Good afternoon and welcome to Prio's First Quarter 2025 video conference call. I am José Gustavo, your manager, and I will be your host in this event. For those who want to follow us in English, there is simultaneous interpreting through the globe icon on the bottom of your screen. The translated presentation is available on our investor relations website. The comments on the results will be presented by our CEO, Roberto Monteiro, our CFO, Milton Rangel, and our COO, Francisco Francilmar. After the presentation, they will be available during the Q&A session. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. To ask written questions, you can use the Q&A button, or you can use the Zoom Raise Hand feature to ask live questions. This event is being recorded and will be available on our IR website.
This presentation contains information based on future estimates and forecasts based on assumptions adopted by the company, which can change and should not be considered facts or be used as the basis for financial projections beyond the plans expressed by the company. I'll turn the floor now to Roberto Monteiro, our CEO.
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our earnings call to discuss First Quarter 2025. I am going to go over the highlights. Francilmar will present the operational part, Milton will talk about the financials, and I will come back to close the presentation. I think that the biggest highlight we had was obviously the acquisition of Peregrino, 60% working interest. It was a long work. We talked about this field and that we had an intention to somehow, in some way, make this acquisition for many years now, and we finally managed to get there.
We managed to engage in this operation, and once engaged, the deal happened relatively quickly. Anyway, it was a great opportunity for the company. We are very excited about this operation. In addition to Peregrino, we had some positive developments in relation to environmental licensing during this quarter. We obtained the license to start drilling at Wahoo Field, so we are already drilling the first two wells of Wahoo. We also received approval to perform the workover at TBMT. There are two pumps that have been stopped, I guess, for almost a year or a little over a year, and we finally received approval to carry out the workover to replace these two pumps. The rig that is at Wahoo right now, on or around May 15th, will be in a position to be relocated from Wahoo Wells to go to TBMT to work there.
From May 15th onward, we will start the works at Tubarão Martelo Field, and we should finish them in approximately 40 days. We are talking about at around the second half of June, having the two Tubarão Martelo wells back in production. Now, turning to production, we presented an average daily production of 109,000 barrels and had 10 million barrels sold in Q1. We will see all of these numbers later. We had a lifting cost of $12.8. This $12.8 already includes the consolidation, I believe the main effect here is the consolidation of Peregrino. Let me remind you that Peregrino is a field that operates with a lifting cost of $18 per barrel.
Our intent in the future will obviously be to lower this lifting cost a lot, but what we had throughout the quarter was this: Peregrino Field operating at $18 per barrel and consolidating it in our operation, we recorded $12.8. It was a little above our expectations of something between $11 and $12 per barrel, but mainly due to the average production. We produced 109,000 barrels when our production was expected to be closer to 115,000. This gap of 5,000 barrels daily approximately did make a difference. This delta happened mainly at Albacora Leste Field throughout the months of February and March when we commissioned a compressor. There was a turbine that we replaced, then a compressor. These two events led to a lower efficiency throughout the months of February and March. In April, as we already showed, we had a much higher efficiency at Albacora Leste.
In April, we had already achieved an operating efficiency of 88.8%. We are already getting very close to our goal of 90% efficiency at the field. The month of May is also going well from the point of view of efficiency at Albacora. I hope we do not have any more problems. It was a great job that the onboard staff did, the offshore team together with the onshore staff as well, so that we could replace the turbine, the compressor, and so on, because these are complex elements, difficult elements to move. We did it quite successfully. It did take a little longer, but we were successful. Now addressing some of the financials, we issued one more tranche of local debentures for around $200 million. We posted revenue of $700 million, $720 million, adjusted EBITDA of $447 million, and a net income of $354 million.
Milton will explain all this a little later. I'll move on to the next slide on Peregrino. A little bit about the acquisition of Peregrino. As I mentioned, on May 1st, we signed the contracts for the acquisition of a 60% stake of Peregrino Field for $3,350 million. That's the price on January 1st, 2024. This price will be adjusted for the closing. We expect the closing of the deal to happen more towards the end of this year, between the end of this year and the middle of next year. This deal adds 200 million barrels of reserves to the company, considering 1P and 1C reserves. The deal is subject to the normal conditions precedent of this type of transaction, which are CADE approval—CADE is the antitrust agency—and ANP approval.
The beauty of this business is that it has a huge synergy with our assets. If we look here in this graph, we see TBMT and Polvo in the darker green on the top right of the map, and then just below sits the Peregrino Field. We have a lot of possibilities to operate these fields as a single cluster. They can share logistics bases, support vessels, helicopters, in short, all the logistics of the field. We think it is a deal with a very good return on investment, well suited for our expectations, for our M&A mandate, and so on. We are very, very pleased with this operation. Moving on to the next slide, I am going to show you some indicators. Milton will obviously go into more detail later.
We see here that the lifting cost had already increased to $11 in the fourth quarter of 2024, in part due to the consolidation of Peregrino, of one month of Peregrino. Now here, with the consolidation of the three months of Peregrino, lifting cost increased to $18.8, as I showed. Our expectation is that this number will come down with an increase in production. As I said, our production was 109,000. We should be producing 115,000 or close to 115,000. With TBMT, we should get close to 120,000 barrels daily. This would obviously bring a reduction, a small reduction in the lifting cost. When Peregrino is operated jointly, then there would be another reduction. Let's remember that Peregrino operated with a lifting cost of $18 a barrel, and our expectation is to bring that cost substantially down. We spoke about production.
Our cash position today is quite healthy at $700 million, and we have a net debt over EBITDA ratio of 1.3 times. That's our net debt over EBITDA, so also quite solid. I'm going to give the floor now to Francilmar, who will talk about the operational part. Then Milton will talk about the financials, and I'll be back for the closing. Thank you very much, Francilmar.
Hello, everyone. Thank you, Roberto. Let's go to slide six to speak a little about the performance of the assets. This first quarter of 2025 was very challenging for the company. We had some hurdles, some problems that impacted efficiency. In a good part of the field, I will detail this a little further ahead. This ended up negatively impacting production at the fields, and as a consequence, this put pressure on our production cost.
We recorded in this Q1, as already mentioned, a lifting cost of $12.8. It's far from what we want to work with. This was greatly impacted by basically the drop in production. Costs are well controlled. We actually feel a certain cost pressure, but so far we have been able to deal with it well. It's a matter of solving the occasional problems. Each field had a little bit of history, and we think that in the coming months, things should get back on track. I'll move forward to discuss the details. On slide seven, we are going to focus on Frade Field. In this first quarter, the field did well operationally. We had an operating efficiency above 99%, so very stable. The issue here is more of a natural decline of the field. There's nothing abnormal here.
Now, in April, we had a scheduled downtime of 12 days, and the main objective here was to make the adjustments for Wahoo Field to receive the oil from Wahoo. Control systems, hydraulic systems, a lot of work in the turret to install a new head. A lot of things were done here. We now need to make the final adjustments until we have the vessel really ready to receive the first oil from Wahoo. Several operational continuity services were also performed. We dealt with some pending issues to ensure that the asset is in better condition to have a good quality efficiency for a long time. That is it for Friday. Moving on to Polvo and TBMT on slide eight. In terms of stability, this was a good quarter for the cluster. There were occasional problems. We still had production loss from wells four and ten.
TBMT 10 is the largest producer at TBMT Field. This greatly impacts production and efficiency. We have to remember that we calculate efficiency by capacity, by comparing production potential and actual production. We have these two wells offline, and this had a big impact on efficiency of the field. We also had in Q1 an ESP that failed in a well at Polvo, well Pol 24, which is the largest producer in the field. This well hurt a bit the efficiency of the field. We managed to perform the workover. We do not have the need to ask for approval for that. We only inform the agency of the event because it is a fixed platform, dry completion. A long time ago, we agreed on this with the regulatory agency. What is new?
In the last few weeks, we received the approval to perform the workovers at the TBMT wells, wells 10 and 4. This is going to happen very soon. We are finishing the drilling phase of one well at Wahoo, and then the rig will be relocated to perform the workovers at TBMT. These workovers will take place in a sequence. First, TBMT 10, then TBMT 4. This should take around 40-60 days, depending on whether or not there's a problem there. If everything goes well, it will be much faster. That's it. We hope that in the next, say, two months, we will be able to return the field to its maximum level of production. Now moving on to Albacora Leste. Last year, Q1 was also a quarter of a lot of challenges.
We had solved the turbine problem which dragged on from December to January, hurting us a little. There were some generation problems, then we managed to deliver the turbines. We now have three turbines. It's very stable. We stopped having blackouts and power outages, but subsequently, when we were delivering a second compressor, we had a problem with the compressor that was working. The one that arrived did not work well either. It ended up creating an additional problem for us. In February and March, production faltered at the field. Production was very intermittent. This was solved. Finally, we managed to repair the compressor, so it's stable now, and the field is operating well. In April, we already reached a very stable level of production without interruptions at the field.
Efficiency reached 88%, and this is directly linked to production loss at the wells that are blocked with hydrates. We had two hydrate wells that were already in our potential curve, and as they did not start producing, they hindered efficiency. If it were not for this, efficiency would be well above 90%. We continue to work on the removal of these hydrates that are blocking the production line. This operation was shown to be a little more difficult than we planned, but we believe that in the coming weeks, we expect to have good results on at least one of these wells, and we will continue to try to resolve the second well. Moving on to slide 10 on Peregrino Field, we took over 40% working interest in December.
In this Q1, we advanced a lot in our understanding of the field, in drilling down on the details, the challenges, the opportunities of the field. This allowed us to absorb even more information and move forward, including with a desire to move forward and acquire the remaining of the asset. This is an asset that we dreamed to work on, and we tried to get it for a long time. It was a very long courtship, and now we have finally managed to have the wedding. It is an asset where we are going to work very hard. Now, entering the transition phase, we will learn even more. Equinor is an excellent company.
They have been doing a good job, and I'm sure the transition will be very round and will run at its best to guarantee the performance of the asset, its operational results, safety, and so on and so forth. The expectation is that the field will maintain high performance, maintain the development campaign. It has a large drilling campaign in phase two, which is on platform C. The other platforms will be undergoing workovers. There is a large campaign underway to improve integrity maintenance, which is taking place on the FPSO. We will move to platform A. All this will be maintained. We will not have any major disruption. We are just trying to optimize things to create more value for the company over the coming months and years.
Moving on to slide 11 on Wahoo, I'll give you a general update on the development of the field. We finally received the drilling license at the end of February. We quickly mobilized. We had all the resources ready and waiting for the green light. We mobilized quickly and started drilling. The strategy we chose in order to gain more time is to drill the first two wells in a batch, as we call it. They kind of move ahead more or less phase by phase. We gain a lot of efficiency and cost savings. We anticipate the collection of information and can make adjustments for the other two wells. This is happening. In parallel to that, as I mentioned before, the scheduled stoppage that took place at Friday was a good part due to Wahoo. This was also accomplished.
We now only have the final adjustments. After installing the large equipment, we will move on to commissioning and final adjustments. This should last a few more months, but it is totally in our hands to speed up the process or not. The big challenge ahead is really to receive the installation license for the production system, which is the underwater equipment. We have all the resources scheduled and prepared for use. We have two boats that lay rigid equipment ready for the second half of the year, a little earlier than that or a little later. Today, the expectation is to have some news towards the middle of the year between June and July. Let's see how we can move forward. It is all about prepare for the worst and aim for the best and wait for the best. This is always our motto here.
Everything is prepared, everything ready to roll as soon as we have a green light, so we can work with that. I finished my part and give the floor to my friend Milton. Thank you.
Thank you, Francilmar, and good afternoon to everyone. Moving to slide 12, where we talk about Prio's financial performance this quarter. Total revenue for the quarter was $700 million, and it is worth mentioning a significant impact, which was the sale of 10.2 million barrels. Why did sales increase compared to previous quarters? Basically due to the inclusion of 40% from Peregrino, now fully consolidated in this quarter. Peregrino alone contributed 3.2 million barrels, which was definitely relevant to the company's results. This revenue also takes into account a reduction in rent when compared to last year or the last few quarters.
The average rent price was around $74.70, $74.68, and our net sales price was more in the range of $68.50, $68.55. This gives us a discount, an implicit figure in this account of just over $6 per barrel. This is basically explained by the entry of Peregrino. Peregrino has heavier crude, so it pushes the discount up a little when we compare it with previous results when we did not yet have this field. Moreover, the cost of product sold reflects a lifting cost of around $12.8 per barrel. It is also important to remember that the impact of Peregrino, which is fully reflected in this quarter, Peregrino was acquired and carries a lifting cost of around $17-$18 per barrel, which is higher than what we see in Prio's other fields.
Before considering the acquisition, Peregrino had a lifting cost of just under $10 or $9 and some. That explains the increase seen this quarter. EBITDA reached $432 million, a margin of 62%, and adjusted EBITDA was $446 million with a margin of 64%. Financial income stood at $85 million, slightly above what we had previously reported. Here, I think it's worth mentioning two adjustments. First, an update on the interest on Peregrino's abandonment provision. I mean, this alone accounts for $17 million in the quarter, excluding exchange rate effects, which account for an additional $30 million. With that, we achieved net income of $344 million for the quarter. This, again, is a very solid result, a strong result, even taking into account the downward trend in brand prices, because we were able to maintain healthy margins and a positive result for the company.
Moving to slide 13, now here we show Prio's funding situation. I think it is worth separating this by markets, the markets that we normally access. The first market refers to bilateral debts with relationship banks. We already noticed a reduction in this tower for 2026. I mean, looking at the previous quarters that we presented, we had even more maturities in 2026. We have already started this rollover, an extension of debts, which is something totally natural and healthy move, one that we have been pursuing and have been able to execute very successfully. In addition, we look at the amortization schedule for the debentures, and this is basically the local capital market with very long maturities for 2027, 2028, and beyond. We also have the international bond coming due in 2026. We issued a five-year bond back in 2021.
As we have been saying for several quarters now, we are very interested in keeping an eye on this market, on being alert and also ready, because if it makes sense and if it is opportunistic, we want to reassess this international debt market, not only the local market, and also extend the maturity date to bring in even more cash, even more cushion for the company's commitments. Everybody knows and everyone saw the announcement of the 60% acquisition of the Peregrino Field from Equinor. Therefore, it is only natural and healthy to think about accessing these markets in order to continue enjoying the smooth liquidity we normally have. Looking at the picture of the end of the quarter, the duration was 2.62 years, which reflects the combination of current debt with an average cost of 6.39%, a very healthy cost.
Bearing in mind that when it comes to rating analysis or Prio's credit analysis, we have a positive outlook with all agencies, a very good perspective on our credit portfolio, even more so with the contracting of more production, more reserves like the Peregrino Field, as we can see in these results with the increase in sales and an improvement in the company's financial health. Moving on now to slide number 14, we have here net debt variation, which is a proxy for cash flow. We started at $2.3 billion with EBITDA of $447 million. It's also important to mention that in January, we paid $175 million related to an earnout from the transaction with Petrobras for the purchase of Albacora Leste. The impact from a negative cash flow perspective is also on working capital.
We had many sales in the quarter, but the cash was only received after the closing, so meaning now in April and May, and this has a slight impact on cash generation in the quarter. CapEx, $130 million, and this is separated with the development of the Wahoo Field, some investments also in Polvo and TBMT, $43 million in share buybacks, $45 million in financial expenses, in fact, cash expenses, and $27 million in taxes, and that brings us to a net debt of $2,448 million. Now, in slide number 15, here we see a very relevant indicator that we always monitor, net debt to EBITDA ratio, which is a covenant in our financing agreements. The covenant is 2.5 times, and today we ended the first quarter at 1.3 times.
This stability from the fourth to the first quarter of 2025 is basically explained by the CapEx that we are still carrying out and also by working capital, as I explained on the previous slide, sales that have not yet been received. I mean, the cash has not been received, but which we finally received in April and May, and this has increased the company's cash position. However, for covenant purposes, we are slightly above the covenant that we presented in the fourth quarter of 2024, but still at a low level, very comfortable and comfortable enough for us to take on new debt and then to make good investments for the company, such as the case recently announced, the recently announced acquisition of the Peregrino Field.
With that, I will now move on to the next slide and turn to Roberto so he can continue talking about the environment, ESG, and the next steps. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Milton. I am now going to talk a little bit about the environment and society. This quarter, we had average emissions of 27 kilograms of CO2 per barrel of oil equivalent, up from the first quarter of 2024, mainly due to two effects. Actually, we had lower production compared to the first quarter of 2024, and there was another issue in the first quarter of 2024 that is a year ago, that two Tubarão Martelo wells were also operating. When these two TBMT wells are operating, the FPSO requires less diesel, so we can operate the FPSO with gas, with more gas.
In addition to having higher production, you consume less diesel and more gas, which is good or would be good for the environment. There were these two effects this quarter. This quarter, in addition to production being slightly lower than that of the first quarter of 2024, we were without these two TBMT wells, TBMT 10 and 4, which generated these two effects of a slightly higher emission level. We also hope to see a reduction with production stabilizing at a slightly higher level, number one, and number two, with the return of these two wells back into operation. Also, in the first quarter, we had what we call Safety Day, which is a company-wide mobilization on safety with lectures by ANP on safety and awareness.
We remain steadfast here with our health and wellness program, with trekking, trails, and cardio evaluations, which we have just included now for both our employees in Rio de Janeiro and also our offshore personnel as well. We are also moving forward with our sponsorships through our I Love Peru initiative, with organizations such as Vida Livre, Pirilampus, tennis matches, and more. In other words, we are always trying to give back to society a little of the warmth we have always received from the community. Moving on to the next slide, now I will refer to our next steps. Some of them are repeated. For instance, it continues to focus on the safety of our employees and third parties. This is just obvious. This is part of our DNA. The last topic is also repeated, and it refers to prospecting for new opportunities and M&A.
This is part of our DNA. We always look at opportunities. Of course, now coming out of large transactions like Peregrino, it is just normal to have a slight slowdown in M&As for a while. The company goes out looking for new opportunities. We always have ideas, and there are always areas where we have been looking at for some time. It is also important to talk about the more tactical issues for the second quarter of the year. The first is the resumption of the Frade Field, as announced in our production release yesterday. We had a scheduled shutdown. The resumption following the scheduled shutdown at Frade did not go very well. We had some problems with the Frade gas compression system, which we are solving right now so that we can resume operations as quickly as possible.
I mean, anyway, nothing that worries us too much. However, it was a setback in terms of the scheduled shutdown time, but we are making up for it. The operating efficiency of Albacora Leste is something we really need to maintain. I think the team did a great job here in the first three months of the year to get us to a very interesting level of operating efficiency, or maybe go back to an interesting level of operating efficiency. Now it's just a matter of maintaining that work and increasingly providing assurance regarding that efficiency, providing increasing resilience to that operating efficiency figure. Also, we are advancing in the licensing of the Wahoo installation. As I mentioned, we have already obtained the drilling license. Now we just need the installation license.
We have made some progress with IBAMA, which is slowly moving forward, like the Environmental Impact Report, our IMA, which they asked us to update. Therefore, we are making progress, and we are always very attentive to comply quickly and obtain this license as soon as possible. The first oil from Wahoo, which will be a consequence of the licenses, therefore a major focus. There is now a new item, which is Peregrino. We must now submit this Peregrino transaction to CADE, and after CADE's approval, we will formally begin the field transition process. During this transition, we should obtain ANP's approval, and we cannot operate the field before we get the approval by ANP, but we will begin the entire transition process.
You know, let's say learning how the field works, transfer of knowledge, transfer documentation, and so on, to be 100% ready for when ANP approves, we can then proceed with the transaction and do what we call the closing of the operation. These are the main items. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the market, society, and many of our employees for another quarter, which was so important for the company. I think it was perhaps one of the most important quarters of our history. We managed to complete a transaction, the largest transaction in our history. We are also managing to recover from the major setback we had last year regarding Albacora Leste's efficiency. I mean, the company continues to progress, always counting on the tremendous support of its employees, in addition, of course, to society and investors.
Thank you all very much. With that, we now open the session for questions.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to the question and answer session for this conference call discussing first quarter 2025 earnings. Let's start with Luiz Carvalho with BTG. Luiz,
hi everyone. Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity, and congratulations on the acquisition. We spoke a few days ago about this. I have two questions. The first related to Peregrino. Roberto, in our latest interaction, you gave us a little more color regarding the synergies between Peregrino and the other fields, and the OPEX is about $550. There is the gas pipeline that can reduce this by $120. There is also the logistics. Of course, we had also the SG&A of Equinor that you were able to reduce, perhaps having a normalized OPEX close to $250.
All of these numbers, I'm just trying to understand and perhaps to clarify, are these numbers considering 100% stake, the 40% you had acquired from Sinopec, or for the 60% referring to the acquisition? My second question is about a time adjustment.
We had a report. We released a report where we made a mistake in our analysis from the standpoint of how to recognize revenue and cash generation against the disbursement for the closing, because our model was closed for 2026. We ended up pushing that forward for the end of the year. Our IRR was brought down. When we make adjustment for this gradual integration, it goes back to that IRR of 20%, which we always mentioned.
I just want to understand, given that you have perhaps a monthly model, Bruno probably does this on a daily basis, but how do you see this capturing of cash over time? If I may ask a third question, it is going to be a brief one. We saw a lifting cost increasing in this last quarter, obviously because of Peregrino and everything you mentioned. Perhaps you could give us an idea of what you think would be a normalized lifting cost opposed to Wahoo and the closing of Peregrino. That would be very much appreciated.
Thank you, Luis, for the questions. First, regarding OPEX, when we analyze the numbers, it is $250 million for 100% of the field. We have the synergy of the 60% that we acquired.
When we do the analysis of the Sinocan stake, we also have another gain, because when we acquired 40% from Sinocan, our agreement with Equinor is that we would get to $350 million of OPEX in the long term. Two things happen, and that's for 100% of the field, by the way. Two things happen. Number one, our OPEX should be lowered from $350 million to $250 million. This will also apply to the 40% stake that we already had. When we spoke about a 20% gain on the Sinocan stake under operatorship by Equinor, there's also an implicit gain, which is when we reduce our OPEX from currently $550 million to $250 million, we will enjoy a gain based on that portion as well. It applies to the whole field. Whenever I speak about OPEX, it's for 100% of the field.
For Peregrino, 250, Polvo plus TBMT, a little over 90, almost 100. Frade, we are close to 75-80, and Albacora, kind of the same order of magnitude or a little more. These are the numbers for the company. Peregrino, 250. Proportionally speaking, it is a little high, but still we want it to be conservative at this initial moment. Regarding the IRR, what happens is, according to the contract, we have two payments. In our case, three payments, because we divided the contract into two, a tranche of 40 and a tranche of 20. This will generate three payments. When we acquire a field on Thursday, that is when we acquired the field, we paid $335 million to Equinor. This is money that is out of the cash. And we and Bruno do a monthly modeling for this. This is money out of our cash.
It is already considering the internal rate of return. The next disbursement to happen will be when we close 40%. The closing of 40% will be equivalent to the $3,330 million. Two-thirds of that. I have to do the math, but two-thirds of the $3,330 million with a price adjustment. Adjusted for price. We are going to have a third payment, which is going to be one-third of the $3,330 million, again with a price adjustment until the moment of the second closing. We will have a price adjustment from January 1, 2024, all the way to, let's call the first closing in the first quarter of next year. That is one part of the payment. We are going to have a second payment, which will happen perhaps in mid-next year when we close the remaining 20% stake.
The total price adjustment should be around, please, this is not a guidance, okay? It really depends on the future oil price. It depends on a number of things, but it should be an order of magnitude of about $1 billion, okay? Those $3,350 million drops to $350, $350 million, something around that. It's not a perfect number. It really depends on a number of things. We are considering oil price at $60 a barrel. You know, oil can float. Oil prices can float a lot. Of these $2,350, this would be our total cash deployment. We would pay $3,335 last Thursday, most of it in the closing of the 40%, the closing of the 40% stake, and then the remaining 20%.
We start accruing cash flow on the following day after payment, when we close 40% or when we close the 20%, because that's provisioned for in the contract. We close today. As of tomorrow, our production number is incremented by daily field production. Our responsibility in face of ANP is ours, but the cash is also ours. That's how it works. That's the difference. In order to capture that, and I did understand the point of your report, I think that it's kind of hard if you prepare a quarterly report or an annual report, because you don't capture that. That's why we have a monthly model. We are much more accurate the moment we deploy the money and the moment we have the cash flow flowing in, or else we make mistakes and we try to be very, very precise.
In your third question, I can't really remember. Oh, the consolidated lifting cost. The consolidated lifting cost is running currently at $12.8 per barrel. I think that until we have Wahoo and Peregrino online, the lifting cost should be closer to 12 rather than 12.8. I always question this internally. I think it should be close to 12. By close to 12, I mean something between 11 and 12, 12 being the maximum cap. It increased a bit to 12.8, but the main reason for 12.8, from 11 to 12.8, the main culprit was Peregrino, consolidation of the rest of Peregrino. The reason for the lifting cost increasing from 12 to 12.8 was our production. We produced 109,000, little below expected. Our number for this quarter should have been closer to 115,000, not 109,000.
I didn't do the math, to be very candid, but I think that with 115,000 barrels, we would be much closer to $12 lifting cost. The reason we didn't get to the 115,000 barrels is that we had a setback at Albacora Leste. The commissioning phase of the compressor took longer, longer than we imagined, much longer than we imagined. This is what happened. It should be fluctuating at around $12 until year-end. When Peregrino comes in, in very little time, their lifting cost of $18 will soon come down. If we do the reverse math, we'll get to less than $12. Let's consider that Peregrino will get to $12 of lifting cost. Let's suppose we get to $12.
We will have the company's operation with 40%, the rest of the company operating with a lifting cost of $12. Peregrino will lower their lifting cost from $18 to $12, and Wahoo will come in with a lifting cost of practically zero or $1 lifting cost. With that, we should have a consolidated lifting cost close to $8, I would say between $7 and $8. Let's be conservative and work with $8. The two things will happen close. First, oil of Wahoo and the closing of Peregrino will happen almost together. When we get both with Peregrino running at $12 and Wahoo running with its lifting cost that is very low, I believe the lifting cost will stabilize at around $8. This is our main objective.
Super clear. I'll ask the help of José and Roberta to understand this flow really well. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the question.
Our next question comes from Monique with Itaú BBA. You go ahead, Monique.
Hi, guys. Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. Roberto, could you please elaborate a bit more on the issue of Frade? You said that it would be in May, but can you tell us a little bit about the level of complexity involved, whether you are just exchanging the compressor or whether it is something simpler than that? What would be the expected average production for the field in May when the repairs are concluded? My second question is about your licensing strategy for your next moves. I think you are just waiting for a license for Wahoo in the next few weeks, and I think that what would follow that would be the drilling campaign in Frade. Is that the correct pipeline?
Could you just give me an update, please?
Monique, about Frade, in the midst of that shutdown, we made an adjustment in the compressors. A compressor consists of two parts. There is a high pressure and a low pressure part of the compressor. The high pressure was the part that we had problems with because we had to fix that. There was a problem with the controller, the control of that high pressure. We exchanged the compressor, but then there was a commissioning process. It was with the high pressure mode. As for Frade, we did not change anything, but we just did the upgrade of all of the logic system of the compressor. In this case, we are talking about the low pressure part of the compressor.
Now, I'm not saying that it's something similar to what happened in Albacora Leste, but now we are looking at the logic issue in the low pressure system. I mean, there is an advantage, maybe the advantage of having problems in the low pressure part of the compressor is that you can still use the high compression part of the compressor up to a certain level in the field. Today, we are, I mean, from last night to this morning, yeah, we already produce 20,000 barrels a day of Frade. We are operating Frade at a level of 20,000 because we are using the high compressor part of the compressor. The low pressure that feeds the high pressure of the compressor is not working properly yet. As soon as the low pressure compressor is working properly, we will resume normal production of Frade.
I cannot really give you any precise numbers. I mean, we have our own expectations, but I don't want to give you a very precise answer because Albacora Leste, we still have some electric issues, and it's not easy to identify things at Albacora Leste. It took some time, but with Frade, things are simpler. It's not going to be anything major. You can just go back. I think the problem is much easier to control instead of being idle for two months. Let's assume that in the midst of May, the operation will be resumed. I mean, the worst-case scenario is that we would have 20,000 barrels until the end of May, but I don't think this will be the case. I think we will be able to resume normal production before the end of the month.
There is another possibility that we will be able to resume production much sooner than that. Your second question, I think it was about
IBAMA's strategy.
Our strategy with IBAMA involves two things. I mean, there are two separate processes related to the IBAMA licensing. The line laying happens at the production construction at IBAMA. This team from COPRAGI, that's the acronym, in our particular case, the case of Prio, they are looking at the pipeline system, and they already asked us to update the environmental impact report called RIMA. They already approved our oil inspection modeling, and this is a very lengthy subject. I mean, it involves the entire license. So they approved parts of it. Things are progressing, and the production team, I mean, of course, there are many other projects from other companies. For Prio, they are working in the Wahoo license.
There is another thing called COEX, COESP, C-O-E-S-P. It is another entity that deals with drilling. Therefore, this entity was the one granting the Wahoo licensing, and this organization had a change in the coordination team, and their understanding about the process was a little bit different than the previous administration. They asked us to update the process for TBMT, and then they gave us their approval. Now we are asking COESP to make an addition to the number of wells that can be drilled in Frade. I mean, this is in the order of our request. We are asking for an increase in the number of wells at Frade. We are also asking for some additional permits for Albacora Leste, Arapuçá, workover. I mean, there is everything. The third request involves area licensing. We already asked that.
I mean, they already issued something called TR, which is a reference term, whereby they give us an idea of what should be studied. During this period, we are already producing the RIMA, RIMA. Yeah, we are asking, and we asked them for these additional wells in Frade and the approvals for Albacora Leste. If we are successful in Frade and Albacora Leste in regards to these two issues, it means that our rigging agenda will be very good until like the end of 2027 if we want to do everything there is to do according to these approvals, which gives us enough time to receive the rig fancy license. We go back to the Albacora Leste project to add more than 30,000 barrels of oil in that field's production. This is the overall plan.
In practical terms, we used to say that in 2026 or right after Wahoo, we would initiate Albacora Leste, and then we will add another 30,000 barrels. Now what we are saying is that after Wahoo, we will go to Frade and the approvals of Albacora Leste. We will probably add something close to that 30,000. It will not make a lot of difference in terms of production cost for the company. However, we are just reversing the order of things merely because of all of the environmental license possibilities that we see going forward.
That is very clear, Roberto. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Monique.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra from Citi. You may proceed, sir.
Thank you for taking my questions. First, congrats on that acquisition. We were expecting to see that soon. I think it came sooner than we thought.
I think this is a very good moment.
It was a very good moment for the acquisition. I have two questions and also something that I would like to clarify. First point is about OPEX. When you acquired 40%, we thought that when you acquired the remaining 60%, there would be irrelevant OPEX reduction. I mean, not considering also the exchange from diesel to gas, which is an important part of OPEX at Peregrino. There are other things like operating costs, some contract reviews, etc. I do not know how much more detail you could give me in terms of further reductions and how you can do that after the closing or whether you can do that even before the closing in terms of some of these operating synergies. The second point is, I mean, we have been talking a lot about dividends.
I think you will be close to 200,000 barrels a day, and there will be a time of deleveraging. I believe that the company is a bit more leveraged at this time. I just want to get a better understanding about capital allocation and oil prices. I mean, how much oil prices impact your capital allocation and even how much that has an impact on oil prices and at what level you would be safer. This is my second point. Out of curiosity, when you talk about a 20% return, out of that 60%, I know you have a greater power to cut costs. There is about $120 million or $180 million that could be cut in terms of costs.
I mean, those 20%, does that take into account, I mean, the cost cuts or only 40% that you already had in the field and you just incorporated that 20%, or this is just an upside from the first trench from way back then?
Okay. Until the transition and until the end of that transition for merely due to ANP approvals, that's part of Equinor's work. When I refer to about $1 billion of price adjustments going from $3,300 to $2,300, this takes into account Equinor's operation that is still in progress. There is a formulation that rules price adjustments. There is also a formulation for oil prices. Of course, then with Brent variation, the number will also vary up or down. For regulatory reasons, I mean, so far, we cannot do anything. Equinor is operating the field. The responsibility for running the well is Equinor.
If they want to reduce costs, it's okay, but if they don't, it's okay as well. I mean, they're operating it. The only thing that we put in our transition agreement is the possibility of us helping Equinor when it comes to the gas line. As Equinor's basic plan or original plan, they want to install the gas line, and the OPEX would be reduced from $550 million to $430 million. So this number of $120 million will depend on some works of pipeline, etc. In the transition agreement, we said that we will work and do our best efforts to help Equinor to accomplish that task. The problem is that Equinor, they do not have vessels in Brazil, or they do not have any vessels allocated to Peregrino. I mean, we have pipeline vessels.
We have also other vessels that can lay equipment under the ocean or even do some pipeline, if that is the case, in order to get things running as fast as possible. Things that are independent from the operation, we agreed on a best efforts regime so that we could render services to Equinor. I mean, we'll be rendering services to ourselves at the end of the day. That was the only thing. This is the only thing that, legally speaking, we can do. Once we do that with SG&A, we cut that immediately, and the other things will follow suit. Whenever we acquire a field, it takes approximately six months until you arrive at an agreed number of OPEX. I would say that once you take that 40%, six months down the line, you would have everything according to our OPEX.
I mean, this cost reduction is important to say that it will help us to promote further reductions, or this will improve the cost adjustments of the 20% that did not, I mean, that is not concluded. We did it with the initial 40. So these 20 will have to accrue with Equinor's costs. Once that 40 is in place, the region will be a bit better because this will accrue in our favor. Now, regarding Sino-King, I mean, our IRR is closer to 25%. It is very close to 25%, more towards 25% than 20% of IRR. When we refer to the acquisition of that asset, I mean, ex-Sino-King, our asset is over 20%. Then when we put Sino-King, we put it in the upside.
One of the upsides we might have is that where we arrive at that 25, not 20-25, it would be like from 25.5-25. It will be something around that area. Even without Sino-King, the deal continues flat over 20%. With Sino-King's gain, it will be even better. There is something else. All of this return in this calculation is based on oil at a discount of around $10.50. Sino-King, we were using $12 as a discount. Today, I mean, Sino-King, we are running at $12, but for Equinor, it is $10.50. Today, I mean, $10.75, in fact. Today, we are running at $9.80 with a sale that was back at $8. That means that, logistically speaking, we had some gains.
Now, speaking about investments in, is there a level of oil that, in your view, would include other assets like Albacora Leste or Frade? Even in terms of covenant, I think your plan is, I mean, 1.5 times. I don't know what level of oil you would think it would be tighter in terms of covenant.
Gabriel, the major issue here is that Wahoo, even though we have more than 150, it should be around that number. I mean, $150 million to spend to add 40,000 barrels a day at zero cost. You can do any math you want. The payback is very fast and also very high. When you look at things on the marginal point of view for Wahoo, it would not make sense to delay. Peregrino, the transaction is concluded. It is a done deal.
The projects we have, and also we are talking about Frade, Albacora, and really, we're looking at next year and the moment we'll be gone. What we have from today until closing, which should be close to two, we have the implementation of Wahoo and also Albacora's closing. Closing at Peregrino is already a done deal. There is nothing else to be done. Wahoo, maybe we can save $200 million or something. I mean, not equity or debt. I mean, I'll say I'll spend $140 million to put 40,000 at zero cost. I think it's super positive for both sides, for anywhere you look. I mean, let's say we're not going to change all of our business plan. No.
Okay, it's very clear. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you, Barra. Next question from Tasso Vasconcellos with UBS. Tasso, go ahead.
Gratitude, Roberto and everyone.
Roberto, let me ask a question which is opposite the line of Barra's question. You made the acquisition of Peregrino, and I think that the timing was actually surprising. We know that mergers and acquisition deals do not necessarily happen at the timing we are predicting. An opportunity arises sometimes not at the moment when you're looking for it. I remember, Roberto, some time ago, we discussed that with a Brent price close to $60, that would be an optimal scenario for M&A. You could pay a fairer value. The seller is more willing to sell. In this discussion, I understand that in the short term, you're focused on digesting the acquisition of Peregrino. Do you see room for other M&A deals? Perhaps it's not the focus now. If a new opportunity arises, what are you thinking? Could you move forward?
Should you find new opportunities in this short term? The second question, Roberto, what have you mapped as the main challenges in operating now, more fields and clusters in parallel? Because we know that there are some growth pains, and one of the pains is being able to focus a lot on many assets without having them or one of them lose focus or attractiveness. Internally, what are the main challenges you see now with the company operating four clusters with the integration of Peregrino?
Tasso regards M&A deals. It is true what you said. Actually, the sweet spot for business, it's when the oil price is close to $70. When it's down to $60, it's kind of hard because the buyer tends to be more opportunistic, and the seller is not willing to sell unless they're very much in need of money.
This conversation with Equinor started when the barrel price was at $70-$75. $60 is a context that happened since then. This did not change our long-term brand price expectation. M&A is part of our DNA. I need to look for opportunities. I don't think there will be anything until we digest this asset. By digesting, I mean we start seeing our leverage drop. I think that our leverage will be two, but I don't want to do anything to go beyond two. I think that we have to have a cushion for leverage. I guess that by until mid-year or end of next year, we shouldn't be seeing any M&A activities.
Now, after that, yes, there are opportunities of mergers and acquisitions, and I think that these opportunities are in the Campos Basin, but nothing as big as Peregrino unless Petrobras goes back to the market, putting assets for sale in the market. I do not see, I do not envision anything as big as Peregrino in the Campos Basin. I can see some minor things. This has to be discussed because somebody mentioned dividends. These things will come in hand. When we have a growth plan that will take us to more than 200,000 barrels a day, depending on the oil we will use, the company will generate around $3 billion per annum in cash flow. That is hard to get, $3 billion per annum in cash flow. It is very, very hard.
We can invest in M&A, but the rest will be returned via share buyback, dividend payout, and so on and so forth. The only separation between us and this scenario of high cash generation is that we will not have an ability to allocate the money. I mean, it is difficult to say this, but it is a possibility. It is the operational. We have to integrate Peregrino, put Wahoo to production, and solve the problems of Albacora Leste. Albacora Leste is doing fine for Wahoo. We will obtain the license, and Peregrino will be integrated. It is just a matter of time. I think that M&As will come back, but it might be less relevant. We will have to play around with the dividends, share buyback, and returning value to our shareholders. There was another question, Bruno. Oh, the challenges of operating many fields together. That is a good question.
That was a big lesson learned for us, Tasso, which has to do with the Albacora Leste deal. Looking back, in Albacora Leste, we kind of underestimated our operating capacity. We were coming from a series of huge wins in Frade, Polvo, everywhere, very high operating efficiencies of Frade running at 99%. It is running today at 98%-99%. Frade has its issues, but it is running at operating efficiency of 99%. Everything running at high operating efficiency. Even TBMT, we have the problem of the two wells, but the operating efficiency is very high at TBMT if we disregard these two wells. We had a lot of wins, and we kind of underestimated the ability to have the turnaround of the operation, especially taking into account that this Albacora Leste operation came in without a crew. We kind of bought the FPSO, and guess what?
We got the FPSO empty in terms of personnel and knowledge. That was the deal we had available at the time. That is the way the deal was designed. We said, okay, we'll hire people. We'll have people from our other FPSOs and hire new people to get a crew to Albacora. Guess what? It was much harder than we imagined. We had Petrobras deploying a large number of FPSOs in Brazil. The market was difficult in terms of personnel. When we closed the operation, we lacked a little knowledge regarding the operations. That was a lesson learned. After a lot of hard work, now we are getting to the top of that hill and cross it. That leads us to Peregrino. When we look at Peregrino, we think, okay, this is a well-operated asset.
Equinor might have a high operating cost that we want to reduce because we enjoy synergies and so on and so forth. It is an asset that is really well-operated. It has no integration integrity issues. It is an asset that in our agreement with Equinor, the contract includes provisions that allow Equinor people to come to work at Prio. Every or all the offshore crews can come to work for Prio. Several onshore teams, engineers, technicians can also join Prio. This was a very well-designed agreement. We will not miss the knowledge. We have a starting point which is not efficient, which is not difficult. It is a starting point that is running really well, smoothly. With that, the main value creation source for us is capturing synergies with our other fields. We have done this many, many times.
Perhaps we'll have to have another plan. I have to rely on IBAMA for another expansion plan to add another unit to have a tieback. Yes, we're considering tiebacks in the future. I'm not including any of that in the calculations. Also, in terms of capturing value, it is a lot easier for Peregrino because we just need OPEX and commercial. I forgot to say this, but we are doing very good work at the trading level, the commercial level. That applies to Peregrino. We are already trading the oil from Peregrino. We've already had some trades. Of course, there's some tailwind for heavy oils, but we're doing excellent work to sequentially reduce the discounts we're having. Things are a lot easier and a lot more under our control. That's why I have peace of mind regarding this deal and moving forward with the deal.
But yes, that is something that we are paying a lot of attention to, i.e., the operational effort that is needed to operate a field.
Super clear. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Tasso.
Next question from Vicente Falanga with Bradesco BBI. Vicente.
Thank you, Roberto, and the whole Prio team. Congratulations on the acquisition. Can you hear me well? Yes, yes, we can. I know that considering Roberto's comment, the idea is to maintain the Equinor team and Peregrino. I want to know whether you plan to work or if you have an option to work with a smaller POB. If so, what are the benefits and risks involved? What are the benefits of doing that? My second question is perhaps to Milton. After Peregrino and Wahoo acquisitions, Prio will be a relevant company in terms of size, a robust company.
I'd like to understand if the rating agencies have contacted you or if you are proactively contacting them to have a liability management based on the size of the company.
Do you want to start, Milton?
Yeah, absolutely. Vicente, yes, we have been contacting the rating agencies. Actually, even before we announced the acquisition of the 60% working interest, we had a positive outlook with the 40% stake plus Wahoo. Now, with this deal, one of the agencies told us that we are getting into credit watch. With the closing, we'll have an upgrade. With the other two agencies, we have a very positive outlook for an upgrade as soon as we materialize the oil through the closing and first oil of Wahoo. That's the feedback we are getting. Overall, it's a very good outlook. It's credit with a lot of upside.
It will increase production a lot, as Roberto mentioned, as everyone mentioned during the presentation. We are very excited with these contacts with the rating agencies.
To speak about people on board, POB, today we do not consider reducing people on board. Our synergies, when we talk about synergies, we do not mean POB reduction. Sometimes there is a POB reduction because we remove some of the expats, and it is normal. Equinor will keep its expats that are working here, and Equinor will relocate them somewhere else. This will be a minuscule POB reduction, let's say 10 people maybe, if that much. Nothing. Technically, there is a reduction because of these expats, but what we try to do is to promote people who are working at the FPSOs so that they can take over these positions that were taken by the expats.
That is a strategy we have had since Polvo Field, and it has always worked really well. Because this seems silly, but it even improves communication because normally the expats speak English, and not everyone speaks English. It is better actually to have everyone speaking Portuguese at the FPSOs to avoid misunderstanding. It may sound silly, but it can happen. There is no POB reduction. Our case is based on contract synergies, logistics synergies, synergies here at the office, SG&A. You see, every field, when you operate, you allocate SG&A to your partners, to your office. You know, this will no longer happen. That is the kind of synergy capturing that we are considering. Okay, I can understand the allocation of G&A. Would that not be included in the OPEX? Yes, it is included. It is. When we say SG&A, when we talk about SG&A, it is technical SG&A.
It is part of the OPEX. When we look at the field OPEX, it is not just people offshore. It is everyone working outside plus everyone working here at the office related to that field. Here we have an asset manager. We have the maintenance guy. We have reservoir engineering teams. We have procurement. A number of people are dedicated exclusively to one single field.
Oh, super clear. This is new to me. Thank you.
Thank you, Vicente.
Our next question from Leonardo Marcondes with Bank of America. Go ahead, Leonardo.
Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first is on Peregrino. Roberto already talked about the price in the field, but do you see any greater potential now with your recently announced stake of 60%?
I don't know whether through a larger volume you would be able to get better prices or even maybe with land from other fields. Your answer will help us to take a longer-term view. My second question is about buyback. Should we expect the return of the program now that the acquisition has been announced, or this is just a time to look at that leverage with oil at the current level?
Maybe we should take a closer look to that net debt to EBITDA ratio.
Once you look at that shares and that 10% limit, the buyback is not going to happen. We stopped, we interrupted our buyback program. Now the main focus obviously will be leverage, and also we want to prepare the company for that. I mean, we want to have some margin in terms of leverage. Yeah, but the covenant is 2.5.
Let's get to 2. Okay, we will get to 2. We will maintain the discipline. Today, we think that even with price at 60, I mean, with that 60% share, I think there is an absurd covenant vis-à-vis the price of our share. I mean, this is what we think, but the market has to think. That's not up to us. I think that we could do a lot of buyback. However, this time, we are favoring leverage. We want this transaction to lead our leverage to 2. If the shares remain as it is, I mean, $3 million a year, how can we not solve it? We will solve that issue, be it through buyback or buyback plus dividend or whatever it is. Speaking about the canceling of the shares, we have to accept the view from the board. I haven't taken that to the board.
We have not arrived at a number of 10 people. I mean, nothing is going to happen. It does not mean that we are no longer buying back because there is no more room. That is not it. We are no longer doing the buyback due to funding and saying, no, we cannot do it because we just concluded a major transaction. This is another subject to be debated by the board. There is no practical effect. What I mean is that it does not even cross our minds that the company will sell shares in the market at the levels that we have today. It is not canceled, but it is just in the parking lot at our treasury. The trading that Bruno mentioned, our trading perception today, we are trading at $9. It was $90.80. We sold at $8.
I don't know whether this number 8 will be consistent or not, but we already sold it at 8. I think that was June. Now we are selling in July, and we still have to see how that will go. What we think is that we can gain maybe $2 once we operate the field and if we are able to send loads in VLCC. In this case, I think we should have gains of $2, be it VLCC with a mixed cargo, and then we would need Wahoo to produce. There are very few VLCCs in the world that have heating. Maybe we'll see whether we get one or the other or what will be the possibility. We haven't even factored that in. I mean, I'm not saying that this is an upside. You shouldn't go crazy with that number.
I think we should try to get another $2 per barrel. Gustavo, our trader, has this mission to gain about $2 more per barrel based on the numbers we have today.
Okay, that's very clear. Roberto. Thank you.
Thank you, Leo.
Our next question is from Regis Cardoso from XP. Go ahead, Regis.
How are you? Hi, thank you for taking my question. I just have some very quick follow-ups. I don't know whether the answers will be quick, but at one point you said that you could add another 30,000 barrels without the geographic license for Albacora Leste. My question is whether it's 30 and then with the campaign, you add another 30 or that is not precisely it because part of the campaign has to do with the approvals that would precede it.
It seems like there is an additional production part of that additional campaign in Frade. I mean, maybe also I would like you to comment on that decline. I think this is a topic that stirs up a lot of controversies.
I mean, the decline is just a decline. There is nothing we can do. It will happen, you know, no matter what we do. Let me put both things together. In terms of production or adding new volumes, we see that 30,000 without the area license because we have six wells at Frade. In addition to these six wells, we have also the permits in Albacora. These cannibalize that additional 30,000 at Albacora. Not much, but maybe 8,000 or something in that vicinity. In fact, if you add them both, you will have 30,000 prior to the area license.
If you were to do a perfect math, you would have about 30,000 more. Once you start drilling, you might find more things. We never do the math with the full total because you have to offset the decline. You have to try to offset it somehow. Today, we lose 15,000 barrels a year. Every year, when you start a new year, you start with 15,000 barrels less. This is pretty much the number that we would have by the end of the year. Today, we have a capacity to reach close to 120. You have to factor in TBMT. That is why I am not saying, oh, okay, we have Frade plus Albacora, and then you add more, and then we will have 50,000 more. Yeah, but you also have to take into account that decline.
I know people look at it and say, yeah, but then there is a reduction. I mean, unfortunately, that's reality in terms of that decline or reduction.
Perfect. Thank you. Understood. Now, referring to leverage, that two times net debt over EBITDA. I shouldn't put any, you know, last 12 months EBITDA of already acquired assets and zero from Wahoo in order to arrive at that two times leverage. You would de-leverage very quickly once the denominator is lower. You wouldn't even have to reduce your net debt. Am I right? Is that what you see as well?
Go ahead.
The main de-leveraging factor at the company is Wahoo because you don't have any past EBITDA. I mean, there is a little bit of money that we need. This is the main de-leveraging factor.
That is why I say that I'm very comfortable that we will reach that two net debt to EBITDA ratio. This is not something usual. We never get, you know, too close to that. I am totally comfortable that we will get there because once Wahoo comes in and Peregrino, and we reduce costs, by the end of the year, we will be very close to one in terms of net debt to EBITDA. It is just a matter of time. In six months, it will lower a lot because your EBITDA will grow out of proportion. Your production base will grow a lot. That is why we can de-leverage very quickly. You are right. I mean, the main point, if you look at the model, and I'm sure you already looked at it very carefully, the point is Wahoo. Once Wahoo comes in, de-leveraging happens quickly.
It's just absurd. Yeah, that was the same conclusion that I arrived at. If you allow me yet, another comment about IBAMA's timing is that the area licensing topics follow a different schedule when compared to what happens with Wahoo. As I understood it, you can move forward. Could you please elaborate a bit more about that timing? The last topic, and I promise is my last one, are other opportunities with Peregrino thinking about the fact that it has a proximity with TBMT and synergies, producing units, etc.
We do have that tieback issue. It's something that we look very closely. Nothing of that is in our model. That's why, I mean, you have, I mean, TBMT is 25 kilometers far. Therefore, you can do the tieback.
But then you may say, okay, it is heavy crude, but there is a way of going around it, which is using water. In the case of Polvo to TBMT, I mean, we never talked much about this topic, but Polvo and TBMT, what we need, I mean, Polvo is heavy oil. The tieback is only 11 km far. But what you need to distribute it is a PSW higher than 60% or 65%. I do not recall the number exactly. The same thing goes for Peregrino. You can only distribute the oil if PSW is X. I mean, all of the oils coming from the platforms, they have to come with a certain PSW. Otherwise, they would never arrive at a FPSO.
We look at the possibility of integrating the fields at a certain moment because you either have to integrate or produce a little bit more at TBMT, or you have to integrate or bring the production to Polvo. There are several possibilities. There are neighboring wells that could be possible future possibilities. We still have a lot to exploit. I mean, this is something that we can talk about for the next five years. This is something for us to start thinking about next year after we deliver everything that we have yet to deliver. I'm certain that our engineers will come up with an idea in that direction. They always have very good ideas. Finally, IBAMA and the coordination. There are two coordinations at IBAMA. One is called CoProd, which is licensing for the pipe that will be laid.
The other one is CoASP, Coordination of Exploration, everything that has to do with drilling. All of our drilling processes were there. We got the license for Wahoo to BMT. Now we have Frade, and the area license, and the approvals for Albacora Leste until we can start working on the area license. Why do we not submit a request for an area license now? In order to have that, we have to have ARIMA, which is Environmental Impact Assessment and Report. We submitted a request for an area license. They gave us a TR, a reference term. Based on that, we do some homework. There is some time there at IBAMA. While time elapses, we are trying to resolve all the licenses for Frade, Albacora Leste.
Towards the end of the year, we'll submit Environmental Impact Assessment and Report so that we can apply for the area license.
Excellent. Thank you very much. Congratulations on the deal.
Thank you.
Next question from Rodrigo Almeida with Santander. Rodrigo, go ahead.
Good afternoon. Roberto and the PRIO team. I guess that I only have one quick follow-up question. It's regarding Wahoo and the injectors. Any idea of the timing, or will they be drilled in 12, 18 times, 18 months? I just want to get an idea of your rig time.
The injector at Wahoo will be drilled after the producing wells. We will leave Wahoo on May the 15th to relocate the rig at TBMT, but we'll end Wahoo most likely in the first quarter of next year.
The whole Wahoo will be ready, and then we'll have two more producing wells that can take between five and six months to injector wells, actually. That can take five to six months to drill, and then the rig will be free to be relocated to Frade, and we look at the approvals for Albacora. It is just a matter of return. Wherever we have the highest return, that's where we will take the rig. That's why we will take the rig.
On point about trading, you were able to.
No, we just that happened only once. That is a very one-time off.
You think that the market is still very tight for the type of oil from Peregrino? Do you have any structural view for this kind of specific oil?
Do you take these things into account when you speak about the 9.8, which is, if I'm not mistaken, what you mentioned?
This is an oil that has a life of its own. There is also the matter of Venezuela. Low Venezuelan production helps price this oil. There was also a logistic matter of having a bigger vessel. At this specific moment, that's a moment where this oil is strong. We have all the technical part that Gustavo could speak about. It has to do with the summertime in the Middle East, and there is greater demand for heavier oil to generate energy, cooling, etc. What we see is that from the physical standpoint, the market is quite good. It's not getting worse. Even with the serif, nothing got worse. The oils are being sold more or less with the same discounts.
Frade, 2, 2.5, Albacora oil is being sold with a $3 discount, and Albacora Leste $4. The discounts are not varying a lot. All of our oil is heavy. Peregrino is particularly heavier. The market seems to be really very good.
Perfect. Thank you very much. Congratulations on the deal.
Thank you, Rodrigo.
Next question from Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs. Bruno?
Good afternoon. Congratulations on the Peregrino deal. Thank you for the opportunity. I have a quick follow-up question. It is actually a clarification. If you can update on the way you see things, you are closer to the asset. What is the pace of decline that you expect for Frade, excluding these campaigns you mentioned that can happen perhaps next year?
We just want to understand the decline and couple this decline with the initiatives that you have mentioned that can reduce decline and even drive some growth.
Our best estimate of decline is in the reserves certification, which is a production close to 12 million barrels for Frade in 2025. If you look at the reserves certification this year, we broke down Frade from Wahoo. If you look at Frade, we need to use to look at the PDP of Frade and this number is our best estimate of decline today.
Perfect. Looking forward, thinking about the next two years, if you do not drill there, what would it be? PDP means proved, developed, producing, which is exactly that. I do not do anything at the field, what happens?
If you look at the PDP, you have it until the end of the lifespan of the field. The best reference is the reserves report?
It always is. Last year, we made adjustments to the report to reflect all of our end-of-year views, and this is our best number.
Thank you very much.
You're most welcome. Thank you, Bruno.
With that, we are closing the question and answer session, and I'll turn the floor to Roberto for his final statements.
I just want to say thank you to all. This was a very exciting quarter, particularly because of the Peregrino deal. I would like to thank Investors Society, our employees, mainly our employees, and I'll see you again in three months' time. Thank you very much. Thank you.