Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Jane Liu of PR China, and welcome everyone to Sinopec Corp.'s earnings conference call for the Q1 of 2021. Please be reminded that the results presentation for the Q1 of 2021 can be downloaded at www.sinopec.com. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent background noise. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. Please follow the instructions given at that time if you would like to ask a question. Now, I'd like to transfer the call to Mr. Zhang Zheng, Director General of the Board Secretariat, Sinopec Corp. Mr. Zhang, you may begin.
Thank you, Jane. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Sinopec Q1 results announcement, and thank you for your joining us today. This meeting is attended by Mr. Huang Wensheng, Vice President and Secretary to the Board, and Mr. Song Zhenguo, Deputy Head of Finance Department, and Madam Li Li, Deputy Head of Operation Department. First, I would like to give the floor to Mr. Chen Yang, Deputy Head of the Board Secretariat, to present to you the performance of Q1. Mr. Chen, please.
Thank you, Mr. Zhang. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I will brief you on our performance of the Q1. The effects of global epidemic prevention and control have gradually emerged, and China's economy maintained recovery growth, with the GDP up by 18.3%. International crude oil price has growth and the spot price of Brent for the Q1 averaged $60.9 per bbl , up by 21.2% year-on-year. The domestic demand for refined oil products recovered steadily, while natural gas and petrochemical demand maintained rapid growth. To promote the efficiency and profitability of the whole industrial chain and comprehensively promote high-quality development, the company actively responded to market changes and optimized production and operation arrangements and achieved outstanding performance. In the Q1, our EBIT was CNY 33 billion, up by CNY 59 billion year-on-year, and also better than the Q1 in 2019.
All the four segments achieved good results. Profit attributable to shareholders was CNY 18.5 billion, up by CNY 37.8 billion year-on-year. EPS was CNY 0.153. In the Q1, we increased low-cost financing, and comprehensive finance cost was 2.7%, kept at low level. Debt-to-asset ratio was 49.5%, maintaining a sound financial position. Equity attributable to shareholders of the company was CNY 764.7 billion. For our cash flow, due to the payment for deferred tax of last year, net cash generated from operating activities was negative, but much better than the same period of last two years. To ensure the liquidity of the company, we raised CNY 28 billion of short-term debt and issued CNY 30 billion of super short-term commercial paper with low interest. Net cash used in investing activities was CNY 24.1 billion, and cash generated from financing activities was CNY 51.1 billion.
Cash and cash equivalents reached CNY 198.1 billion, up by 5.3% compared with the beginning of reporting period, providing strong backup for future growth. For upstream, in the Q1, the company continuously pressed ahead with high-efficiency exploration and profit-oriented development, accelerated systematic construction of natural gas production, supply, storage, and marketing, and achieved tangible results in maintaining oil production, increasing gas output, and cutting costs. The company's production of oil and gas reached 117 million barrels of oil equivalent, with natural gas production reach 292 BCF, up by 17% year-over-year. In addition, we enhanced the expansion of natural gas market, with sales volume up by 37% year-over-year. We strengthened cost control and enhanced competitiveness through improving efficiency. In the Q1, lifting cost was $15.9 per bbl, slightly increased.
Excluding the impact of RMB appreciation, our lifting cost decreased by 5.4%. Realized crude oil and the natural gas price was US$54.9 per bbl and US$7.1 per 1,000 cu ft, up by 11.7% and 9.9% respectively. Upstream results improved significantly with EBIT, reached RMB 3.1 billion, up by 54.1% year-on-year. For refining, in the Q1, we brought the advantage of integrated refining and marketing into full play, had a high utilization rate and significantly increased refinery throughput, which is 62.5 million tons, up by 16.3% year-on-year. Based on market needs, we intensified product slate adjustment and increased output of marketable and high-profit products such as gasoline and chemical feedstock. We coordinated whole process management of crude oil supply to lower procurement costs. We also sped up the construction of advanced capacity and promoted structural adjustments.
In the hydrogen business, we accelerated the construction of hydrogen transportation units. Through these efforts, we realized a record high refining margin of $11.75 per barrel. EBIT for this segment was RMB 19.9 billion, achieving a turnaround in profit year on year and also has 63.7% higher than that of the same period in 2019. For marketing, in the Q1, we brought the advantage of marketing network into full play, continuously expanded market with a substantial increase of domestic sales volume and retail scale. We constantly optimized the network layout to reach end users and improved the network integrity, stability, and competitiveness. We also promoted the construction of hydrogen charging and battery swap stations to improve the capability and the services of comprehensive energy supply. Domestic sales volume was 40 million tons, up by 23.2%. Retail volume reached 27 million tons, up by 24.4%.
We deepened non-fuel business reform and improved membership system. Non-fuel business profit was CNY 1.2 billion, up by 87%. EBIT for the segment was CNY 8.6 billion, realized significant growth year-over-year, and better than that of the same period in 2019. For chemicals, in the Q1, the company further fine-tuned chemical feedstock mix and well controlled feedstock costs. We integrated production with marketing, strengthened research on market needs to increase the ratio of high value-added and high-end products. Ethylene production was 3.4 million tons, up by 11.7% year-over-year, and the total chemical sales volume was 19.8 million tons, up by 10.5%. Domestic chemical demand was robust in the Q1. We optimized product slate and feedstock structure, well-controlled cost, and realized very good margin.
EBIT was RMB 8.93 billion, made a turnaround year-over-year and 4% higher than that of the same period of 2019. For CapEx, in the Q1, our CapEx was RMB 23 billion, mainly used for the construction of natural gas industry chain, advanced refining capacity, and supporting the transformation and development of the company. RMB 9 billion was in E&P, mainly for oil and gas capacity building and R&D projects. Refining accounted for RMB 7.6 billion, mainly on existing refinery structural adjustment and expansion of Zhenhai. RMB 2.9 billion was in marketing, mainly for construction of service stations, hydrogen stations, depots and the non-fuel business. Chemicals accounted for RMB 1.8 billion, mainly on building advanced production capacity, including Zhenhai, Tianjin Nangang, and there are more projects. The capital expenditure for others was RMB 1.7 billion, mainly for R&D facilities and IT projects. That's all for the presentation.
Now, the management is glad to take your questions. Thank you.
We now open the floor for Q&A. Please.
Ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the prepared remarks for today, and we're now ready for questions. If you'd like to ask any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. To cancel your question, please press star two. Operator, please start taking questions. As a reminder, if you would like to ask any questions, please press star one on the telephone keypad. Thank you. Thank you. The first question is Lawrence from BOCI. Please go ahead.
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Okay. I would like to take the first question. The total imported LNG volume for the Q1 was around 5.2 million tons. For the whole year, the total volume would be 17.4 million tons.
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I would like to take your second question. In order to maintain a stable operation, the company normally keeps the inventory of the crude oil at 20 days processing volume level. In the Q1, the inventory gains of refining segment was around CNY 8.8 billion. Thank you. Next question, please.
Okay. Thank you for the question. As a reminder, if you would like to ask any questions, please press star one on the telephone keypad. Press star followed by one. Thank you. The next question is Tom from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Gentlemen, congratulations on the performance. It's comparable here. I just wanted to ask you, the cash balances continued to build here. You're almost at CNY 200 billion of cash and cash equivalent. When are we going to hear more about what your long-term strategy is with regard to balance sheet management and the application of that cash? Thank you very much.
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Thank you, Tom, for your great questions. Yes, the Q1 results were sound and the company's trying to manage the sustainable development in the various business units. In the whole year, we expect that the company can continuously deliver the momentous growth given economic growth in China will be continuously strong and demand in China for our products as well as the chemical products will be continuously strong. In the current environment, we are very confident on the earning power and at the same time, we are trying hard to manage the cash flow. You are absolutely right, we have built up the cash around some CNY 200 billion, and we also have made our CapEx plan this year. It's going to be around CNY 150 billion-CNY 160 billion. Apart from that, we also have the dividend payout.
At the same time, to try to control the CapEx. You can tell through the investment, we will try to manage the growth and the company also have the existing dividend payout decline. All those areas are the major area of cash will be allocated. Thank you.
Thank you for the question. As a reminder, if you would like to ask any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Press star followed by one. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Press star followed by one. Thank you. The next question is Wang Ruihua from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you for the chance to ask you a question. This is Carson Ong from JP Morgan. I would like to check your E&P earnings in Q1 was pretty good. Could you give us an update on your all-in production cost? Over the next few years, what are your plans for cost reduction and how do you plan to achieve this? Thank you.
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The all-in cost for oil and gas was around $38.22 for BOE, and increased around $2.3 per BOE compared with the same period of last year. There are two major reasons. The first is that according to the accounting policy, we have made some impairment in the upstream asset impairment in the last year. The SEC reserve we used this year decreased and because of this, the DD&A increased. In addition, our lifting cost maintained stable compared with the same period of last year. In the future, the E&P segment will take the strategy, which was to maintain a stable oil production and to accelerate the gas output and to decrease the all-in cost to further decrease or reduce the all-in cost in our E&P segment.
We also have a plan in our 14th Five-Year Plan period, that is to decrease our all-in cost of the domestic crude oil to around $45 per bbl. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for the question. As a reminder, if you would like to ask any questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Press star followed by one. Thank you. The next question is Li Hongliang from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
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I have two questions. The first was regarding the chemical margin. Currently speaking the chemical margin was pretty good. I want to know the company's outlook for the chemical market. The second question was regarding the new energy outlook. I know the company has some cooperation with a lot of new energy companies such as NIO. I want to know if the company has a future plan or cooperation with other private or new energy companies. Thank you.
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In the Q1, the company grasped the opportunity of the good chemical market to optimize our feedstock mix and our product slate to maintain a high level run rate. We realized a relatively good performance of chemical segment in the Q1.
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Currently speaking, the domestic economy kept a good recovery growth. In addition, the pandemic situation in the overseas countries are much better. I think generally speaking, the demand for chemicals would be at a high-level growth.
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From the view of the supplying side, some chemicals price was increasing in the Q1. There will also be some new or advanced domestic capacity will be put into operation concentratedly in the next few quarters. It is hard to anticipate if the price or the chemical margin will increase or not. For the company, we will hold a strategy that is to optimize the product slate to maintain or to fulfill the demand of the market to achieve a better performance in the next few quarters. Thank you.
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For our company, we are the largest one-stop energy service in China, and we have more than 60% market share for the automobiles. We have also a very large network, which was around 30,000 gas stations. We cannot only provide the fuel refills for the automobiles, but also can provide some new energy, such as for EV cars or FCEV cars. In the future, we will actively explore the cooperation to set up a new business model to fulfill the demand of the customers and to continue to enhance our leverage of very large network to fulfill our customers. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for the question. The next question is Neil from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much. Two questions really around, again, the new energy business and specifically on hydrogen plans. You've talked about rolling out, I think, 1,000 hydrogen stations by 2025. Can you talk about how much the CapEx is going to be for this and what kind of margins you'd expect in that business? Would it be higher or lower than your existing fuels marketing business margins? Secondly, in terms of the hydrogen supply, will that come from the existing supply within Sinopec? I think you produce about 3.5 million tons per year. Will it be from existing hydrogen supply, or will you be investing in new green hydrogen production facilities? Thank you.
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Yes. Thank you. I would like to take these two questions. For the first one regarding the hydrogen business, the company have carefully following the domestic policy and the international policies. We are the leading company of the Global Compact, and we are a member of a lot of those initiatives for the cleaner burn energies. In last year, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, announced that China will make ambitious plan to fulfill the carbon peak and the carbon neutrality. After that, the company also make a plan to take the practical measures. As a company, we should be a practitioner and to make a concrete plan to deliver that. The hydrogen is a part of the solution of those carbon peak and the carbon neutrality. Based on our existing plan, we plan to build some 1,000 hydrogen stations in China.
To be honest, we are going to start in this year for the 100. At the moment, we are operating some 10 stations, and the two out of the 10 today is break-even. One in Guangdong, another one in Shanghai, but eight out of those 10 still in red. The major reason for that is a lack of applications, and there are very few of those trucks on the road. It's kind of the chicken and egg issues. However, we believe we are the leading company. We have existing facilities, and we have a lot of advantages to install this infrastructure, to boom and helping to incubate this hydrogen business in China. The 100 stations will help the development of those fuel cell cars and fuel cell vehicles.
I believe in the H2 of this year, the Chinese government will launch its promotion or incentive policies to help the development of hydrogen vehicles. Those policies, we believe, will be very positive to trigger the further development of the hydrogen. Our existing outlets and networks will be a great help in terms of the infrastructure to boosting the hydrogen's development. Currently, based on the current model, the one station cost will be around some CNY 20 million, and it's fully equipped the hydrogen plant with existing petrol stations. We believe through this combination of these two kind of the services, the station can manage to break even and make some profit, because some major profit come from fuel side.
Eventually, the hydrogen will make a break even. For the 100 and longer-term investment, currently the major hydrogen will come from our existing operations, from our refining through a PSA to purify the hydrogen to meet the 99.999% purity of hydrogen that is fuel cell-enabled hydrogen today. However, in short-term, we are also considering to make an investment to build a PAM in the stations to help to serve the fuel cell vehicles. Also we are looking at the opportunities to liquefy the hydrogens or work with other partners to manage those infrastructures. At the same time, we are also starting some of the applications of the hydrogen. It's not only used to the mobility areas, it also can be used in our chemical feed stocks in certain areas that the alternative energy can be pretty low cost.
We are working on that, and we are going to announce in the next year of those detail plans. Thank you.
Okay, thank you for the question. The next question is Lei Mu from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
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I have two questions. The first question was regarding the dividend policy for the company and what is the outlook for the whole year dividend payout ratio. The second question was regarding the refining run rate. I know in the future there will be some maintenance in the refining facilities. Would the overhaul will impact the run rate of the refining segment? Thank you.
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The company always values the return to our shareholders. We would like to supply a long-term stable payback to our shareholders by a high-quality development, as well as to maintain a stable and continuous, sustainable dividend policy. You can see that in the H1 of last year, the company suffered a loss, but we still pay a special dividend to our shareholders to maintain the sustainability of our dividend. For the whole year dividend payout ratio of 2020, the payout ratio was more than 73%. I think in the future, the management of the company will also value the return of our shareholders and maintain a good level of payout ratio. Thank you.
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In the Q1, the run rate of refining facilities was 91.7%, increased 7% compared with last year. In addition, the run rate of ethylene facilities was 98.8%, increased 5% compared with last year. As well as the PX run rate was around 93%, increased 6.8%. We will have some overhaul in the Q2. I think the maintaining plan will not impact the run rate of our refining and chemical facilities very much, because we have a room to improve or increase the run rate of other facilities to offset the maintaining facilities. Generally speaking, I think the run rate of refining facilities will be more than 90% in the Q2, as well as the run rate of ethylene and PX facilities will also be more than 95% or 96% in the Q2. Thank you.
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Thank you for the question. The next question is Matty Zhao from Merrill Lynch. Please go ahead.
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I also would like the company to elaborate the natural gas cost in the future. The second question was regarding the LNG importation business. I know there will be a timeline in the LNG price. Recently speaking, the crude oil price increased. I would like to know if the LNG business will suffer losses in the future. Thank you
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The company always focused on our natural gas business, and it was also our major strategy in our E&P segment. Currently speaking, the all-in cost of natural gas was around CNY 1 per cubic meter, and we will also have a future plan for our natural gas production volume. I would like to say that along with the volume increase, I think the unit cost of natural gas will also decrease and diluted. For 2021, our natural gas production plan was around 34 BCM, and for 2022, the target was around 38 BCM, and the number was around 42 BCM in 2023. We will also have a future plan for our unconventional gas. That is the shale gas. In this year, our shale gas production plan was around 10.6 BCM.
I believe that the shale gas volume growth rate in the future will be between 6%-10%, and maybe in 2022, the production volume of shale gas will be around 12 BCM-12.5 BCM. As well, as for the cost of shale gas, I think that the cost of shale gas in the future will be lower than the current level. Thank you.
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I would like to take your questions, which was regarding the LNG importation business. In the Q1, the total imported LNG volume of Sinopec was around 5.3 million tons. We procure the LNG from the long-term contract and from the spot market. For the whole year speaking, the LNG importation volume would be around 17.4 million tons, and the sources also will be from the spot market as well as the long-term contract.
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Sinopec will always pay attention to the natural gas value chain construction to fulfill the market demand, and we will take the market price as well as the domestic natural gas demand and some other key factors into consideration to optimize the pace of our natural LNG importation business, as well as to increase the profit of the LNG business in the next few quarters. Thank you.
Okay, thank you again for attending Sinopec's announcement and your continued support. If you have any further questions, please contact our board secretary and IR people based in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Houston. That concludes today's announcement. Thank you.