Good morning, everyone. Welcome to Petrobras webcast with analysts and investors about the first quarter 2021 results. It's a pleasure to have you with us today. We would like to inform you that all participants will follow the transmission by internet as listeners. After an introduction, a Q&A session will begin. You can send us questions by email petroinvest@petrobras.com.br. Today we have with us, Cláudio Mastella, Chief Trading and Logistics Officer, Fernando Borges, Chief Exploration and Production Officer, João Henrique Rittershaussen, Chief Production Development Officer, Marcelo Zenkner, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer, Nicolás Simone, Chief Digital Transformation and Innovation Officer, Roberto Ardenghy, Chief Institutional Relations and Sustainability Officer, Rodrigo Araujo Alves, Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer, Rodrigo Costa Lima e Silva, Chief Refining and Natural Gas Officer. The presentation will be available throughout the webcast on our company's website.
We will start by watching a video of Petrobras CEO, Mr. Joaquim Silva e Luna.
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Now we start the presentation. I will call our CFO, Rodrigo Araujo Alves. Rodrigo, you may start, please.
Thank you, Carla. Hello, everyone. Good morning. It's a pleasure to be here with you for the first time as Petrobras' Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer. I hope everyone is safe and doing well. First of all, let me start. Next slide, please. Next one. Let me start with safety, which is, of course, a fundamental value for our company. We've been very proud with the results we've achieved over time. It's important that for the first quarter of 2021, we have a total recordable injuries per million man hours of 0.62, which is within the maximum acceptable limit that we have of 0.7. Of course, with respect to safety, we always have a zero fatalities ambition. Unfortunately, we had one fatality during the first quarter, our ambition is always to have zero fatalities.
With respect to the recent actions that we developed to support the Brazilian society in the combat against the COVID-19 pandemic, we've engaged in the donation of individual medication to the Ministry of Health in a joint action with other Brazilian companies. We've also acquired many oxygen units and supplied public hospitals and donated oxygen cylinders in an action that involved the amount above $15 million. We have also changed, for certain platforms, the boarding schedule in order to reduce the turnover and reduce the risk of contagion within our employees. Some of them have already returned to the original schedule, some of them are still working on a different schedule to support lowering contagion. With respect to the emissions in the first quarter, in terms of E&P carbon intensity, we have reached 16 kg of CO2 per boe. In terms of refining, we had 39.9.
They're both within the acceptable maximum limit for the year that we defined as our 2021 target. In terms of absolute GHG emissions in the first quarter, we've emitted 15.4 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. We are a little bit above our annual target, but we expect that we can recover throughout the year. Next slide, please. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about our financial results in the first quarter. We had a very strong quarter with solid operational and financial performance. Our recurring EBITDA achieved a 34% growth in the quarter with a 55% recurring EBITDA margin. We also posted a very strong cash generation of $7.2 billion. When we reduce by the investments that we made in the first quarter, we have a positive free cash flow of $5.6 billion.
Of course, it's important that this free cash flow is supporting our trajectory to reduce our debt and to improve our balance sheet. When we compare annually, we have reduced already $18.3 billion year-on-year and the quarterly reduction of $4.6 billion. It's also good to note that we've reduced additional $3.2 billion after the end of the quarter to April 2021. We're highly focused on our deleveraging trajectory. In the first quarter, we repurchased bonds in the amount of $1.4 billion, and we prepaid bilateral debts in the amount of $0.3 billion as well. We had a cash flow from our divestment proceedings that we've closed during the quarter of $200 million. Of course, it's important to note that we've increased our natural gas and oil production in the first quarter in 3%.
Even more important is to point out that we had almost 70% of participation of our pre-salt layer production, which of course adds more value to our portfolio. This was a very important result for the first quarter. We also had record sales of our S10, our 10 ppm low sulfur diesel. With respect to production, it's good to mention as well that we had inventories made during the first quarter, so there's around 27 million bbl that were not realized as exports in the first quarter. We already have an important improvement coming out for the second quarter with respect to exports that are ongoing by the end of the first quarter. When we look at the external environment, we had an important improvement in Brent prices, 38% during the quarter, and of course, our performance was positively affected by the improvement on Brent prices.
We also had, in terms of the average exchange rate during the quarter, an improvement from BRL 5.4 -BRL 5.47. This was almost flat during the quarter. When we look at the end of period exchange rate, and this is important because there's a relevant impact in our earnings for the first quarter due to the non-cash foreign exchange losses. There was a depreciation of the Brazilian real from BRL 5.2 -BRL 5.7 per dollar, so a 10% depreciation that affected our earnings for the first quarter. Next slide, please. As I mentioned before, we are highly focused on reducing our debt, and we experienced a $4.6 billion reduction in the first quarter and additional $ 3.2 billion until the end of April.
When we look at the amortization profile, it's also interesting to note that we have a very solid liquidity at this point, and the profile, the schedule of amortization of our debt is very comfortable. We've increased the average maturity of our debt to a point very close to 12 years, we're at 11.84 years at this point. The average cost of our debt had a marginal increase from 5.9% - 6%, as we look at the portfolio and the schedule of amortization of our debt, we're very comfortable with the current situation. Of course, we are continually monitoring opportunities to reduce the cost of our debt and to increase the maturity of our debt, we're comfortable with our amortization profile.
It's also important to note that alongside with our $12.5 billion in cash, that's being reduced after the end of the quarter with the prepayments that we made after the end of the first quarter. We also have $8.3 billion in revolving credit lines that give us enough support in terms of liquidity, even during challenging times like what we had in 2020. Next slide, please. Looking at the recurring EBITDA in the quarter, as I mentioned before, we've had a very strong quarter. It's interesting to note that our recurring EBITDA indicates that we had an increase of 34%, supported by the increase in Brent prices, as I mentioned before. It was, in terms of both financial results and operational results, a very strong quarter. We had a very strong operational position in the quarter as well.
It's good to mention, of course, that we had also lower operating expenses in the first quarter. Our cost resilience is also supporting the improvement in our performance. When we look at the adjusted EBITDA Q-on-Q, it's basically flat, a little bit of increase from $ 8.8 -$ 8.9. When we look at the recurring EBITDA, it points out that we had a quarter with less noise and a very good financial operational performance. Next, please. Looking at our segment performance, of course, E&P was strongly impacted by the positive increase in Brent prices. We had a Brent depreciation, and also we had an increase in our production in the first quarter, especially because we had stoppages in the fourth quarter of 2020.
With respect to our RTC segment, we see a very important improvement in performance during the quarter, which of course, was highly affected by the inventory turnover effect, especially coming from the increase in Brent prices. We had higher realization prices, and we have lower costs that were made in prior periods. When we remove the inventory turnover effect, when we look at replacement cost EBITDA, we had a 7% decrease in the quarter, especially due to the seasonality and of course, to the lower levels at the end of the period, given the restrictions that are still remaining with the pandemic.
With respect to the gas and power segment, we had a 24% decrease, which was mainly affected by lower margins in the generation of energy and in the commercialization of natural gas, especially given the increase in the cost of importing LNG, especially JKM LNG has increased substantially in the first quarter. This affected the performance of our gas and power segment. Next, please. As I mentioned before, when we look at the cash generation for the period, we had a very strong operational cash flow, $7.2 billion. Our operational cash flow was positively affected by tax credits, by the decision of removing VAT from the calculation basis of fiscal fees. We had tax credits in the first quarter, which were almost offset by prepayments that we made to our pension plan in order to support our divestment of refineries.
We prepaid certain obligations that we had with our pension plan in order to streamline the process of divesting our refineries. As I mentioned, when we look at the financing part, we paid around $2.6 billion when we include leasings and interest payments, and we also had net payments of $3 billion in terms of financing. A substantial part of these payments were prepayments. We had a strong free cash flow of $5.6 billion supporting our deleveraging efforts. It's also good to notice that we had a $0.2 billion inflow of cash from our divestment procedures. Next, please. I've already mentioned before, but we are continually focused on liability management and capital optimization. We've repurchased bonds after the end of the quarter. We had a tender offer of about $2.5 billion.
We also have the extension of the maturity of revolving credit lines of around $2 billion to 2026, which supports our liquidity and helps us to reduce the optimal level of cash that we remain in our balance sheet. Looking at liability management from a broader perspective, we also settled tax contingencies during the quarter. This is very important for us. We're continually monitoring opportunities to settle tax liabilities and all kinds of contingent liabilities in terms that are favorable for the company. We've paid around BRL 500 million, a little bit less than $100 million to reduce liabilities of BRL 1.5 billion in the first quarter. We are also recovering around BRL 0.2 billion in judicial deposits that we had.
It was a very relevant transaction and very good transaction in terms of liability management that we were able to realize in the first quarter. Next, please. In terms of portfolio management, our portfolio management agenda is continuing very strongly, and we are trying to implement as fast as we can our M&A processes. We had already signed six transactions in 2021, and we have closed seven transactions. Of course, the most relevant is the RLAM Refinery that we signed in the first quarter of 2021. Up until May 11th, we have already signed $2.5 billion in transactions, and we had cash inflows of around $500 million. Next, please. This is the general picture of our portfolio. We have around 50 transactions ongoing, and of course, we are highly focused on expediting our M&A transactions.
We have signed relevant procedures with the STAC, with a highlight to the NTS, to the natural gas transportation company that we sold, the remaining 10% that we had. We closed this before May 2021. This is the general picture. Next, please. Finally, with respect to our net income to our earnings in the first quarter, we had a recurring net income of $0.2 billion compared to $5.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
This is basically due to the impact of the devaluation of the Brazilian real. As you know, we have our debt indexed to US dollars, and we look at the period and foreign exchange rate to mark our debt by the end of the period. We had a negative foreign exchange loss in the first quarter. Non-cash, of course, but this impacted substantially our recurring net income. This is the general picture of our financial highlights of the first quarter, and now I'll give the word back to you, Carla. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. We can move now to the Q&A session. The first question that we receive comes from Frank McGann with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. It's for you, Rodrigo. The new deadlines for refinery sale, though giving more time to complete the sale, still seem to be challenging in terms of time. How does the company see the process to sell the refineries advancing? What are the key challenges? Would contracts include any guarantee in terms of pricing or returns that could be provided by Petrobras?
Good morning, Frank. Thank you for your question. First of all, in terms of the general picture of our M&A process, it's good to highlight that they continue normally, and we're going through the predefined gates that you already know that occur in our M&A activity. Of course, you know that especially for refining assets, this involves complex transactions that, of course, have several steps, both from our side and from the buyer side, and of course, with the regulators as well.
We are highly focused on complying with the deadlines that were established by the Brazilian antitrust body. In the first quarter, we've signed the sale of RLAM, our refinery. We're focused on complying with the deadlines of the antitrust body in Brazil. In terms of guarantees and returns, we don't expect to provide those. Of course, each transaction has its own SPA, its own contract. This is more of a general picture. Thank you for your question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The second question from Frank McGann is for Ardenghy. Ardenghy, in recent months, there seem to be a more focused effort globally to deal with climate change that could, at least on the margin, speed energy transition. To date, understandably, Petrobras has focused on maximizing its own privileged hydrocarbons asset base. Over the medium to long term, what are the options? If any, the company could be studying to possibly adjust its strategy to meet long-term challenges.
Hello, Frank. Thank you for the question. I divide the answer in two parts. First, what we have accomplished over the years. It's true that Petrobras has been very focused on recovering and the financial side, but also we have done a lot in terms of carbon performance. Carbon performance is key to the future of any oil and gas company. It's what you call the double resilience, not just have a good project, a profitable project, but also a low carbon project that we can market our products in the world in the future. In this particular area, looking at the past, we have done a lot already. The so-called carbon intensity for the exploration and production of Petrobras has been very improving over the years. We have reduced the amount of carbon, greenhouse gases produced by barrel in more than 47% from 2009 - 2020.
That's a good number. Also, in the pre-salt that is today the key project for Petrobras, we have today the third largest carbon capture project in the world. Last year, we have been able to capture and put back to the reservoir 7 million tons of CO2. This is 18% of the world projects in a global scale. This what we have done. Also, it's worth to mention the low sulfur diesel in our refining plants. We have already mentioned this in our press release that the increase of the sales of low sulfur diesel is very important for Petrobras and has been improving over the years. That's very important to Brazil. As you know, Brazil is very diesel prone. We are a country that is very high in terms of consuming diesel, especially for transportation and public transportation in our urban areas.
Reducing the amount of sulfur in our diesel brings a lot of benefit for society. Looking at the future, because as you said, the energy transition is speed up and we have to be prepared. We are very focused on technology. Petrobras, as you know, very technology-driven company. We see opportunities in projects like the all electric, or in our platforms. If we can receive the necessary authorization from the authorities to put this kind of systems in our platform, we are going to be able to reduce in 20% our greenhouse emissions in our offshore projects in ultra-deep water, especially in the pre-salt.
The HISEP, that is a technology developed by Petrobras in which we are able to capture the gas, leaving the reservoir and separating the gas and returning back to the reservoir, the CO2. That's also very important. Also the renewable fuels, that we are also waiting for the authorities here in Brazil to authorize us to produce the renewable diesel in our refining plants. As a side effect of this production, the aviation biokerosene as a jet fuel. Those are the areas in which we are seeing the progress. We are very much focused on progressing and improving our carbon efficiency over the next years. Thank you.
Thank you, Ardenghy. The next question comes from Gavin Wylie with Scotiabank, and it's for Rodrigo. Rodrigo, do you expect higher dividends to shareholders to remain a priority for Petrobras, staying consistent with plans to distribute $ 30 billion-$35 billion over the period of 2021-2025? Will the new boards look to review the various aspects of Petrobras dividend policy? In particular, do you expect any amendments to the 60% payout of free cash flow once gross debt plus capitalized leases moves below $ 60 billion?
Morning, Gavin. Thank you for your question. First of all, we'll stay consistent, both with our dividend policy and with our expected dividend payments. Of course, our focus now is on achieving our debt target of $60 billion to 2022. We're moving as fast as we can to achieve our debt target. You can see that, as I mentioned during the quarter, we're using basically all the free cash flow that we have to reduce our debt. Given the challenges that's still imposed by the pandemic, of course, that we're still running on a higher cash level than what we think it's optimal. Our focus of the free cash flow at this point is to reduce our leverage. Of course, we want to improve the level of our dividend payments.
Once we reach our $60 billion debt target, our current dividend policy gives us enough flexibility to evaluate the timing and how to better implement our additional dividend payments in order to also ensure that we have a financial sustainability, both in terms of our short-term, medium-term, and long-term. It's important, of course, to preserve our financial stability as well. This is what we had in terms of targets and prospects. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The second question, also from Gavin, is to João Henrique. João Henrique, the five-year plan outlines the majority of capital spending will be allocated to upstream pre-salt developments and has de-emphasized exploration. Do you expect any changes to capital allocations relatively to what has been outlined in the current 2021, 2025 plan? Do you believe the upstream production growth or exploration should be accelerated?
Good morning, Gavin. Thanks for the question. Our expectation is to follow the premises of the plan presented to the market in 2020. The discussions for the next five-year plan already are ongoing, and we hope that we approve these premises in the next strategic plan. We expect no major changes in this direction.
I would like to make a complement for this answer to Gavin. We have allocated for this five-year plan, $6.5 billion in exploration, and we have $46.5 billion allocated to upstream area. We think that this $ 6.5 is a huge amount of money allocated to exploration. We have to look out that we do this exploration in partnership with other companies. We are focusing on equatorial margin, and the first result could increase our appetite to deploy more efforts in the coming years.
If you look to the development plan, we have, as I already mentioned, 13 production units to come. We have declared preferential rights for Atapu and Sépia, two areas that already has an FPSO in each one. Sépia will come on stream the second half of this year, and the production increase in this year is a result of the ramp-up of P-70 in Atapu area. In these two areas, we have room for another production unit. We are doing, I think, a good speed on even production development and exploration. Thank you.
Thank you, João Henrique. Thank you, Fernando. The next question comes from Christian Audi with Santander, and it's for Rodrigo Araujo. Rodrigo, uses of cash. With your continuous strong cash flow generation and already lower debt, how could you prioritize the use of your cash between paying down debt versus increasing CapEx versus paying dividend?
Thank you. Good morning, Christian. Thank you for your question. Well, in terms of if we can talk about a financial framework, it's important to see that the first dollar from the cash flow of our operations and of our M&A activity is, of course, directed to the payment of our commitments and the CapEx that is already committed in our business plan. Of course, that the second dollar is to reduce debt. As I mentioned before, we are highly focused on achieving our $60 billion debt target as fast as we can, our 2022 $60 billion debt target. If we look at the general picture for 2021, we are very close to achieving our annual target of $67 billion.
Of course, when we reach the $60 billion target, our current dividend policy gives us enough flexibility to evaluate the timing and the best way to implement our policy and pay additional dividends, of course, making sure that it is sustainable in terms of our financial ability for short, medium, and long term. With respect to future CapEx, of course, we are now focused on executing our 2021, 2025 business plan. As you know, we annually review our business plan, as João Henrique mentioned before. Of course, our CapEx will always be focused on value-generating assets, optimizing our portfolio in terms of maximizing returns and efficiently allocating capital so that we maximize our returns. This is the general framework that we have. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The next question is for Fernando Borges. It's about production outlook. Could you just touch on potential startup schedule and maintenance schedule for the FPSOs for the rest of the year, and how it could impact production?
We had a very busy maintenance work in the last quarter of 2020, just because of the COVID pandemic, and we postponed at maximum the intervention, which brings more people to our units, but we had to do them. For this year, we see a steady level of maintenance, not causing any special decrease in production. Finally, we have come back to the normal in the speed of maintenance, the rate of maintenance of our production units.
Thank you, Fernando. The next question comes from Lilyanna Yang with HSBC, and it's for Rodrigo. Rodrigo, how do you see Petrobras' current strategy plan, and what key issues pertaining to the plan do you foresee this new administration should review or improve? Could you please share your top three priorities for this year? Do you believe that Petrobras should raise CapEx towards $15 billion as opposed to the current $10 billion, given the current levels of operating cash flow?
Thank you, Carla. Thank you, Lilyanna, for the question. Good morning. First of all, with respect to our business plan, we have a very solid business plan in place. Of course, our focus will remain on the efficiency of our capital allocation and portfolio management in order to maximize our returns. This is a top priority for us, and we're going to be continually focused on maximizing returns with our portfolio management. We have, as you know, a significant challenge of reducing our leverage, reducing our debt levels in order to be closer to what our peer companies have. This, of course, brings a lot of resilience, both to our future plans and to our portfolio as well. Another important message that we have is our focus on resilient projects. Resiliency is a key word.
As I think I mentioned before, not only financial resilience, but financial and environmental resilience is a main topic for us as well. As I mentioned before, and João Henrique, we have this annual process of reviewing our business plan. We don't expect to see any major changes in terms of the general guidance. Our capital allocation would be focused on maximizing returns and on having an effective portfolio management policy. Again, focused on the dual resilience of being resilient for lower Brent prices, as we experienced last year. All the companies had a major experience in terms of realizing the resilience scenarios that they had and, of course, focusing on our environmental resilience as well. Talking about the top three priorities, I would say that, of course, for 2021, our main priority is to ensure that our projects are on schedule. They support our cash flow generation.
Our committed CapEx and making sure that the projects are on schedule for 2021 is very important for us. I would say also that our priority is to ensure that we are able to move as fast as we can with our portfolio management agenda, which is also important, both to improve the returns in our portfolio and to reduce our leverage as well. Of course, I've mentioned before, reducing our debt is definitely very important for us in order to give us a solid financial position to support the additional dividend payments that would come from our dividend policy, which, as I mentioned before, gives us enough flexibility to analyze the timing and the best way to implement, considering the need to support our financial stability as well. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The second question from Lilyanna is also for you. What are your thoughts about the privatization of refining assets in Brazil? Is it necessary for Petrobras to sell the assets that are in the company's divestment plan in the coming two years or a three to five-year agenda for divestments is a more welcome one?
Thank you for the other question, Lilyanna. Well, first of all, with respect to the refining assets, as I mentioned before, we have a committed schedule with the Brazilian antitrust body. We're very focused on complying with that schedule. Of course, improving the number of players in the Brazilian refining market is good for the market, good for the Brazilian society, and good for Petrobras as well. We have an important output that comes from our divestment.
We're focused on complying with the deadlines that we agreed with the Brazilian Audit Court, with the Brazilian antitrust body, sorry. With respect to the divestment, to the portfolio management plan as a whole and to the three to five-year agenda, of course, we are always trying to anticipate those process and to streamline them, looking for opportunities that we have in the market. We're focused on doing things as fast as we can, but we're comfortable with the plan that we have in place now. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. We also received questions from Luiz Carvalho with UBS, and the first question is for Mastella. Mastella, the company has been successfully in keeping with the international priority, and somehow the results of refining have been solid. Would it make sense to think of a deadline of 24, 48, or even 72 hours for implementation of adjustments looking forward? What could change in the pricing policy?
Well, thanks for the question, Luiz. Our internal pricing policy went through some learning process in the previous years with a period with a very low volatility and another with very high volatility, even with daily adjustments. Today, we are at an intermediate level that, to my view, provides a balance with international markets, allowing us to compete efficiently and flexibly. Without immediately passing on the volatility of the international prices or the exchange rate to the domestic market. The adjustments up or down occur without a defined frequency and are announced on the business day prior to their implementation. We provide visibility on the prices practiced by location and mode, and this information is immediately published on Petrobras' website. Thank you.
Thank you, Mastella. The second question, also from Luiz Carvalho, it's for Rodrigo. Rodrigo, the BRDT stock price reached on Wednesday the level above the price of the last follow-on. In your view, would this be a trigger to unlock the sale of the remaining 37.5% stake? Otherwise, can you give more color on the rationale of the process?
Good morning, Luiz. Thank you for the question. As you know, we've announced, and it's of course in our 2021, 2025 business plan, our intention to divest of our remaining stake in BR Distribuidora. What we're doing now is evaluating the timing of the transaction in order that we can maximize the value of the transaction for us. This is basically where we are now. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. We received questions from Bruno Montanari with Morgan Stanley, and they are both for you. The first, does the company still intend to implement the enhanced dividend policy, distributing 60% of free cash flow once the optimal capital structure is achieved?
Well, good morning. Thank you for your question. As I mentioned before, Bruno, we're of course, currently focused on reaching our debt target of $60 billion for the year of 2022. We've been using all the free cash flow that we have to reduce debt. We know that given the scenarios still imposed by the pandemic, we're still running on a higher cash level than we think it's optimal. We think that it's necessary at this point. We definitely want to improve our level of dividend payments. As I mentioned before, our existing dividend policy gives us enough flexibility to evaluate the timing to implement the policy and to ensure, of course, we maintain our short, medium, and long-term financial sustainability. Well, thank you for your question.
The second question also for you, Rodrigo, is about the agreements with CADE. The company was recently granted an extension in the deadlines to sell refineries and also natural gas assets. If Petrobras is not able to meet the new deadlines, could it be subject to any sort of fines from CADE? In the case of REPAR Refinery, whose sale process had to be restarted, how to expedite the procedures in order to meet the new deadline?
Well, thank you, Bruno. I've mentioned before that, in general terms, our M&A, our portfolio management process are occurring normally, are ongoing through the gates that we have defined to our M&A activity. As I mentioned, you know that the refining transactions are complex transactions that involve activities from our side, from the buyer side, from the regulators. As I mentioned, we're highly focused on meeting the deadlines that were established by the Brazilian antitrust body. This is where we are in terms of the general picture of the processes. Specifically with respect to REPAR, we're still evaluating how to restart and evaluating what we do with respect to the process, keeping our failed attempt in first time. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. We received questions from Rodolfo Angele with JP Morgan. The first question is for Fernando Borges. Fernando, pre-salt lifting costs seem to have stabilized at very interesting levels, below $3 per bbl. Is there room for further improvements? What is the expected trend here?
Thanks for the question. In a more broad view, Rodolfo, I could say, if you look back five years, we have a lifting cost of $9 per bbl of equivalent oil, that whole Petrobras. Today, we are in $ 5.2 bbl. In our strategic plan for the next five years, we hold on $ 5.2 bbl, even with the decline of the fields and increase of the cost of the assets we have to manage. If you put a big eye on pre-salt, in the previous five years, we had $4.30 per bbl.
Today, we are around $3 per bbl, in the next five years, we have a project of $ 3.80 per bbl-$4 per bbl and go steady with that. That's the whole view of lifting costs. The whole Petrobras, we could focus on something around $5, and pre-salt something around $4 per bbl. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Fernando. The next question from Rodolfo is for João Henrique. João Henrique, this is about the Búzios development. Can you give us an update on how things are moving along? Will all the new FPSOs have 225,000 bbl per day of capacity?
Currently, we have four FPSOs in production in Búzios field. You have already highlighted three FPSOs that are in construction, Almirante Barroso, Almirante Tamandaré, and P-78. We have planned the start productions for these units in 2022, 2024, and 2025. The capacity of these units will be 150 to Almirante Barroso, 225,000 bbl per day to Almirante Tamandaré, and 180 to P-78. We have already two new units on the procurement phase, P-79 and P-80, with 180 and 225,000 bbl per day. Another two units are on planning, in the studying phases. This unit will be contracted probably in the EPC format. The idea is to have this unit with the production capacity up to 125,000 bbl per day. On the end of the development phase of Búzios field, we expect to have a total production around 2 MMbpd , equivalent oil barrels per day.
Thank you for the question.
Thank you, João Henrique. Now I have question from Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs, and the question is for Rodrigo. Rodrigo, has there been any change recently to the offers previously made for assets up for sale?
Thank you, Bruno. Good morning. Thank you for your question. Well, we haven't seen any changes to offers previously made for assets. What we see, of course, is a usual negotiation process that is part of any M&A transactions going through the gates that you know exist in our M&A activity process. Of course, what I can say is that we're focused on moving as fast as we can in our M&A transactions. We haven't seen any specific changes. Thank you for your question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The next question comes from Andre Hachem with Itaú BBA, and it's for you. Amidst the recent volatility in the fuel price environment, how has the sale of the refineries been evolving? How the new management team see this topic? It's reasonable to assume that the sale of REPAR and Refap could still happen this year, and closing and signings could come through next year.
Good morning, Andre. Thank you for your question. Well, as I mentioned before, we are focused on complying with the deadlines that were established by the Brazilian antitrust body, including Refap, of course. This is what we can say for now. We don't see any disturbance in the process at this point. Of course, we remain focused on complying with the deadlines. As I mentioned before, with respect to REPAR specifically, we're still reevaluating the process, given our first failed attempt. Thank you.
Thank you, Rodrigo. The second question from Andre is to Fernando Borges. Fernando, the agreement over the TOR surplus, with the Chinese NOC, was expected to occur during the second half of 2020. How has this been evolving? When should we expect to see a final agreement?
Andre, the negotiations are going well. It's a complex one because we have a field with four units installed, and we have room for more eight units, up to eight units, so it complies in compensation. This thing's going very well. We expect next September to finalize this, and it's going to be opportune for Petrobras to receive the compensation and starting sharing the production with the two partners. Thank you.
Thank you, Fernando. The next question is from Vicente Falanga with Bradesco BBI. It's for Rodrigo. Rodrigo, do you believe the sale of BR Distribuidora is positive for Petrobras from the perspective of capital reallocation?
Thank you. Thank you, Vicente. Thank you for your question. Good morning. Well, as I mentioned before, you know that BR Distribuidora is one of the assets that we intend to divest from the remaining stake in our business plan. Yes, we do believe that is positive, in terms of capital allocation. What we're doing now is evaluating the timing in order to maximize the value of the transaction for us. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. Next question, also from Vicente, is for Mastella. Mastella, what, in your view, is an optimum price policy for Petrobras? Do you believe that the government will push for a stabilization fund?
Well, Vicente, good morning. Well, we try to answer your question. We do believe it's the one we are currently practicing, the best one. Of course, we want to always adapt to the business environment, take into account our options and also our competitors' options, of course, aiming for the best profitability. It's important to say that we try not to pass on to the customers eventual market volatilities. We maintain the alignment of prices with international market. This is very important to ensure that the market continues supplied without risk of shortages by not only Petrobras, but several actors responsible today for serving different Brazil regions. In addition to Petrobras today, we have distributors, importers, other refiners doing this job. This same competitive balance is responsible for price reductions when the supply grows in the international market. It has occurred throughout 2020, for example.
Important to say that fuel prices practiced by Petrobras are not the only component of the price felt by end consumers. We have to add federal taxes, state taxes, cost of acquisition, mandatory mix of biodiesel and ethanol in case of gasoline. On top of that, gross margins for distribution companies and fuel stations. We do our part trying not to pass on volatility, but it's very, very important for us and for the other actors in this market to keep on making our prices in equilibrium with the international market. It's very important for the good workings of this market. Thank you.
Thank you, Mastella. The next question comes from Regis Cardoso with Credit Suisse, and it's for Fernando Borges. Fernando, Petrobras recently declared interest in both Sépia and Atapu areas. Does it make sense to participate in the auction with a consortium? Is there any synergy in replicating in Atapu in the new surplus volumes auction, the same consortium of the conception contract? For Sépia, would it make sense to enter in the bidding process alone?
Regis, bidding strategy is something that any company use to open. Petrobras has a policy. Petrobras has a value that is go with partnership in all our new activities in the ultra-deep waters or exploration. We are a company that's open to share the risks and the profits of our activities, even always with partners. That's the one component of our strategic plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Fernando. We have one last question from Barbara Halberstadt with JP Morgan, and it's for Mastella. Mastella, would be great to get some additional color on the dynamic for the export market after the first quarter of 2021.
Thank you, Barbara, for the question. I'd like to share our crystal ball related to the future scenario. What we have seen in the first quarter this year, some weaker premiums. Since then, the market fundamentals, in our view, have improved significantly. China demand is picking up, and we are getting some strong support for premiums on sour crudes. Vaccines roll out in several places in the world have also improved the market sentiment. In our view, this provides a path for the recovery of the oil demand. We do see some improvement in the premiums for our oil crude oils over the next quarters. Thank you.
Thank you, Mastella. We also have one more question, from Barbara to Rodrigo. It's about liability management. Rodrigo, what do you expect in terms of liability management for the rest of the year?
Thank you, Barbara. Good morning. Thank you for the question. First of all, as I mentioned, we, of course, we are highly focused on reaching our debt targets, both the $67 billion for 2021 and $60 billion for 2022. We are, of course, always looking for opportunities to reduce the cost and to increase the maturity of our debt profile for the remaining portion of the debt that we'll still carry after we achieved our targets.
We're continually focused on this. When we think about liability management in a broader perspective, as I mentioned during the presentation, we are continually looking for opportunities to settle liabilities that we have in general, contingent liabilities in general, whenever we find opportunities to settle them, in favorable terms for the company. We are, of course, always looking for opportunities to do this. This is how we view liability management as a whole. Thank you for the question.
Thank you, Rodrigo. At this time, we conclude our Q&A session. If you have any further questions, you can send it to our investor relations team. Rodrigo will now make his final remarks. Please, Rodrigo.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for your time today, for being here with us for our earnings call of the first quarter of 2021. As I mentioned before, we had a very strong quarter, both in terms of operational and financial performance. We are highly focused on executing our strategy and delivering our 2021, 2025 business plan. Thank you for being here today, and feel free to contact our IR team with whatever questions you still have. Thank you very much.