Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Tüpraş Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss the first quarter 2022 financial results. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Doğan Korkmaz, CFO, and Mr. Levent Bayar, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Bayar, you may now proceed.
Thank you. Hi, everyone. Good morning to all from Tüpraş headquarters in Istanbul, and welcome to our teleconference. I am Levent Bayar, Head of Investor Relations. I'm here with Doğan Korkmaz, CFO, and team members from Tüpraş Investor Relations and Reporting departments. Over the next hour, we will first go over our operational and financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Then we will continue with the Q&A session. I'll draw your attention to our cautionary statement on this slide. During today's presentation, we will make forward-looking statements that refer to our estimates, plans, and expectations. Actual results and outcomes could differ materially. Please refer to our financial reports and material disclosures for more details. These documents are available on our website. In the next two slides, we will provide you with a brief summary of the key highlights regarding the first quarter of 2022.
We will go into detail for each subject on the following slides. Now let's take a look at Tüpraş highlights in detail for the first quarter of 2022. On the top, we have net refining margin bridge showing the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. Product cracks were very supportive to net refining margin, especially in March. Inventory gains with increased Brent prices also boosted NRM. On the other side, soaring natural gas prices continued to push up refining costs. Although compared to the European prices, increased natural gas tariffs in Turkey also had a negative impact on our profitability and limited net refining margin performance in the first quarter. On the second chart, it is clearly visible that the demand has fully returned to pre-pandemic levels for the main products.
Tüpraş domestic gasoline and diesel sales increased by 46% and 15%, respectively, compared to their pre-COVID five-year averages. Increased passenger car use and high industrial and logistics activity continues to be supportive for land transportation fuel demand. Jet fuel sales is also improving, now only 14% lower than pre-COVID levels. We have been seeing weakness in bitumen sales for some time, which prevents us from reaching peak capacity utilization rates. The bottom chart shows our position in accumulated losses. With the improving operational profitability, we continue to cover our losses from 2019 and 2020. With the profits we made in 2021 and in the first quarter of 2022, we managed to reduce our accumulated losses of TRY 4.2 billion to almost TRY 2 billion. We will be resuming dividend payments when we recover the rest of our accumulated losses.
Let's move on to the market section and take a look at the global and domestic developments in the following three slides. As you all know, we covered this section in two main components, as developments in global oil markets and developments in Turkish market. Let's start with the top left box. Geopolitical tensions had major impact on oil prices during the first quarter. Brent price surged over Russia and Ukraine war and has seen above $100 per barrel level. Amid sanctions on Russia, news flows regarding the alternative oil suppliers, SPR releases, and China's prolonged lockdowns moved Brent prices slightly lower towards second quarter. On the top right, the developments for the product inventories was no different from the crude oil part.
Both mid-distillate and gasoline stocks were drawn below their five-year range in the first quarter of 2022, with supply issues while strong demand continued to be supported for cracks. Now taking a look at the bottom row, Turkish market. Number of flights in Turkey was up by 44% year-over-year as of the end of March, supporting jet fuel demand in Turkey, which increased by 58% in the two months of 2022 compared to the last year. It has been also supported with the increased mobility, especially on the international flights. In line with the improvement in global flight trends, flight numbers in Turkey is only 20% lower than 2019 levels. On the bottom right chart, we have the Turkish road fuel market data for the first two months of 2022.
Road fuel demand was firm in this period as diesel consumption increased by almost 2% year-over-year, which came above pre-pandemic levels. Gasoline consumption also showed a slowdown, increasing by 43% in the first two months of this year. Now let's take a look at cracks in comparison to last year's and past five years' first quarters on this page. Strong post-pandemic demand and tightened supply conditions with the Russia-Ukraine war drove down product inventory levels dramatically and drove middle distillate cracks to record levels. With same conditions starting to reduce its stock levels, gasoline cracks also showed an elevation during the quarter. ATC full cracks were weaker, mainly due to elevated Brent prices. Taking a look at the details.
Diesel cracks were up by $14 per barrel year-over-year and averaged at $18.5 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022. Diesel cracks performed in line with the seasonal averages in January and February, but skyrocketed in March with improving demand in almost all regions following the almost full opening of the economies and significant tightening in Europe inventories following the abandonment of Russian products. In addition to the ongoing impact of the war, soaring energy costs also pushed up product cracks. Diesel cracks continued to perform very strong in April, which increased to $44 per barrel with ongoing product imbalance in Europe. Jet fuel cracks averaged at $15.4 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022, posting $13.5 per barrel increase compared to the first quarter of 2021.
Similar to diesel, undersupply in European market has led to sharp increase in jet fuel cracks in March, while January and February were in line with the seasonal averages. According to EUROCONTROL data, European air traffic during March was at 76% of 2019 levels, and the agency now forecasts to see 80% level in the second quarter, even under its slow demand scenario. Similar to diesel, tight jet fuel market continued to drive up the cracks, and they have averaged at $45 per barrel in April. Gasoline cracks were up by $4.4 per barrel compared to last year's same period, and averaged at $12.3 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022. Gasoline has experienced a steady trend in the first quarter. Margin levels supported with elevated passenger car usage with the pandemic in almost all regions.
Starting with Russia, Ukraine war, intermediate product availability for conversion units started to drop, leading to increase in gasoline production costs and ultimately cracks. This carried them to $25 per barrel in April. High sulfur fuel oil cracks averaged around -$21.6 per barrel and were almost $13 per barrel weaker compared to the first quarter of 2021. This was mainly due to sharp rise in Brent prices, leading to elevated costs for fuels almost globally. With the drop in Russian product availability in the markets, we are observing an improvement in HSFO cracks in April, reaching to -$20 per barrel. Moving over to the crude price differentials. Heavy crude differentials narrowed in the first quarter, mainly due to elevated demand towards heavier grades once Urals is dismissed by the U.S. players.
Following the Russia-Ukraine war, Urals are offered to the market with deep discounts due to limited demand with self-sanctioning. As a result of this, other similar grades are becoming more expensive. This trend continued in April and May as well. Looking forward, we continue to believe the outlook for heavy crude differentials will be very hard to predict. The course of the Russia-Ukraine war, potential developments on the other sanctioned producers, and the decisions to be taken by OPEC will continue to be decisive in this regard. Now let's take a look at the Tüpraş operations, starting with the production volume. On the left-hand side, you can see our production volumes. Our total production in the first quarter of 2022 was 6 million tons, 30% higher year-over-year, with better product demand and in line with pre-COVID 2020 figure.
In the first quarter of 2022, our total crude distillation capacity utilization was 76%, and other feedstock capacity utilization was at 8%, reaching to 84.5% for the whole system. Moving over to the sales. Let's start with the chart on the left-hand side. In the first quarter, our domestic sales and international sales reached to 5 million tons and 1.5 million tons respectively, summing up to 6.5 million tons in total. Our total jet fuel sales continued to improve, were 46% higher compared to last year in the first quarter as a result of the improving trend in aviation. Gasoline sales continued to be firm with the rise in personal vehicle use and switching from LPG to gasoline. Diesel sales in the domestic market were also firm in the first quarter, with industrial and logistics activity remaining steady.
Due to the decrease in regional bitumen demand, our bitumen sales were 56% lower year-over-year in the first quarter. Now let's move over to the financials. Let me start with the refining margin developments with this slide. MED complex refining margin, which is a theoretical calculated figure, has 100% Urals crude oil in its share calculation for the crude slate. Due to significant widening in this crude type, MED margin improved to $9.5 per barrel in this quarter. Skyrocketed middle distillate cracks and strong gasoline have also supported this performance in MED margin. Tüpraş net refining margin were realized at $5.2 per barrel in the first quarter of 2022, increased by $3.7 per barrel year-over-year. This strong performance in the first quarter was mainly driven by strong middle distillate and gasoline cracks.
Material contribution from inventory effect continued in this quarter, as well as the upward trend in the Brent prices. As discussed earlier, sharp increase in the natural gas prices have capped net refining margin generation in the first quarter. As a side note on this front, we would like to inform you that starting from the first quarter of 2022, effects of inventory hedging will be included in net refining margin calculation, as these operations has a material impact on our inventory effect in the net refining margin. Let's take a look at the P&L items in detail for the first quarter of 2022. Revenues almost tripled year-over-year and recorded at TRY 77 billion in the first quarter of 2022.
Total product sales were up by 29% in the first quarter versus last year, with sales increasing in all major products excluding bitumen. Average Brent price in the first quarter increased by 67% year-over-year, which accompanied by 89% depreciation in lira and led to the revenue growth. Costs also almost tripled year-over-year as well with higher production amount, higher Brent prices, and increase in the energy expenses. Especially energy expenses were near 5 x of last year's first quarter figure, mainly driven by natural gas tariff hikes and higher capacity utilization. Gross profit significantly increased to TRY 5 billion with improvement in cracks, better operational performance, and inventory gains. Material increase in operational expenses was mainly due to logistics expense that was led by higher sales, inflation, and lira depreciation.
Increase in general expenses was mainly due to personal expenses in parallel to inflationary adjustments to the salaries. Loss from other operations was TRY 1.5 billion. That largely includes FX gain and loss on trade payables and receivables due to lira depreciation. When considered together with the FX losses below EBITDA, a total of TRY 3.2 billion negative FX impact was more than offset by TRY 4 billion inventory gains. Income from equity investments, i.e., OPET, was recorded at TRY 208 million contribution. As a conclusion of this, we have recorded TRY 1.1 billion of profit before tax in the first quarter of 2022. Below PBT, we have recorded TRY 126 million tax expense as an outcome of higher operational profit, and we have recorded TRY 896 million of net income in the first quarter of 2022.
Now for EBITDA. Our EBITDA CCS materialized at TRY 565 million. The year-over-year increase was mainly driven with materially better crack margins, wider differentials despite elevated energy expenses. We recorded TRY 4.1 billion positive inventory effect in the first quarter of 2022. This material increase was mainly due to elevated Brent prices and Turkish lira depreciation. With the new hedging methodology, we aim to mitigate the pricing risk from out of two quarters of crude oil inventory, which also enables us to protect against high volatility in Brent prices. Consequently, our reported EBITDA materialized at TRY 4.7 billion, which is substantially better compared to last year's same period. Now let's take a look at the profit before tax bridge.
As you can see from the waterfall chart, inventory gains continue to support our profit before tax at TRY 2.6 billion. Contribution was recognized as a result of increased Brent prices and lira depreciation. Due to lira depreciation and higher interest rates in the first quarter, negative TRY 1.7 billion impact were recognized in the first quarter compared to same period of last year. Crack margins significantly improved year-over-year, especially in March, and positively contributed to the profit before tax bridge with a sizable amount of TRY 3.4 billion. With support of slightly wider heavy crude differentials year-over-year, we recorded TRY 545 million of positive impact this quarter. Natural gas costs were the most important factor limiting the profitability growth in this quarter.
The increase in natural gas prices had a negative impact of TRY 2.5 billion on the PBT year-over-year in the first quarter of 2022. There were also other smaller effects amounting to negative TRY 225 million impact on the bridge. All in all, the first quarter of 2022 profit before taxes materialized at TRY 1.1 billion positive, which indicates an overall TRY 2 billion improvement compared to last year's same period. Now let us take a look at the financial highlights. In the first quarter of 2022, we have recorded TRY 4.7 billion of EBITDA and nearly 5 x of last year's same period. This is largely achieved with strong operational performance. Accordingly, we have recorded almost TRY 900 million net profit in the first quarter of 2022.
With strong EBITDA generation and disciplined funding management, our net debt to EBITDA materialized at 0.7x as of the end of the first quarter. The current ratio is still at 1x, which is in line with the last few years. On the bottom right panel, we have the return on equity. As you can see, we have recorded 38% return on average equity as of the end of the first quarter of 2022. Let's continue with the details on our balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents and financial liabilities at the end of the first quarter was TRY 19.3 billion and TRY 32.2 billion respectively. Net debt slightly increased quarter-over-quarter in dollar terms and stood at $865 million. On the working capital side, sharp rise in Brent prices reduced working capital buffer.
However, our payable base continued to remain sizably above, receivables and inventory base, creating a material operational funding source. While near-term debt looks elevated, weighted average cost of the lira portion of this debt is 14.8% against the weighted average deposit interest rate of 28.5%, allowing us to create positive carry out of this position. We also have around TRY 19 billion of cash, which can easily cover short-term portion of, if there is an immediate need. Regarding our FX exposure management, we ended the quarter with a $20 million long position. Following the ongoing increase in Brent prices, our inventory amount registered at $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2022. Hard cash, hard currency cash position is at a strong level with $1 billion.
While slightly lower on a quarter-over-quarter basis, we continue to manage a sizable position of FX asset with forwards. Trade payables continued their upward momentum and reached at $4.1 billion, largely due to sharp increase in Brent price, especially towards the period end. On the liability side, both our short-term and long-term debt maintained compared to the last quarter, totaling at $1.4 billion. We continue to employ strict effective exposure management policies which targets the square position at period ends. Now looking at the maintenance calendar for 2022. We have completed periodic maintenance scheduled for the first quarter in İzmir and İzmit refineries. We are going to operate with peak utilization in the second and third quarters since there are no plant maintenances during these periods.
In the fourth quarter, we will have 6 weeks maintenance in İzmit and 9 weeks revamp in İzmir. There is no maintenance activity planned for our Kırıkkale refinery in 2022. Now taking a look at the expectations for 2022. We have decided to stop sharing expectation for MED complex refining margin since it is a theoretical calculation and has lost its indicative quality due to the high volatility observed in the oil markets. We have increased our standalone net refining margin expectation for 2022 to $8-$9 per barrel, from $4-$5 per barrel earlier. We expect current high cracks to continue throughout the second quarter, but to start to normalize towards the end of the quarter. Regarding operations, there are no changes in our expectations.
We still expect 26 million tons-27 million tons of production, 28 million-29 million tons of sales, while we expect capacity utilization to be within a range of 90%-95%. Our consolidated CapEx target for 2022 is also remain same at $300 million. We are planning to spend 45% of that on sustainability-focused energy efficiency and environmental projects. Out of $300 million, $80 million will be spent for logistics investments. On this slide, we would like to sum up some key figures for the first quarter and compare them against our year-end guidance. We had a net refining margin of $5.2 per barrel in the first quarter, which is on the upper end of our previous full year guidance range of $4-$5 per barrel.
Our new guidance range for the whole year is $8-$9 per barrel. Capacity utilization was at 85%, seasonally came as expected for the first quarter, which is below our guidance range of 90%-95%. In the first quarter, we have produced 6 million tons and sold 6.5 million tons, keeping our existing full year guidance of 26 million tons-27 million tons to 28 million tons-29 million both in production and sales. We have spent $18 million in the first quarter, keeping our guidance at $300 million. We have spent about 55% of our CapEx in sustainability-focused investments in the first quarter, in line with our target for the whole year. Before we conclude our presentation, we would like to provide an update to our strategic transition plan, which was announced in late 2021.
First, in zero carbon electricity, along with Koç Holding and Aygaz management teams, we have decided to take over 99% of Entek shares while offering new shares to Koç Holding and Aygaz shareholders. Based on the independent valuation report, we will be issuing 24.8 million new shares. We have applied to Capital Markets Board of Turkey for the process, and once approved, we will convene an extraordinary annual general meeting and plan to complete the transfer by the end of August. We are currently assessing Entek sites for potential synergies in terms of our electricity and green hydrogen plants. In terms of Tüpraş on-site, we have received green light for 12 MW of wind power, which is 3 turbines in Izmit, and currently in talks with equipment providers.
We have also applied for 12.5 MW of İzmit and Kırıkkale solar power projects.