Good morning, and welcome to OceanPact's first quarter of 2024 earnings call. All participants will be on a listen-only mode during the presentation, and later, we will hold a question and answer session when further instructions will be provided. This conference is being recorded, and the replay will be available at the company's website at ri.oceanpact.com. The slide deck is also available at the company's investor relations website, as well as at the CVM website at www.gov.br/cvm. Before proceeding, we would like to mention that the forward-looking statements that may be made during this conference call relating to the company's business prospects and forecasts are predictions based on the management's current expectations.
These expectations are highly dependent on macroeconomic conditions, market risks, and other factors. With us today are Mr. Flavio Andrade, CEO. Haroldo Solberg, the General Manager of Vessels and Vice President, Eduardo de Toledo, CFO and IRO, and Adriano Ranieri, Director of the Services segment. They will first comment on OceanPact's 1Q24 performance, and later, they will be available to take your questions. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Andrade. Mr. Andrade, you may now begin.
Good morning, and thank you, Doris. Good morning, everybody, for once again attending our earnings call. We're going to talk about the first quarter of 2024. Once again, we are very glad to show positive results. Our EBITDA came to BRL 144 million in the quarter. We signed new contracts in the amount of BRL 1.2 billion, which will take our backlog to approximately BRL 3 billion. We believe that we are at a very good moment right now.
The services segment is also growing, as you are going to see in the presentation. Let's go to the next slide, please. Well, as I said earlier, our revenue came to BRL 490 million, 25% higher year-on-year. Our EBITDA came to BRL 144 million, 43% higher year-on-year. The utilization rate was slightly better than our estimates. It was at 83%, bringing our net profit to BRL 21 million. I would like to turn the conference over to Haroldo, who will talk about the vessels results in more detail.
Thank you, Flavio. Good morning, everybody. I'm going to talk about the main operating highlights in the quarter in the vessels segment. But before that, I would like to highlight that our reporting model in the vessels and services segment changed. Until December last year, the Subsea segment and our own ROVs, they were included in the vessels segment. Starting in January this year, it is going to be reported under the Services segment.
Now let's take a look at the vessels map for 2024. In the first quarter, we reached 83% utilization rate, one percentage point higher than our guidance. The main events were the mobilization of three vessels, Barcelos, Manuel Luís, and the others that you can see in orange, Jim O'Brien, and Loreto. We also have the ones that are in docking in blue. In pink, you can see the maintenance of three vessels. First, the das Paredes , Pearl, Ilha de São Sebastião, and Ilha de Santana, and also Abrolhos. You can see that we are in line with what we reported in the guidance in terms of utilization rate at 33%.
Now let me break down that rate for you. Starting on the left-hand side of the slide, you can see here that we had no vessels without any contract, so the entire fleet was under a contract for the whole quarter. The dockings impacted our utilization rate in 6%, and operating downtime came to 11% due to the maintenance operations that I mentioned before. On the right-hand side, you can see that the utilized days increased by 6% year-on-year and dropped by 4% quarter-on-quarter. That reduction is mainly caused by a lower utilization rate. Our net daily rate increased by 14%, going from BRL 125 to BRL 142, mainly because of the new contracts that we signed last year with higher daily rates. Next slide, please. Now I am going to talk about the results of the vessel segment.
I am going to exclude from our revenue, our partnership with Reach, with third-party vessels. In the first quarter of 2024, our net revenue came to BRL 256 million, and our EBITDA margin was 29%, and our EBITDA came to BRL 75 million. We can see that there was a reduction of 1% in the revenue and 8% in our EBITDA quarter-on-quarter due to dockings and maintenance, as I said earlier. In the year-on-year comparison, you can see that there was a strong increase by 22% in our EBITDA and 54% in our revenue. Now let's talk about the service segment.
Hello, good morning. Let's talk about the 1Q 2024 service result. The first unit is Subsea and Geosciences, and those are the two departments that use vessels for the provision of services. There was a significant increase in the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter comparisons, and we reached BRL 150 million in net revenue. Subsea really drove the results for this quarter due to three main factors. The first one was the entry into force of a contract for mooring line inspections.
Our assets were also at high availability, so we did not have too much downtime for ROV maintenance and bad weather, for example. There was a very high performance from our team because of that high availability. Now Oil Spill Response. This unit includes all energy response services on land and also in the ocean. This unit provided a growth in terms of revenue by 15% year-on-year, reaching BRL 31 million, and there was a slight 7% drop quarter-on-quarter. That is mainly due to two one-off events. They were services that we provided in the port area last year.
The third unit is consulting services and other smaller departments that are under development in the company. For example, logistics, innovation, and until the end of 2023, that also included Servmar when we sold it. This unit is in line with the results of 1Q 2023 at about BRL 15 million. In the first quarter of 2024, we are not including Servmar's revenue, therefore, we included revenues that made up for it.
However, there was a 55% drop quarter-on-quarter. There are two main factors behind this drop. The first one is the seasonality of the consulting business. Historically, consulting has a weaker first quarter, and the last quarter of the year is a stronger one. The second factor was Servmar's divestment. We were considering the net revenue of that business in this unit until the end of 2023. Now let's take a look at the consolidated results.
There was a 33% increase in our net revenue year-on-year, coming to BRL 161 million. Our EBITDA grew even more by 77%, reaching BRL 68 million this quarter. This is for sure the best quarter that we have had in the services segment, driven mainly by Subsea for the reasons I mentioned before. This quarter, we had a high availability combined with a high performance in our services agreement. Let me explain the increase that we had quarter-on-quarter. In 4Q 2023, we used third-party vessels for the provision of services in Geosciences. That is the reason why the margin was a bit tighter in 4Q 2023. I would like to turn it over to Toledo.
Thank you, Adriano. Good morning, everybody. It is a pleasure to join you today. As Flavio said earlier, we had a very positive quarter. We said in early March in our previous earnings call that that was the average that we should expect for the quarter, and that indeed came to pass. We had a 25% increase year-on-year in net revenue, and our EBITDA came to BRL 144 million with a 35% EBITDA margin.
Next slide. Our operating costs, they grew less than our revenue. Our revenue grew by 25% and the costs grew by 18%, and that is why our margins increased year-on-year. Our G&A expenses came to BRL 43 million in the quarter, according to our expectation. When we designed our forecasts for the year. Consolidated CapEx, it came to BRL 58 million, and 47% of that number refers to maintenance CapEx, which is mainly buying pieces and parts for maintenance and docking operations that we are going to have this year.
Our financial position, we finished the quarter with BRL 236 million in cash, a slight drop compared to 4Q 2023, and that is mainly due to the entry into force of new contracts with a higher demand for working capital. Our bank debt, we finished the quarter at BRL 914 million in debt and our net debt over EBITDA came to 1.57 x, lower than previous quarters. Flavio, over to you.
Thank you, Eduardo. As I said in the beginning, this quarter, we signed contracts in the amount of BRL 1,185 billion and the highlights are the three OSRVs, the oil recovery vessels with Jim O'Brien, Fernando de Noronha, which are the two vessels that we built in the past with the funding, and Macaé, which is also an oil recovery vessel.
We also signed a contract for Ilha de Santana, which is a PSV, and Parcel Manuel Luis with BW, including an ORV in it. So this is a multipurpose vessel that is serving an independent contract that is not Petrobras. With these contracts, we also had an increase in daily rates, and that led us to the backlog of BRL 2.9 billion that you can see on the screen. Next slide, please. As we usually do in our earnings calls, I would like to talk about sustainability and innovation. We have a project together with BioRen, a technology startup, to fight biofouling in our vessels and the blades, and that will give us significant savings, and also it is going to help us with the decrease of carbon emissions. We are very proud of our partnership with BioRen.
We also invested in Atmos Marine, which was created in the COPPE's incubator. It works in the area of weather forecast and climate. It is working with the government of Rio Grande do Sul in the agriculture area. We also participated in the main conferences related to oceans. We had one in Barcelona, and Fernando and Armandinho were there talking about sustainability, and we also had the World Ocean Summit put together by The Economist in Lisbon.
Now let's talk about our perspectives, starting with our perspectives for the market. We don't have any commercial downtime. We have contracts for all vessels. We resigned the five contracts that I mentioned before with good rates. We have some issues related to the RSVs that we mentioned in our previous earnings call. Petrobras' budget was not compatible with the rates that the market is demanding for the vessels.
What happened is that there were a number of contract extensions with a slight increase in daily rates. So in order for us to make sure that we will be able to provide vessels in the medium and long term, Petrobras will have other rounds of bids because the contract extensions cover usually only one year, so Petrobras is going to need new bids. We also see bids for decommissioning of platforms.
So they are removing platforms that are no longer interesting, they are no longer commercial, and that movement is accelerating. They have been announcing this for a long time, and it never happened, but it is going to happen. It is already happening. There is a new event related to the market, which was the bid for the construction of new Brazilian-flagged vessels. This bid is supposed to happen in August.
There are many questions around it due to technology issues and energy transition, whether or not the vessels will need to be prepared for a future fuel, which we don't know what it's going to be if it's going to be ethanol or hydrogen or something else. So there are some technical questions that will need to be addressed. Also, we need to know who's going to take the risk in this operation. Of course, we are interested in it. We are monitoring the situation closely and discussing it, and I think this could be a good opportunity for us. Now, about the fleet.
We have contracts for our entire fleet, or we are at a good path, and there is actually now a shortage of vessels, so our bargaining power is a little bit better. We have the upper hand here. We are going to continue paying close attention to opportunities and the market movements. We are also going to pay close attention to opportunities for consolidation, and we are going to keep our discipline with capital allocation. We're here to take any questions you might have. Thank you very much.
We will now begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, please click the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. If you wish to have your microphone enabled to ask your question, please request so in the Q&A field, and your microphone will be activated later when your name is called. You may also submit your question in writing. To do that, just please type in your question in the Q&A icon. The first question comes from Vicente Falanga from Bradesco BBI. We're going to unmute your microphone. Good morning, Flavio.
Good morning to the entire OceanPact team. First of all, congratulations on the great results. This is a very good signal that you are sending to the market. I have two questions. The first one is about the utilization rate for the coming quarters. This quarter was at 83%, and for the rest of the year, your forecast is 81%. I would like to know if you expect to see a decrease and then an increase. Also, what should we expect from Austral Abrolhos?
Apparently, it has a very good productivity, so what can we expect for this vessel? Are you going to accelerate maintenance because of its good performance right now? The second question is about liability management. That also includes the receivables from Petrobras. I would like to know what the refinancing process is like. It seems to me that that cost doesn't really match the rest of the company. Another question, if you allow me. What do you expect for the new rounds of bids with Petrobras? Do you think the terms of the contracts will be longer, and will the daily rates be higher?
Thank you, Falanga. I am going to address some of your questions, and Eduardo is going to help me with the other ones. About utilization rate, what we expect for the second quarter is a slight drop in the utilization rate. We had some downtimes, as you saw on the map. We had some maintenance operations, mobilizations, and dockings as well. We are going to see those happening in the second quarter. We are going to have fewer of those in the third quarter and even fewer in the fourth quarter. That is the best scenario that we have.
Of course, this is very dynamic. Earlier in the year, we thought that we would have to mobilize the RSVs for necessary upgrades, and that didn't happen. Then we started using Ruby, a PSV, in a Petrobras contract. So things change. I think that in the medium term, we are always improving. If something happens, if there is a bad utilization rate at some point, that's because that vessel is being prepared for a better contract. Now, addressing your question about Abrolhos. It is a mooring line inspection contract, and productivity counts in that type of contract. We learned a lot from previous experiences. You should remember that the Subsea department is relatively new here in the company, and the team was still strengthening and understanding the culture of the company.
Although the team is made up of very experienced people, we also had younger people in that team. This is a very good contract and productivity matters a lot. But the vessel needs to work well at the same time. We need to combine everything that we know and can do well in terms of services and navigation. Austral Abrolhos should have a scheduled downtime operation, as you saw on the map. I am sorry, I am not sharing my screen, but let me see.
Yes, we should have a downtime for Abrolhos in the third quarter. It is going to be docked. This is a very good contract, and Petrobras has signaled that it wants more of that contract, which is a natural movement. Since there is a shortage of vessels, they have to provide incentives for productivity. In services agreement, those incentives are much better than the other contracts. Now, I will let Eduardo address your questions about liability management and the refinancing of our debts.
Thank you, Vicente, for your questions and kind words. Well, about the debt, there is a possibility of buying back Debenture-3 in December this year, and Debenture-4 in July next year. So those were the first moments where we are going to have the opportunity to buy those debentures back. Considering the company's evolution and the market evolution, the market has been very favorable to the issuance of debt.
So I think this is a plausible scenario. We might exercise the right of buyback in December this year and July next year. Of course, we do not have to make that decision now. We are going to make that decision when we are closer to the dates where we are going to have those rights. But I think this is a plausible scenario. We have been talking to the banks about a potential new issuance, and for sure the conditions would be much better than the last issuances that we had. That is very clear. Well, that is as much color I can give you about that. Now, let us talk about the perspectives for the Petrobras new bids. I am going to let Flavio address those questions.
Well, Petrobras needs new vessels built in Brazil, Brazilian-flagged vessels. We think this is great. This is a very good movement in terms of favoring the Brazilian-flagged vessels, and there would be a fund from the BNDES to help in the construction of those vessels. But there are still many questions about what type of vessel would be worth building. There are also questions about the rates and also the payback for those vessels, considering that this is a different moment for the oil industry.
Petrobras has already indicated that the terms would be longer, for example, 10 years, which helps, of course. It is like a project financing for the construction of those vessels. We believe that there are few shipyards in the country that are prepared for that, so this process is going to be a marginal one. So we are going to have a slight increase only in the number of Brazilian-flagged vessels available. We hope that Petrobras will review its budget, because for AHTS, we do not have any free AHTS right now. For RSVs, the market prices were not appropriately reflected on Petrobras's budget, and possibly it will adjust that for the next bids. That is it. Thank you.
Thank you, Flavio. Do you know when those bids will happen for the existing vessels, I mean, not the ones to be built?
No, I do not know off the top of my head. I do not know if Haroldo or anyone in my team have information about that. Well, I think your question is about the new bids, right? Petrobras released new bids for up to four PSVs on May 17th, and there is another one for up to two PSVs on May 22nd, and there is going to be a bid for OSRVs also for May 22nd. So besides the bids that we mentioned, we have another three that we are expecting from Petrobras.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The second question comes from Eric de Mello with Itaú BBA.
Hello, good morning, and thank you for taking our question. First of all, congratulations on the great results, and I have two follow-up questions. The first one is about the daily rate cycle.
It is clear that there are uncertainties about the type of vessel, but just as a follow-up question, since we have those indications, does that change anything about the peak for daily rate for the next two or three years? A second question is, since we have more visibility on the utilization rate for the rest of the year with most vessels under a contract, I believe that utilization is very clear. What about your investments that are planned for 2024? If you could give us more color on that would be very helpful.
Thank you, Eric. Well, about the peak for the daily rates and our expectations vis-a-vis the bids for the new vessels and agreements for existing vessels, I believe that the bids will show clearly that the daily rates still have to go up significantly to justify building a new vessel, which is going to help drive current daily rates up. We should remember and be cognizant of the fact that the services provided by new and older vessels is almost the same, if the technology is appropriate as it is.
There hasn't been any disruption so far in terms of technology in the industry. So an RSV that was built in Norway in 2005, it delivers exactly the same with the same uptime and the same quality as a vessel that I can build today, 20 years later. That for sure is going to put even more pressure on the existing daily rates. It's going to drive them up. Now, Eduardo, if you would like to address the other questions.
Well, as we said in our previous earnings call, we expect to have a CapEx level this year that is similar to last year's CapEx. Last year, we acquired two vessels. We had the right and the obligation to buy them, the two Rochedo vessels. This year, that's not going to happen, but we have mobilizations planned and dockings planned as well, as you can see on the vessels map. I think our expectations are more or less the same.
Nothing has changed. Pearl had mobilization planned. It's not the current situation, however. Now Pearl is going to be pushed forward a little bit, and on the other hand, Ruby, which was not going to be used by Petrobras, now that we have an interesting contract for it, we decided to use Ruby in Petrobras, and it's going to require mobilization and CapEx. So for now, CapEx is in line with our previous earnings call and also with 2023.
Okay, great. Thank you.
If you would like to ask a question, please use the Q&A icon at the bottom of your screen. If you wish to have your microphone activated to ask your question, please write in the Q&A field that you would like to ask a question using your microphone, and your microphone will be enabled later when your name is called. Feel free to also ask a question in writing. We have a question submitted in writing from Eduardo Tinoco.
He says, "Haroldo, good morning. How's it going? Can you give us more color on the reason why the utilization rate was lower, especially when it comes to your expectations of 77% for the second quarter of 2024? One of the points that really caught my attention here is the maintenance and mobilization period for Ilha de Santana vessel. Can you comment on that? Also, if you could tell us what's the average age of this vessel and the fleet as a whole, that would be very helpful. Thank you."
Thank you, Eduardo, for your question. Starting with the utilization rate that you said was a little bit lower in 1Q 2024. Well, basically, the reason was not the lack of a contract, which was 0%, and mobilization was 4%, and that varies across the year. The main offender here in 1Q 2024 was operating downtime, which was about 11%. If we look at 2023, operating downtime was 8% on average related to the maintenance operations, which were more frequent this quarter.
But to mention one case specifically, which was Ilha de Santana, we had a 63-day downtime in the first quarter 2024, and that accounts for 3% of the operating downtime. That's why operating downtime reached 11% in the quarter. Now, for the second quarter 2024, we are also going to have more maintenance than last year's average. And basically, we are going to have more docking as well, for example, for Parcel dos Reis and Martin Vaz. And that is going to drive our utilization rate downwards. We are also going to have dockings for Opal. You asked a question about Ilha de Santana, too.
We had a maintenance operation in the first quarter, and it lasted a bit longer than we expected. And now it is under mobilization because we have a contract for it with Petrobras, and it should start in August. You also asked a question about the average age of this vessel and the fleet. Ilha de Santana is 18 years old, and the average age for the fleet is 15 to 16 years. I think that's it. If I missed any of your questions, please let me know. Thank you.
We have another question submitted in writing from Gabriel Angler with Batra Investments. He says, congratulations on the results, and can you give us a growth or drop percentage in the daily rate for the six new contracts?
Well, actually, the new contracts are for Ruby and Ilha de Santana. Ilha de Santana has a significant growth, north of 50%.
It was an older contract, so the prices are going to be adjusted significantly. And Ruby was in a spot contract, so the increase will be of about 20%. Obviously, this agreement now will be longer without the commercial risk of a spot contract. And we have also Jim O'Brien and Fernando de Noronha, which were in old contracts that were signed eight years ago in a very positive market moment. And the increase for them was between 15%-20%. And lastly, Macaé. Macaé had a shorter contract and therefore the increase is significant of about 50% in the new contract.
The next question comes from Rodrigo Fonseca with Galapagos Capital.
Good morning, everybody. Congratulations on the wonderful results. I have a question about this quarter's EBITDA and your EBITDA looking forward. Can we use this quarter EBITDA as a reference? And also the FX. There was a BRL 10 million loss in the financial line. Considering that there was an FX depreciation, is that related to your financial losses? Maybe in the future, we should have to subtract those BRL 10 million from your EBITDA and eliminate that financial loss line.
The other question is about water and sediment in the collections, which might have affected your results positively or negatively. The third question is about Abrolhos. You had a successful quarter in the operations of that vessel, and I believe that maybe this quarter was an outlier in terms of performance and profitability. I want to know overall, what we can expect looking forward, based on this quarter's EBITDA. Can we use it to project the EBITDA for the coming quarters?
I think Eduardo can take this one.
Thank you, Rodrigo, for your question. Well, starting with your question about FX. FX affects our financial result, but it is a balance sheet effect. We have hedge operations for our cash. We have a hedge for our revenues in dollar and our disbursement in dollar related to CapEx and financing. Those are the elements that compose our hedge operations. To address your question specifically, yes, when FX changes, our financial result will also change and revert that loss that we had in the first quarter. When it comes to our EBITDA, it has some effect, but not so much.
As I said, part of our costs are denominated in dollars, so that mitigates that effect. Again, the FX fluctuations will have more of an impact on the financial result, but in terms of cash, it tends to be neutral. When it comes to the water campaign, this quarter was not favorable because there was more sediment and Ocean Star will stop this quarter for docking. Geosciences is not contributing so much in the beginning of the year. Subsea is contributing more, as we said.
With Abrolhos, we had a great first quarter, and the trend for the second quarter is also to have a good quarter, and in the third quarter it is going to be docked. We are going to have lower availability for Abrolhos in the third quarter, according to our schedule. What should we expect in terms of EBITDA for the rest of the year, as you asked? Well, the first quarter was at the level that you saw in the presentation, and in 2Q and 3Q, the EBITDA levels should be lower, in line with last year.
In the fourth quarter, it should grow due to utilization rates and the factors that I mentioned in relation to our services segment. I think that is going to be the trend for the year. Nonetheless, three years after we acquired UP, we are reviewing the provisions that we made at the time of the acquisition, and it should contribute to our EBITDA in the second half of the year. Our expectation for the second quarter is for it to be in line with the first quarter. That's because of the review of the provisions that we made when we acquired UP. That is going to affect the second quarter results.
Okay, thank you very much.
We have another question submitted in writing, coming from Leonardo Scarlato. What is the current situation for the UP Pearl, Parcel dos Paredes, Fernando de Noronha, and Parcel dos Meros contracts? Was there an extension for those vessels with an increase in daily rates? Can you give us any color on the amount?
I can take that one. As we said earlier, Fernando de Noronha participated in a bid, it won, and now it is under a new contract. The daily rate in that contract is higher, but not so much because it had a contract in 2013 when daily rates were very high. There was still an increase, and I do not know if we included the amount in our report. Now, for Parcel dos Paredes and Parcel dos Meros had extended contracts.
Petrobras had bids, and the prices were not matching, so it opted to offer us a one-year extension for those contracts with an increase in the daily rates, an increase of about 25%-33%. Now, UP Pearl, we are still negotiating. There are a few opportunities for UP Pearl. We cannot announce them yet. If Haroldo has any comments, please go ahead.
No, you are perfectly correct. We have renewed contracts for all of them except UP Pearl. We are negotiating the contract, which is to expire in June, I think.
Okay. Thank you.
Another question submitted in writing from Bruno Francia Rostirola. I have a question about the contingencies against Petrobras and also the credit rights that were advanced. Is there any expectation for new advancements, and what is your expectation in terms of the materialization of these contingencies when it comes to your cash? Thank you.
Well, Eduardo has been bringing more information on that in our earnings call. We have nothing new to say here. In the case of Coral, we are reaching the Superior Court of Justice. We won in the first and second levels. I do not know why I cannot see the question any longer on my screen, but you also asked if we want to have more advances, right? I do not know why I cannot see the question anymore. If you could.
Well. Flavio, I have it, if you would like me to read the question again.
No, no need to do so. I apologize for the technical issues. We do not intend to have any other advances because everything is going according to plan, but we cannot give you a deadline. Our lawyers expect to reach a final solution soon, this year, until the end of this year. But you know how the judiciary works, right? Everything can change. Eduardo, if you have anything else.
Yeah. Well, the case law is very favorable to us. The precedents are positive, and if we have positive results as we expect We expect to see the resolution of this case until the end of the year, at least on the merits. Then the execution phase starts, and it can take up to two years.
We have another question from Edward Finley. You mentioned that as a vessel owner, you now have increasing negotiating leverage in the Brazilian market as the supply-demand picture is becoming more advantageous. Do you have any plans to charter in vessels from other geographies to take advantage of the situation? The second question is, we can see an increase in high-quality tonnage from other geographies, such as the North Sea, participating in Petrobras' PSP tenders. Do you expect this trend to continue? Do you expect Petrobras to become more flexible about the necessity of a Brazilian flag? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Edward. I am going to address your questions in Portuguese because of simultaneous translation. I hope it is working well for you. Addressing your first question, you asked if we have plans to charter in vessels from other geographies and bring them to Brazil, and the answer is yes. We are always paying attention to those opportunities. The Brazilian market demands more vessels, and even if we were to build vessels here in Brazil, we would not have time to build them and prepare them to meet the existing demand. So certainly, vessels will be chartered from other places to operate here in Brazil.
With the Reach results, which is the reason why we had some adjustments in the presentation, that is exactly the reason, because it is a foreign vessel that we are operating here in Brazil. So yes, we are interested if there are good partners and good contracts and good opportunities. Now, your second question, you asked if we expect Petrobras to be more flexible about the need of having Brazilian-flagged vessels. Just a piece of an explanation here. The preference for a Brazilian flag is actually a rule. It is a rule in our navigation framework here in Brazil. Just like in the U.S., there is the Jones Act, and Mexico has its own protections, Norway has incentives with tonnage tax. So, each country has its own way to protect its country's naval industry. In Brazil, there is a rule of preference of Brazilian-flagged vessels.
However, when there is no Brazilian-flagged vessel to meet a certain demand, we are allowed to bring in foreign vessels. If you remember, in 2015 in Brazil, we had 500 vessels operating, and it was a 50/50 split between Brazilian and foreign-flagged vessels. So, we can expect an increase in the number of foreign vessels operating in Brazil. We have an advantage here. The rule about bringing foreign vessels is very complex, but I will try to simplify it for you.
It gives the shipbuilders and ship owners in Brazil, the Brazilian ship owners, to bring foreign vessels in up to half the tonnage and twice as much tonnage in construction. If we combine those factors with the factor that when there is no available vessel, we can bring in foreign vessels, that should give us good opportunities, and we are always paying close attention to high-quality shipbuilders and high-quality fleets outside of Brazil to create a partnership with them. Thank you very much for your question.
Now, one last question from an anonymous attendee. The question is: what do you expect in terms of cash generation for the coming quarters? Will your working capital improve in the next quarters? Thank you.
Thank you for your questions. This quarter, we had a one-off situation related to the entry into force of new contracts, which brought us receivables in a longer term than we expected, but that situation was corrected. It was caused because of the beginning of the contract, but we have already addressed that situation. The amounts have already been received in the second quarter. We believe that working capital will no longer be a significant issue as it was in the first quarter.
That concludes OceanPact's earnings calls for 1Q 2024, and I would like to turn it over to Flavio for his closing remarks.
Well, I would like to thank you very much. We had a full house. I think this is a record-breaking number of attendees for our earnings call. Thank you very much for your support. I would like to also thank our team. Thank you for making this earnings call so interesting. I know that Eduardo likes to wrap up the call with some indications for what's going to happen in the coming quarter, so I would like to turn it over to him to do that. Thank you very much.
I would like to also thank our team, and we are extremely excited about this journey. We are excited about the opportunity of meeting the demand of the country and Petrobras' demand, and at the same time protecting the environment and working towards decarbonization. This is a triad that we are working on, and we are doing our bit with a lot of grit and energy. Thank you. Now, Eduardo, over to you.
Thank you, Flavio. I think I gave a little color on the perspectives for the second quarter when I was addressing the questions. Our EBITDA should be in line with the first quarter 2024 due to some factors. On the one hand, utilization rate that is going to be lower, and services that are not going to be at such a good level as the first quarter, which is going to drive our EBITDA to last year's level. On the other hand, we are going to have the revision of the provisions related to UP, which is going to give us positive results. Considering those two factors, our EBITDA should be in line with the first quarter.
We are also going to have our OceanPact Day on June the 18th. It is going to be held here at our headquarters. It is going to be a pleasure to have you all here so that we can discuss our strategy and our business positioning, which are usually not so much of a focus in the earnings calls. It's going to be a good opportunity for us to talk about the medium and long terms. Thank you very much for your participation. See you next time.
This concludes OceanPact's earnings call for today. Thank you very much. Have a good one.
Thank you. Bye-bye.