICSID arbitration resulted in a positive outcome. It's already the second international arbitration ruling in favor of MOL and rejecting Croatia's claim on all charges, criminal charges and all, and this award gave us $236 million damages for the breach of contract. If you go to the next slide, there is no major change in the safety performance. You could see that our TRIR is improving year-on-year. But of course, we are still a little bit behind of our target is 1.20. The last one, which is again the new business, I would like to just briefly touch upon that we expanding into the circular economy, that we signed the 35-year concession for Hungary.
It's a country-wide concession for all municipal solid waste, collection treatment, and we will be the single licensor for it. We see the valuation potential of this business. It's a long-term investment on our side, it's a long-term commitment, and this is the first time that we discuss it. From now on, it will be a standard element, and it will be an increased part of operation and of our report as well. Here, I would like to give the word to József and who will guide you through the financials in details.
Thank you, György , and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let's start on page 11 as usual with a quick segmental EBITDA overview. As in the previous quarter, the two major contributors or the two major engines of the EBITDA generations are our traditional hydrocarbon businesses, the upstream and the downstream. We see increase also in the upstream business on a quarter-on-quarter basis, and clearly major and significant increase in downstream business. As usual, you will hear a detailed coverage of the three major segments later on from the business leaders. Gas Midstream, the first half year results very much similar to the previous year, but clearly the outlook for the second half of the year is much weaker.
The high gas prices, where gas is used as energy source for the gas transportation business, clearly will have a negative impact on the EBITDA generation capability. The CMO and Inter segment higher than usual number. The reason for this one-off items in the magnitude of around $50 million in the CMO line and an increase, i.e., higher negative number on the Inter segment line due to the higher inventory elimination increased number. Let's go to page 12 to CapEx. The last quarter's figure $334 million is very much in line with the previous quarter and with the previous year pattern. As Yuri mentioned, we clearly expect the seasonality to kick in in the fourth quarter.
With this, we keep our guidance at the original level. Clearly, we have no financial restrictions on CapEx spending or any change in the plans. However, I think we, as probably everybody else, is experiencing smaller supply chain issues. With this, probably we'll expect to be on the lower end of the guidance. Now let's jump to page 14, the below EBITDA items. The CCS modification is a small positive number, essentially coming from the generally much higher positive replacement modification impact, which was counterbalanced in the first half of the year with the results of the derivative hedge transactions.
Sorry, we can't hear you.
Sorry for everybody. The CCS number is overall a small net positive number. No special items in the first half of the year. DD&A and impairment $495 million. Please note that the indicated $131 million reversal for the first half of the year from this $121 million was already booked in the first quarter. Actually the remaining net number for the second quarter $306 million DD&A is fully in line with the indicated quarterly going rate what we indicated in the last call around $300 million dollar.
Total financial loss, which is the -$68 million for the first half of the year, and actually the Q2 number is -$71 million. The key driver is the weakening of the forint 14% to the dollar, 7% to the euro quarter on quarter. Please keep in mind that as usual this number already includes the result of the net investment hedge accounting. Income from associates $12 million coming from Q2, from Pearl and BTC contribution. Income tax expense on the cash line and the corporate income tax line slightly higher number in Q2 than in Q1, but generally indicates the higher profitability of all the major businesses.
Non-controlling interest, again, a negative number in the Q2, but that essentially represent a positive business contribution from INA to the MOL Group business. Now let's go to page 15, the operating cash flow. The other item in Q2, similarly to Q1, is the commodity derivative fair value change contribution to the operating cash flow. And probably the most interesting item is the change in the working capital, which was a buildup of $1.2 billion in the first quarter and an additional $453 million in Q2. Partially coming from price impact, we had a $10 quarter-on-quarter Brent increase, but also volumetric impact.
This represent, I think, essentially all of our tanks full, before the turnaround season and, due to the uncertainties in the current situation. We expect here also the usual seasonality, so, a flat or most likely even, decreasing number in the next two quarters, due to, volume impact and also potentially due to, price impact. Let's go to page 16. The balance sheet, I mean the positive cash flow generation is visible in the net debt to EBITDA gearing and also in the, decreasing, net, debt. With this, I'd like to hand it over to Gabriel Szabó, who will cover for you the Downstream business results.
Thank you very much, József. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. As you can see in the reported period, Downstream delivered a strong CCS EBITDA of $860 million. This is almost double the result compared to the same period last year. While in 2022, the performance was driven mainly by Petchem, in 2022, the extremely high macro environment, coupled with the increased demand for fuels in the region, were driving our performance in Downstream. Generally, the demand for fuels increased in the region, but Hungary stands out with the 11% increase year-on-year. Asset operation is extremely demanding due to the several complex turnarounds this year. We have just come back from more than 60 days turnaround in Slovnaft.
Also accomplished in the reported period the lifetime extension program for the steam cracker in MPK, which was also done parallelly with the turnaround there. This is also reflected in the lower sales of petrochemicals. Speaking about the demanding maintenance period, we just started this week the turnaround in our Duna refinery, Százhalombatta refinery. When we speak about the projects and MPC, I have to also mention our major investment, Polyol. There are almost no critical construction works left on site. In spite of this, I have to report a shift of the mechanical completion to 2023. What we see that the contractor has difficulties in pre-commissioning activities and because of market tightness, and this is causing delays of some units handover. Now I would like to turn your attention to the macro.
In terms of the macro environment indicators, I'm pretty sure that you are aware of the changes in publishing the data due to the recent events. Including also the governmental measures, which makes the performance calculation based on refining margin only rather complex. Now we report the refining margin based on Brent quotation separately from Brent-Urals spreads. Speaking about the Brent-Urals spreads, during the reported period, all of us learned that the market can achieve extremes not imagined before. $34-$35 discount on Urals crude still valid today. In terms of the refining margins, there is generally still a stretched fuel market. Reaction on several embargo packages drove the refining margins to the levels of $20, but it started to normalize in July.
In terms of the petchem margin, more than one-third lower year-on-year, and currently, as my colleagues mentioned before, reflecting the slowdown of petchem segment. My last slide, the waterfall chart showing the breakdown of EBITDA difference of the reported period and also the six months year-on-year. As mentioned before, the refining business thanks to the macro environment, and with this mainly thanks to the Brent-Urals spread were the driving force of the result. Petchem performance, as mentioned, having negative impact due to the lower margin but also lower sales as the result of the major turnarounds in the second quarter this year.
I would like to also speak about the energy prices, which have not just the negative impact for our production units, but also for the other areas in downstream as logistics, and this is clearly seen in the category of others in the graph. Speaking about the negative impacts, there is also another one which is not projected on my slide, but I believe very important to mention, and this is I would call it an opportunity loss category due to the governmental measures. The negative impact of these measures in downstream is around $450 million, and vast majority of this is coming from Hungary because of the price cap and windfall tax from Hungary.
As Mr. Bacsa mentioned, also a recent change. From August on, a windfall tax will be increased from 25% to 40% and, but there are also some changes related to the customer segment eligible for the regulated price of fuel. I believe that the much more visible impact of these negative impacts and the governmental measures is seen within the consumer services segment. With this, I would hand over the presentation to Peter. Peter?
Thank you very much, Gabriel. Good morning to everyone. Unfortunately, I can't have too many good news after the recent period. Obviously, the EBITDA decreased significantly, actually by 72% year-on-year, to $46 million, mainly due to the price cap regulation in numerous countries, starting with Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and also Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also on the other countries what I haven't listed. On those countries, the high total price environment put a significant pressure on the unit margins. In the entire half year, compared to the previous period, the decrease is significant, 60%. That obviously hit negatively the free cash flow generation as well.
Just the fuel price regulation itself caused us in the first half of the year $140 million loss or opportunity loss, profit loss from the fuel margin generation. Out of this $140 million, $90 million came from the Hungarian price regulation. If that wouldn't be enough, then an additional negative impact hitting the Hungarian operation is the retail tax. Well, the special tax and the supplement of the special tax. Actually we are talking about now two type of taxes here in Hungary based on the revenue what we generate in the retail operation. Actually, the one-off effect is $19 million for the year for the entire year.
However, we booked it in the last month of the second quarter, so actually in June. That what hit additionally significantly the second quarter result. All in all, in this half year period, including this one-off inclusion, the retail tax achieved or reached $34 million in total. As a third kind of negative effect, alongside of the increasing utility prices and also the salary or wage pressures, the inflation, the OpEx also increased. That's something what we also have to manage with the different efficiency improvement initiatives.
Well, the only and probably the positive side of this entire situation, what I want to highlight here, is not just the non-fuel margin, where we were capable to continue the sales increase and also the margin increase. Obviously, we have to consider this period as our customer acquisition opportunity. The supply chain disruptions or the problems of the markets create us an additional opportunity to try to focus as much as we can on the customer satisfaction and the fuel availability for the customers. That's where we can be better at the moment than the competitors. That's what probably gives us an additional opportunity to acquire new customers and let them try what we can offer next to the fuel.
Let's turn the page to the fuel one, where I can have a bit deeper dive. If I just look at this slide, then I should be very happy. Obviously on this slide, I can just explain the fuel or the volumetric performance. You can see that from volumetric and consumption point of view, sales numbers point of view, from the fuel side, we are extremely good, extremely high, both from the total volume sales and also the fuel throughput per site. Practically in some of these sites, some of the regions, we even faced with logistical and capacity problems to satisfy more and more demands. I think at this point, we have nothing more to wish.
Only the unit margin is the problem at the moment. If you turn the page to the non-fuel one, to the next slide, then this is the real highlights. From sales point of view, compared to the previous year, same quarter, 11% more sales on local currency terms. From non-fuel margin generation capability, that means 22%. Two main messages. Sales is booming and higher. The transaction number is significantly higher. Also we were capable to manage fairly good the basket size composition. More value-added product we were capable to offer to the customers, and they seemingly like to use it. That results in a higher non-fuel margin increase percentage.
The hero product in this period was the hot dog and the sandwich for us. Mainly the grocery category was the higher or the highest contributor. Within the grocery, the hot dog was now the hero, where actually 60% higher sales were generated. Also the sandwich category, we improved significantly the assortment, completely new ingredients, and also placement and product pricing strategy we introduced. As a result of that, even the sandwich sales grew by 40%. The Fresh Corner sites reconstructions and the pursuing of the strategy did not change. We still continuing the reconstruction and the transformation of the whole industry or the whole operation from our end.
We also prepare ourselves for the Polish market entry, not just from network development, but also from offer point of view. If you turn the page to the last one, then I can just clearly present to you the Hungarian situation. Obviously from economic point of view is a disaster. The free cash flow generation in this period turned to negative. If you compare it to the previous year, same quarter, then the difference is roughly $55 million. Now for the second half, we have a bit higher hopes, since recently the Hungarian government changed the eligibility regulation for the 480 regulated price customers.
Out of that, we hope that the unit margin can be improved and potentially we can somewhat come back to the positive territory. As a closing words, the clear focus for us now is the customer acquisition, as I said. The loyalty customer base increased significantly over this period. For example, the application download reached more than 1,100,000 customers and that's an increase of 176% compared to the last year first half. Also the active loyalty customer number reached 1,500,000. That's a significant increase and a significant customer base. So t his is what can be our good hope for the future, once the external situational environment with the regulations would change and we can turn back to the normal conditions and the normal competitive environment. Thanks very much for listening me and then let me pass the word to the upstream part. To Berislav .
Good morning and welcome to the upstream presentation of second quarter results. I'm pleased to report that E&P improved again. Excluding U.K., EBITDA stands at $576 million for the second quarter. That's a 14% improvement quarter-on-quarter, and over 104 percentage points year-over-year. That of course led also to significant improvement in simplified free cash flow generation. We see material improvement of $504 million for the second quarter, or $924 million year-to-date, which makes upstream the largest free cash flow contributor of the group. Maybe two reflections on the macro environment. Oil prices reached $138.8 per barrel in the second quarter, and gas averaged EUR 100.2 per megawatt-hour.
The equivalent in dollars per barrel terms is $195.8. I think what we did is previously gas was represented on a CEGH day ahead basis. We changed this now to TTF months ahead, which significantly better reflects basically underlying realized prices. The second thing, as that question might probably come during Q&A, so I'm just gonna give you a quick insight into impact of spot gas prices on realized upstream gas prices and spot exposure for the relevant CEE parts. We've had that also in prior quarterly. Roughly 66% of the volume is spots driven. Again, that's the TTF month ahead quotation, the rest is regulated.
In Croatia, we factually do not have exposure to regulated gas, but the portfolio is split between flexible and longer-term contracts with various pricing methods. However, short-term spot exposure, and there again, CEGH quotation prevails, decreased from 45%-35% by the second quarter, or in terms of second versus first quarter. In addition, the contracted portfolio realized gas prices improved by roughly 10% quarter-on-quarter. Go to the next page, that's the standard page about unit free cash flow. Strong in the second quarter, above $60 a barrel or $62 to be precise. In terms of unit free cash flow, $57, if you think of it in terms of year-to-date basis.
Now, what is going to happen in the second part of this year, if you assume everything else being equal, i.e., basically macro environment being roughly similar, then royalty increases in Hungary, of course, will be impacting both oil and gas, starting August. So for five months, for the residual five months of the year starting August, the windfall taxation package will kick in. The best way for you to think about this or to model this is if you assume that royalty rates will be increased around three times, impacting 70% of the Hungarian production. That'll be a full impact on the entire portfolio. You think about 70% of the royalty base, or 70% of the Hungarian production, and then that multiplied by three, that should give you a good proxy. Next page.
The usual EBITDA bridge, large positive price impacts, both quarter-on-quarter and year-over-year, mainly driven basically by stronger Brent prices and by growing gas prices, partly offset, volumes mainly caused by somewhat lower working interest volumes in ACG. Again, that's to some extent also down to the PSA mechanism and a slight production decrease in CEE, where we managed to successfully manage basically decline. You can see that also on the next page. Our production stands now at 92,000 barrel per day in the second quarter. In terms of quarter-to-quarter comparison, we're down roughly by 1,700 barrel per day. 600 barrel coming from associates decreased due to lower seasonal gas demand. We see that basically every summer.
ACG down 600 barrels per day due to natural decline, time turnarounds and production deferrals. On a year-over-year comparison, we're down 5,900 barrels. The ACG difference of 3,300 barrels is due to natural decline and partly change in entitlement share. I think the one positive thing that I would like to highlight here, on top of everything else, is that CEE declined on a year-over-year basis only by 2,100 barrels per day, which is only a 3.6% year-over-year decline ratio. For the rest of the year, our production guidance of 90,000 plus remains intact. The last page. Basically, business as usual, very strong unit OpEx performance and unit OpEx of continuing operations, i.e. excluding U.K., decreased to $4.8 per barrel.
Quarter by quarter, also in line with stronger dollar or stronger HUF that we see in the second quarter. Average unit OpEx improved more than a dollar due to the impact of the U.K. divestment. I think on the CapEx side, we're down basically $32 million year-over-year. That decrease is fully driven basically by our exit of Norway and no more exploration spending there. This is for the upstream division. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to hand back to Zoltán to start the Q&A.
Thanks very much, Beri. Indeed, at this point, we'll open up for the Q&A. As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand function of Teams. I believe we have a question coming in from Ildar Khaziev, HSBC. Ildar, please unmute yourself and go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you very much for the presentation. Just a clarifying question on the impact of the fiscal measures in Hungary and other countries. Could you quantify separately the impact of the windfall profit tax and the fuel price cap separately, is it possible? Then maybe a second question was about the royalty tax rate changes. Could you maybe clarify what exactly is happening and what kind of tax rates you're expecting? Thank you.
If I may start, just as a kind of magnitude guidance I can give that the impact of the governmental interventions to 75% is because of the price caps and wholesale and retail food price caps, and 25% is the impact of the windfall taxes. Of course, for the past we could quantify it. For the future, of course, it depends. It depends on quantity spread and other variables as well. But the magnitude so far is what I said, that three-fourths is the effect of the caps and one-fourth is the effect of the windfall taxes. Sorry, what was the second question?
Yeah, I think you mentioned when talking about upstream, you mentioned the royalty tax changes. Maybe if you could elaborate what is happening exactly. Thank you.
The royalty effect for this year is equal $200 million. That's increased level of royalty because of so new rates introduced. This is the change in the royalty regime.
What are these rates exactly? I mean, from, you know. Is it a single rate change or it's a number of different taxes?
It's a formula, the royalty rate. I think it's publicly available, so there is two variable elements, and the government changed both. Not only the percentage rate as well, but also the through. I have problem with the English term, but if someone can help me out that, but that one also changed.
Thank you very much.
Thanks, Ildar. I believe we also have a question from Tomasz Krukowski, Santander. Tomasz, please unmute yourself and go ahead.
Hi. Tomasz Krukowski, Santander. Just two questions. The first one refers to Urals. What was the share of Urals in throughput in the first half, and what do you expect it to be in the remainder of the year? The second questions refers to the environment in downstream. Actually, I'm wondering what is the effect of the price regulations on the structure of the wholesale market in Hungary? Whether you increased your market share, whether you saw some your competitors exiting permanently, or how do you think it will evolve going forward? Thank you.
Thank you very much. Gabriel Szabó speaking. In terms of the Urals processing, in the first quarter we still processed some seaborne crude, but the economics has driven our direction for full Urals during the second quarter this year. There was, of course, some minor part from the domestic crude reservoirs, but the vast majority was Urals. In terms of the second question, yes, I mentioned several times that there is a stretched market situation in the area. Probably you are very much aware of the difficulties in OMV and their distillation unit there. There is also an issue in Litvínov, the Czech Unipetrol refinery there. Those unplanned shutdowns are causing extra stretch in the market. We do not see the export in the volumes as it was in 2021.
As a reflection of it, our market share is increasing. I believe that once the refinery and hopefully they will, both OMV and Litvínov will get on stream, and I believe it will happen, what I learned in autumn in case of OMV, and I believe Litvínov in the current days will get back, that my outlook to the end of the year is that it will be still stretched, but this situation will get normalized. Thank you for the question.
Thank you. If I could, follow up, what do you expect the share of Urals to be in the second half of the year?
Well, the answer is rather complex. Probably you are aware of the sixth embargo package.
Mm-hmm.
Which from February on, next year. This will definitely shift our crude basket and the crude processing to the different modus operandi as it is today. It will then have an impact of having a higher portion of seaborne crude. I know that you were asking the second half of this year, but this embargo will push us or is pushing us to several tests. I believe this year we will have to do some complex tests to run the refineries on a different basket. It will be reflected also in the portion of the overall processing.
Thank you.
Welcome.
Thanks. We also have Tamás Pletser from Erste . Tamás, if you can please unmute yourself and ask your question.
Yes. Thank you very much. Good morning. I got two questions. First of all, can you just elaborate a little bit about the current maintenance shutdown at the Vienna refinery? I mean, what units does this shutdown affect? What is your current production capacity utilization in this refinery? And when we expect, you know, this maintenance shutdown to be finished? And my second question would be regarding your investments. Can you just tell us an update about the delayed coker investment? And how do you proceed with those efforts to decouple from the Russian crude? I think you said, if I remember correctly, last quarter that you may come up with some initiative, initiatives to the management on this decoupling issues. How do you proceed with that? Thank you.
In terms of the turnaround. Yes. As I mentioned, this week, we started the turnaround in Százhalombatta. It's a complex one. We believe we are back in autumn, early autumn this year. We are doing a major overhaul of our distillation unit two. The capacity, as far as I remember, is around 8,200 tons a day. I would count with roughly half capacity of the refinery there. I mentioned several times the challenging year because of the maintenance. There is another maintenance planned in October, where we plan to do an overhaul of our hydrocracking unit there, which will have an effect on diesel production. This is it. Your second question was related to the DCU.
In DCU, I mean, similarly to the Polyol, we have some difficulties there. Currently, we are discussing with the main contractors the extra cost because of the COVID. What we see that still the construction works are not on the path which were forecasted. Still having negotiations ahead of us. Today, I would not go to any projections in terms of the delay. I believe there is a delay, but today I can't judge what will be the delay there. Your third question was? Sorry, once again, please.
No. I would just ask about, you know, these initiatives to decouple.
Yes. Right.
from the Russian supply.
Right. As I mentioned, the situation from February on will be, I believe, very much difficult as it is today. There is much higher exposure for our refinery in Bratislava as we export two-thirds of our production to the market. Probably you are aware of the sixth embargo package, which allow us to still export the Russian-based products to Czech Republic. Then again, a different situation will be from 2024 on, when even this will be sanctioned. We set up a core team consisting of engineers, economists, and optimization runners. We launched around 26 projects to cope from the new situation from next February. We also get an extra advice and extra counsel from Lummus.
It is a Texas-based technology company, so I believe we have a very good projection how to run the refineries. The rough estimates for the CapEx is around $500-$700 million. Of course the time span needed for this investment is longer than February next year. As I mentioned, we are going to have some complex different or seaborne crude baskets. I believe that with this exception for Czech Republic, I'm rather positive. What I see, the task is clear. Team is engaged, and I believe we have all the competence. I'm rather confident that from technology point of view, with this extra CapEx, we can handle the situation. This is the whole exercise, kind of three-dimensional chess play. So t here is the crude basket, optimal crude basket, then there is a technology question, and of course, there is the economic. We are trying to find the proper balance there.
Great. Thanks very much. Just probably have one little bit follow-up. Is this maintenance or overhaul done in the refinery in Százhalombatta? Is this considered to be like a major maintenance what you do maybe four or five years? Is it rather like an annual exercise?
This is a major overhaul. Originally it was planned for April, but because of the very volatile situation from February after the war in Ukraine, we decided to postpone it to August. It's a planned major overhaul of the distillation unit mainly.
Okay. That's clear. Thanks very much.
Thank you.
Thanks, Tamás. Ildar, do you have a follow-up question there?
Yes. Just continuing on this Urals topic. Can you tell us maybe how the market pricing of Urals works now exactly? Because my understanding is that in the past it was based on the sort of public tenders, right? The lots would be published, the results of the public tenders. But you know, there are no public tenders anymore. So I was just wondering how exactly this pricing is working now. And maybe you could tell us, like what is the remaining duration of Urals supply contracts. That'd be very interesting to hear if you can share, of course. Then, secondly, also, I had a question about the fuel market in Hungary. Has your market share increased?
Like, you know, can you quantify the increase in the market share because of the fuel price cap? Thank you.
Yes. Thank you. In terms of the Urals, yeah, you are right that it's not published anymore. As you saw on the graph, this is still the discount is around $34. There is still a demand in Europe. There is a high demand in Asia mainly. The discount is, as I mentioned, so there is no change there, even it's not published. In terms of the, what was the second part of the question? Once again, please.
Yeah. The remaining duration of your Urals supply contracts.
Yeah. We have a strategic partnership with our suppliers, closed before the crisis. These contracts are still valid. We don't plan any amendment there. Of course, that, as I mentioned, the sixth package of embargo will reshape the current basket.
I see. Thank you.
Thank you.
I think the question was also about the market share.
Yes, there was a question on the market share still.
The retail market share in the
This is the increase to which level? Sorry.
Well, among the IOCs, that's roughly 50%. Within the entire market, the level is close to 42, if I remember well. Well, around 40. I don't know the number by heart.
Thank you. Maybe can I ask you, like, one thing? So, you know, I'm a bit confused because this fuel price cap, I mean, it's very painful, right? I was wondering whether the importers, the remaining ones, making any losses or like, you know, how does that work exactly in the market now? If you can comment, of course. I mean, I understand that, you know, you won't comment on the others, but.
Yeah. It's rather difficult to comment on it. What we see that the export significantly dropped. What we saw was an even deeper drop after the incident in OMV. As it was mentioned, the eligibility for the price cap or the regulated price of fuel, this is rather limited. With the recent change, the limitation went even further. I mean, simply, just the Hungarian citizens driving their personal cars are eligible for the 80% regulated price. For this reason, I mean, the sales portfolio includes also the commercial clients, where you can sell your product for the market price there.
Thank you.
I can't comment. I don't know what is the portion of the competitors, so it's hard to judge for me. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you.
Thanks. The next question would come from Oleg Galbur. Oleg, the line is yours.
Yes. Good morning, and thank you for the presentation. I have three questions, and the first two refer to the consumer service segment. First of all, on the acquisition of the filling stations in Poland, now that the merger between Unipetrol and Lotos has been finalized, I was wondering if you can tell us more about the timing when to expect the acquisition of stations in Poland to be finalized and consolidated. It will show up in your number and result.
Also, how would you think about the contribution of the Polish retail business, considering that on one hand, there is a better fiscal environment in Poland in comparison to Hungary, but on the other hand, that you need time and and probably costs to rebrand and integrate the network into your supply chain. How should we think about the net contribution of this acquisition? That would be my first question. The second one, if you could provide a bit more details on this retail tax you were talking earlier about, how should we think about the impact, quarterly impact, going forward, and also, how long would you expect the tax to be in place? Thirdly, I'm sure you've probably done this exercise, and hopefully you can share the findings.
I was wondering, what would be the overall impact on the combined downstream and consumer segments results, provided that on one hand, MOL would be buying Urals type of crude from non-Russian sources, and on the other hand, there would be no windfall taxation in Hungary. Would, in the end, MOL be better off or not under the, let's say, normal market environment conditions? Thank you.
Okay, thank you very much. I try to be short on that, considering about the time. The first question was about the Polish timing. First of December, that's what we expect, that we will be capable to take over the management rights and start the operation there. That's by the way, the timeline for Unipetrol as well, to hand over the assets. You know, first they have to de-merger from Lotos Paliwa. I mean from Grupa Lotos to Lotos Paliwa, and also within Lotos Paliwa, they have to de-merger the wholesale and also the retail part. Then we will get the retail part only, and that the timeline is first of December. What could be the expectation towards the net contribution?
Well, what you see, obviously we continuously monitoring the Polish market trend and developments as well. The fiscalization, the fiscal situation as you also mentioned. What we see at the moment that according to the original acquisition model, I think we are quite strong that we will be capable to deliver what we expected. At the moment, what you see that after a few mature years, roughly $70 million EBITDA contribution with what we can count with. I also see a lot of upside opportunities on the Lotos operation what we identified. The retail tax impact for the future, very hard to predict.
As I mentioned, there is two elements at the moment, what we reported. The first is a revenue-based percentage what we have to pay, and the supplement, a one-off supplement of that. All together in the first half, that resulted $34 million. Now, in the second half, this one-off item will not be there, which would mean that roughly $20 million, the retail special tax affect what we expect on the second half of the year. What will be in the future or in the next year, I think let's come back to that, a bit later. I think that was all to the retail, right?
Yeah. Thank you.
Yeah and t here was a question, Gabriel Szabó speaking, related to the future of the Urals processing. I mentioned what is the status. I mentioned that we are going to run a complex test. We will run to find an optimum, I mentioned. I don't know what are the other Urals type non-Russian crudes at the market. I don't know what is the current discount or whether there is a discount there. I would not go to any projection.
Well, the question was more of a general type of question. I was wondering, under normal market conditions, provided that you buy crude at the, I don't know, price of Brent with the $1-$2 discount on one hand, and on the other hand, there is no windfall taxation on the retail and refining side. The overall impact would be a positive one or a negative one on the combined results of the two segments.
The negative impact or the loss opportunity in downstream because of the windfall taxation for the first half of the year is about $100 million. This is, I mean, the gap between the normal situation and the current one.
Okay. Understood. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks. I see Michal Majersky willing to ask a question.
Yes. Good morning. I have the question about the use of proceeds from this compensation in INA case. When do we expect to receive the cash? Do you plan to return it to shareholders or reinvest it? If reinvest, would it be similar structure upstream versus downstream to INA assets, or maybe you plan to change it?
This is György Bacsa. Regarding the first part that when do we expect payment. The award itself is clear, final and binding. It's first there is of course we are waiting that the Croatian government would settle the award. The stated amount in the award. We are of course in discussion with them, so we are not just silently waiting for it. Definitely we expect that this would be settled in due course and on a, h ow to say, on the normal way, how usual judicial awards are paid by the parties to each other. The second one is that this is a compensation. I think it's very important.
This compensation is for the damages, mainly direct and actual damages that we suffered because of the breach of the binding agreement from 2009 between the government and MOL Group. Basically, this is, these money is healing our past wounds, so injuries that we had. Of course, any decision that how we will use the proceeds is still ahead of us. Definitely it's not, how to say, it's not a lottery win, it's a compensation. It is named, and it is actually a compensation for past damages.
Thank you indeed for joining MOL's second quarter 2022 call. The call is now complete, as well as the Q&A. In case you have any follow-up questions, please get back to the Investor Relations team. Thanks again. Bye-bye.
Thank you. Bye.