Good afternoon and welcome to OMV's Capital Markets Day 2025 here in Vienna. My name is Florian Greger, and I'm Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Sustainability. On behalf of the entire management team, thank you for joining us today. We are looking forward to providing an update on our strategy 2030, the progress we have made, and how we are adapting to ensure we continue to deliver on our transformation and create value for our shareholders. First, please note our disclaimer language that you can see here on the slide behind me. I would also like to point out for those in the room, the emergency exits here and behind the curtain. In case of an alarm or evacuation, please follow the marked emergency exit located throughout the venue. Use the staircase only, not the elevators.
The assembly point is outside the building on the ground floor, directly across from the dock zone. Please remain calm in case of an emergency and follow the instructions of the staff. Thank you. Let us now take a look at the agenda. We will start today with a presentation from our CEO, Alfred Stern, who will give you an update on our strategy 2030, our progress, and outlook. Our CFO, Reinhard Florey, will then provide more details on our financial framework and update on the BGI transaction and our value drivers. We will then hear from Berislav Gašo, Executive Vice President on our energy business, and Martijn van Koten, Executive Vice President Fuels and Executive Vice President Chemicals, on the respective businesses. Following the presentation, we will have ample time for a Q&A session with the entire executive board. With that, I will hand it over to Alfred.
Thank you very much, Florian. Good afternoon and welcome to OMV's Capital Markets Update here in Vienna. It is a real pleasure to see many of you in person, and thank you for joining us. I also extend a warm welcome to all participants who are following us online. Today, we will provide an update on our 2030 strategy, the progress we have made, and discuss how we are responding to the market changes experienced over the past year. Our transition strategy, presented in 2022, continues to guide us, and we are making significant progress. At the same time, it is clear that we need to adapt and adjust the pace of the transition to better reflect evolving market realities, regulation implementation, and progress in maturing technologies. Our overall direction remains unchanged, and we are committed to leading an agile transformation and aligning with customer expectations.
Our goal continues to be to maintain robust cash flow generation and invest with discipline to deliver strong free cash flow to support attractive shareholder returns in the future. At the same time, we remain committed to achieving our emission reduction targets. The formation of Baruch Group International marks a significant milestone for OMV, opening up substantial growth opportunities. As one of you recently noted, OMV has become synonymous with chemicals exposure for investors. While chemicals is indeed a major growth driver in our portfolio, today we will demonstrate that growth is embedded across our entire portfolio. In particular, we are placing a strong emphasis on gas, with Neptune Deep, the EU's largest gas development project, on track to start production in 2027. Our approach to the energy transition has not changed.
We run the company on an integrated basis with three robust pillars, extracting benefits along the entire value chain and aiming to deliver returns of at least 12% in the mid to long term. Within these pillars, we maintain a strong foundation in our traditional business while actively pursuing sustainable growth opportunities that meet our minimum double-digit return threshold. Our goal is to maintain financial resilience through the cycle, which will allow us to distribute attractive returns to shareholders while realizing emission reductions. To do this, we carefully balance investments in new areas, be it traditional or sustainable, while optimizing our core business. I mentioned earlier that growth is embedded in our entire portfolio, and you will hear more details about this from Berislav and Martijn later in the presentation. Let me touch on our strategic progress since June 2024.
First, on the chemicals front, we have agreed with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to form Baruch Group International (BGI), creating a significantly larger and more resilient platform for growth. We have successfully started up the chemical recycling plant, ReOil, at Schwechat. This facility is unique in terms of technology and capacity and represents a key step in our journey towards a circular economy. We continue to make good progress on the development of the key growth projects, Karlo and Borouge 4. The operational performance of Baystar has further improved with stable high cracker utilization and an extended product portfolio at the new Bay 3 polymer plant. In renewable fuels, our co-processing plant is now in operation, producing renewable diesel, and the construction of the SAF HVO plant at Petrobrazi is on track for a startup in 2028.
In addition, we are building around 200 MW electrolyzer capacity in Austria and Romania, which is fully integrated with our refineries. The purpose of all our green hydrogen projects is to supply our captive demand in our refineries. Apart from driving the decarbonization of our sites, green hydrogen creates value by supporting differentiated, higher margin refinery products. In the mobility sector, we have nearly doubled our EV charging network and rebranded our retail stations, reflecting our commitment to sustainable mobility and enhanced customer experience. Our gas mega project, Neptune Deep, is on track and in budget for a startup in 2027, marking a major milestone in our efforts to diversify and secure our gas supplies. This project is a testament to our commitment to energy security and positions OMV Petrom as a leader in the region.
Additionally, our exploration activities have yielded positive results with a significant gas discovery in Norway in 2024, further enhancing our resource base. We have also successfully diversified our gas portfolio and supplied every single one of our customers without interruption. We are no longer dependent on any single supplier and have the most robust gas portfolio OMV ever had. In renewables, OMV Petrom has made significant progress in building its renewable power capacities, positioning itself as a leader in Southeastern Europe. We have also made strides in geothermal energy, where we have completed drilling and conducted a successful production test in Vienna and are on track to decarbonize the heating of 20,000 households by 2028. We have not only made significant progress in the implementation of our Strategy 2030, but also delivered strong financials.
Over the last four years, we generated an operating cash flow of EUR 6.5 billion per year on average. All three segments contributed significantly, underpinning the benefits of our integrated business model. This has also translated into increased shareholder distributions. We delivered strongly on our progressive dividend policy and have increased our regular dividend by more than 30% over the last four years. A big step up in shareholder distribution was the introduction of an additional variable dividend in 2022. As a consequence, total distributions more than doubled compared to four years ago. With a dividend yield of almost 13%, we delivered very attractive shareholder returns and were among the top performers in our sector. Now, let me look at our emission targets, as this is a part of our transformation strategy. We continue to be committed to lowering our emissions.
We have made substantial progress in reducing emissions across our operations, achieving a 23% reduction compared to the 2019 baseline, and a 17% reduction in Scope 3. In methane intensity, as well as flaring and venting, we have already achieved a reduction of over 80% compared to 2019. These achievements are the result of improved energy and operational efficiency, as well as a relentless focus on reducing routine flaring and venting. We are committed to further progress, and we remain on track to meet our 2030 emissions targets, leveraging technology and innovation to meet our net zero ambitions by 2050. As we look at the current landscape, it is clear that we have entered a period of significant change and volatility, one that is reshaping multiple industries and the global economy.
The resulting challenges are multifaceted and complex, but also provide opportunities and benefit companies with the right operational and financial setup. OMV has addressed this by launching a comprehensive strategic program to future-proof the company and make it more resilient and agile by streamlining operations and reducing complexity. OMV's Strategy 2030 uses the power of our integrated business model and targeted investments in innovative and sustainable business areas to capture the opportunities that are created by change. We are seeing increased competition from both China and India, alongside higher levels of geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility. The BGI transaction will help us to address this, providing greater geographical diversification, accessing advantaged feedstocks, and global markets, while leveraging the innovation and technology capabilities of Borealis to support more resilient cash generation. Elsewhere, we are seeing a slower than anticipated pace of the energy transition.
This is not uniform, and our strategy is to focus on investing in those sectors where we believe we have a strategic advantage, such as SAF and geothermal. We also recognize that the shift in pace and the need to support European competitiveness means that we will need gas for longer and in greater volumes than previously expected, which is why we now expect our gas business, underpinned by the Neptune Deep project developed by OMV Petrom, to play a bigger role. Finally, these changes also bring additional clear opportunities. For instance, the benefits of accelerating automation through artificial intelligence are twofold. First, the rapid build-out of AI data centers is driving growing demand for firm energy. Second, we anticipate AI delivering increased efficiencies through automation in our business, improving our performance and delivering cost savings. Our OMV Group Efficiency Program targets to leverage these state-of-the-art technologies.
Looking at more detail on the energy transition, investments in renewable energy and new technologies are unprecedented. However, we can also see that industrial implementation takes longer than anticipated. We now consider that the STEPS scenario is the more likely trajectory for future demand evolution and can make important adjustments to de-risk our investment portfolios. This means that while we remain committed to a low-carbon future, we continue to be pragmatic and responsive to market realities, driving an agile, demand-led transformation. We are investing in future technologies until 2030, however, at a slower pace than previously planned, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of innovation and maturing technologies while maintaining our financial performance. In the chemical sector, despite short-term challenges, we see rising demand in key areas such as packaging, automotive, construction, and renewable energy.
Gas remains a key driver of the energy transition, and we view it as a significant growth opportunity. By aligning our investments in sustainable businesses with market developments, we aim to de-risk our transformation while maintaining strong cash generation. Our continued focus on cost and capital expenditure discipline, as well as agility and resilience, will ensure that we can adapt to changing circumstances and deliver value to our shareholders. Our market assumptions for the coming years reflect this new reality. Our base case is a Brent oil averaging around EUR 70 per barrel in the next five years. As Reinhard will present later, we are well insulated in terms of sensitivity to oil price changes. On the European gas price, we expect to be at around EUR 30 pMWh . The refining indicator margins are expected to be between EUR 6 and EUR 7 per barrel.
In chemicals, we expect the market to gradually recover to a healthier supply and demand balance in the next two to three years. Additionally, we foresee the price of CO2 increasing from EUR 70 to EUR 110 per ton. As we look ahead, our commitment to transform and grow towards an integrated energy, fuels, and chemicals company remains unchanged. High cash flow generation, clear investment criteria, and attractive, reliable shareholder returns remain our guiding principles. Our journey is guided by the ambition of achieving net zero emissions across Scope one, two, and three by 2050. Gas remains a strategic segment for OMV. We anticipate longer and robust gas demand also in Europe, and therefore gas represents a significant growth opportunity. We are increasing investments in exploration and production, delivering key projects like Neptune Deep via OMV Petrom, and pursuing inorganic opportunities.
At the same time, we are selectively advancing renewables, ensuring that our transformation is both ambitious and aligned with market developments and demand evolution. Our fuels business continues to be a pillar of profitability, and we are capturing new opportunities in sustainable mobility. From expanding our EV network to developing renewable fuels and chemical feedstocks, we are adapting to changing consumer needs and regulatory landscapes. In the chemical sector, we are accelerating growth through Baruch Group International, driving feedstock integration and pioneering circular innovation. By leveraging technology and maximizing utilization of our assets, we are positioning OMV as a leader in the transition to circular chemicals. We are creating products that are not only high-performing but also environmentally responsible. I want to briefly outline the strategic direction for each of our business segments, with my colleagues set to provide further detail later.
Gas will be a key growth engine for OMV, with major projects like Neptune Deep and other organic projects. In addition to organic growth, we are actively pursuing inorganic opportunities that will further strengthen our portfolio and position us as a leader in our European core markets. We are continuously monitoring market and regulatory developments to ensure our renewable energy investments are market-driven and remain agile and responsive. In fuels, our priority is to optimize across the value chain and deepen chemical integration while driving cost and margin efficiencies. We are expanding our retail and trading footprint and seizing new opportunities in renewable fuels, chemical feedstocks, and sustainable mobility. For chemicals, we are accelerating growth through Baruch Group International, focusing on a successful merger and integration, delivering organic growth projects, and capturing operational efficiencies and synergies.
For our core chemical assets in Austria and Germany, we are maximizing utilization and optimizing integration across the value chain. By leveraging technology and innovation, we are advancing circular chemical solutions to support a more sustainable, resource-efficient economy. All of this is underpinned by our commitment to efficiency, strong cash flow generation, disciplined investment, and delivering attractive, reliable returns to our shareholders. As we look ahead to the period from 2026 to 2030, our strategic focus is on making OMV more resilient by reducing CapEx levels, increasing focus and efficiency, and de-risking our transformation by carefully adjusting the base of our sustainable investments. This approach ensures a market-driven transformation with strong financial performance. First of all, one of the key developments in our portfolio is the deconsolidation of the Borealis business following the formation of Baruch Group International.
In this new structure, OMV will hold an equal share with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and the business will be consolidated at equity. This change results in an adjustment of our cumulative organic CapEx budget by approximately EUR 3.5 billion for the period 2026 to 2030. In OMV's businesses, excluding Borealis, we are optimizing capital allocation by shifting investments from sustainable projects to our traditional business, resulting in a net reduction of organic CapEx by around EUR 1.5 billion until 2030. Some sustainable projects will be rescheduled to post-2030, allowing us to better balance risk and opportunity. At the same time, we are increasing investments in our traditional business, particularly by strengthening the E&B product project pipeline. This strategic adjustment in investment pacing not only supports the continued growth and stability of our traditional business, but also maximizes our free cash flow generation and improves OMV's resilience.
Targeted investments in sustainable opportunities will continue, with a focus on projects where we see a strong ability of OMV to win in attractive markets. This will result in the best risk-adjusted returns and near-term delivery. Natural gas will continue to play a pivotal role in Europe's energy landscape for the long term, acting as a key enabler of the energy transition. Its low-carbon footprint makes it an essential bridging fuel as Europe moves towards a more sustainable future, supporting the integration and growth of renewable energy sources. Gas-fired power generation will remain critical for managing the intermittency of renewables such as wind and solar, ensuring the reliability and flexibility of the energy system by providing both baseload and peak power.
European natural gas demand is expected to remain fairly robust and predictable through 2040, with only a modest compound annual decline rate of approximately 2% in alignment with the STEPS scenario. However, domestic gas production in Europe is projected to decrease further, resulting in a substantial supply deficit estimated at around 300 billion cu m per year by 2040. To meet this shortfall, Europe will increasingly rely on both piped gas and LNG imports, utilizing its infrastructure for both supply routes. With U.S. LNG serving as the marginal price setter, European gas prices are anticipated to remain higher than pre-COVID levels and will become increasingly decoupled from oil prices. This evolving pricing environment highlights the strategic importance and security of supply priorities that are strongly supported by European developments.
Overall, natural gas will remain indispensable for Europe's energy transition, underpinning system reliability and supporting the continent's move towards a lower carbon future. OMV is ideally positioned to benefit from these trends. Through the strategic transformation of our gas marketing and trading business, we are a leading, reliable, and fully diversified gas supplier in our core region. Our production footprint in Europe, the Norwegian continental shelf, and North Africa puts us in a strong position to benefit from this opportunity and further grow our footprint. We expect significant growth in our oil and gas portfolio, driven by both organic and inorganic opportunities by 2030. One of the most transformative projects in our pipeline is Neptune Deep, a mega project that plays a pivotal role in our strategy.
By 2030, we expect Neptune Deep alone to contribute approximately EUR 0.5 billion to OMV Petrom's clean operating result, underscoring its significance to our business. Our ambitions extend beyond Neptune Deep. We are actively pursuing further organic growth opportunities, as well as cash flow accretive inorganic growth through targeted acquisitions and strategic partnerships. Our geographical focus will be in and around Europe. By 2030, our goal is to achieve total oil and gas production of around 400,000 BOE per day. This growth will be supported by a disciplined approach to capital allocation, a robust project pipeline, and a continued focus on maximizing free cash flow. In fuels, we aim to increase the cash flow from operations generated by this segment by more than 50% by 2030.
To achieve this, we are committed to ensuring high asset utilization across our portfolio by harnessing the power of our direct sales channels and the benefits of integration. Our focus will remain on the most profitable segments, aligning the investments and offerings with the societal trends. We aim to optimize our asset portfolio and leverage the integrated value chain to extract the highest returns. Finally, while our core business remains robust, we are also selectively investing in sustainable opportunities, in particular in areas such as sustainable fuels and EV charging. We understand the importance of balancing traditional operations with the opportunities driven by market and regulatory developments to offer solutions for more sustainable mobility. By carefully choosing projects that align with our strategic goals and offer attractive returns, we can support the energy transition while maintaining financial strength.
In chemicals, the agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to create a joint growth platform for polyolefins is a major step in our strategy implementation. Going forward, chemicals will consist of our share in Baruch Group International, in short BGI, and our two crackers integrated with OMV's refineries and BGI in Austria and Germany. In the short to midterm, we expect growth in chemicals to come from BGI. BGI brings together three complementary polyolefin companies: Borealis, an innovative polyolefin producer with high feedstock flexibility, serving primarily European and North American markets; Borouge, a world-scale, vertically integrated producer serving primarily Middle East and Asian markets and benefiting from a first-quartile feedstock cost position and best-in-class margins; and Nova Chemicals, a leading North American producer with advantaged feedstock access, proprietary technologies, and a strong position in packaging solutions.
The combination of Borouge and Borealis cements a long history of strategic partnership between the two companies, with access to high growth markets, advantaged feedstock, best-in-class technology, and strong innovation capabilities. The acquisition of Nova Chemicals will transform Baruch Group International into the largest, truly global pure-play polyolefins player, with a well-diversified geographic footprint and an enhanced portfolio of complementary products and technologies. BGI will benefit from a robust pipeline of sustainable and circular economy projects, enhancing our ability to meet evolving demand. The synergies from combining three leading companies are material. The formation of BGI delivers substantial benefits for OMV shareholders by streamlining the shareholding structure into a simpler, more efficient model with joint control and governance. Let me highlight a few of the key benefits for OMV shareholders of the deal.
OMV's production profile will shift significantly, moving from currently 60% of production in Europe to the future BGI footprint with 70% of production in the first-quartile feedstock-advantaged regions of the Middle East and North America. This geographic rebalancing towards highly competitive cost structures will support BGI's industry-leading profitability and robust cash flow generation through market cycles. The company's extensive range of proprietary technologies will provide a significant competitive advantage. Its industry-leading high share of specialty products not only results in higher and more resilient margins, but also allows to benefit from the stronger growth of those applications. With the combination of more than 16,500 granted patents and seven well-invested innovation centers globally, Baruch Group International will solidify its global leading position in R&D and innovation. BGI's competitive cost base and integrated operations help to de-risk growth, supported by both organic projects and synergies.
With ongoing growth initiatives, anticipated synergies, enhanced portfolio mix, and normalized market recovery, BGI is expected to deliver through the cycle EBITDA that exceeds EUR 7 billion. Importantly, BGI will provide OMV with a substantial minimum dividend contribution of approximately EUR 1 billion net annually. This reliable and resilient dividend stream from BGI will be both free cash flow and clean CCS EPS accretive for OMV, strengthening shareholder distributions and reinforcing OMV's position as a leading dividend payer in the oil, gas, and chemical sectors. Following the deal, OMV's leverage ratio will remain well below the 30% threshold, ensuring our continued financial flexibility and enabling the company to maintain additional variable dividends to shareholders. Overall, the formation of BGI enhances OMV's growth prospects, cash flow quality, and shareholder returns while maintaining a strong financial profile.
While we have revised some of our operational and financial targets, we remain fully committed to our emissions reduction goals, including our pledge to lower absolute emissions by 2030, our objectives to achieve zero flaring and venting by 2030, as well as to reduce methane emissions to below 0.1% by 2030, are unchanged. Due to adjustments in the timelines of some projects, our expectations for carbon intensity reduction have been updated, and we now project a 10% decrease in carbon intensity by 2030. Our focused efforts in innovation and technology have made significant progress to advance OMV's responsible transformation. To become a more innovative and sustainable company, we are actively developing a range of cutting-edge technologies for the circular economy and the energy transition. This is enabling OMV's agile transformation.
Our proprietary ReOil chemical recycling technology is already in continuous operation at a 16,000-ton plant in Austria, driving our circular economy ambitions. The ReOil plant demonstrates chemical recycling at scale and has high potential for technology commercialization. Those of you with us in Vienna today will have an opportunity to visit the plant tomorrow. The innovation work on sustainable fuels focuses on cost-competitive production of sustainable aviation fuel and olefins. Synthetic and bio-based routes towards these products are under development. By leveraging biotechnological processes, we are unlocking access to new feedstocks and enhancing our conversion flexibility. Our decarbonization focus will be supported by our proprietary Cool Swing CC technology, currently being piloted in Austria. It is designed to deliver competitive, low-cost carbon capture solutions. Collaborations with geothermal technology leaders like EVER support OMV's geothermal growth ambition by leveraging OMV's subsurface and drilling expertise for industrialization.
Our group-wide innovation agenda is driven by a collaborative approach, harnessing the best ideas and expertise from both within OMV and through strategic partnerships. This ensures we continue to drive innovation and create value as we transition to a more sustainable energy future. Let me provide a concise summary of our Strategy 2030. This overview builds on the framework I shared last year, and our core priorities remain the same. Our focus remains on maximizing cash generation from our core business. We continue to concentrate on optimizing and high-grading our exploration and production business. The closing, integration, and synergy delivery of BGI, enhancing margin delivery from our refineries and retail operations, and executing our expanded efficiency program that aims to deliver more than EUR 500 million positive operating cash flow impact by 2027. Looking ahead, we have refined our future value drivers.
Last year, our primary growth focus was on chemicals, and through the formation of BGI, we will have successfully advanced this area. We will continue to drive growth in chemicals through BGI going forward, for example, through the mega project Borouge 4. In addition, we will now increase the focus to expand our energy position. We are committed to support OMV Petrom to lead the energy transition in Romania and Southeastern Europe, with the Neptune Deep project as a cornerstone and the development of an integrated power business as a significant future growth opportunity. Additionally, we are positioning ourselves to capture opportunities in sustainable mobility, particularly in sustainable aviation fuel, electric vehicles, and chemical feedstock. Our overarching ambition remains unchanged: to deliver attractive shareholder distributions and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Thank you for your attention, and I will now hand over to Reinhard.
A very warm welcome from my side as well. After you have listened to Alfred, who gave you a very good overview about what has been achieved in our path on the strategy, about the extraordinary transaction, BGI, but also about the future that we are trying to achieve and that we have put on our way regarding the strategy. I will concentrate on giving you some more financial details, but also some transactional background to the transaction with BGI, as well as the consequent new dividend policy that we have introduced and published on Friday evening, so you are all quite familiar with that. Let me start by highlighting the strong financial position due to a very strong financial steering framework that OMV has introduced and successfully implemented.
Our balance sheet has benefited from the discipline this framework gives us, and it has led to very rich both revenues, results, and cash flows over the past years. As you can see, we are concentrating in this framework on cash flow's profitability, but equally also on the strength of the balance sheet and making sure that our return on investments always deliver at a level of above 12% in average. This leads us to a competitive shareholder return, our ability to have good dividends, as well as strong investment-grade credit rating, where OMV has both with Fitch and with Moody's a very strong credit rating in the A area. Now, how does this success look like? The past four years have been the past four best years in the history of OMV.
With the support of a positive business environment, with the support of a stringent financial framework, we have delivered an average of EUR 6.5 billion of operating cash flow, and we have been able to invest an average of EUR 3.5 billion. You can see each of our segments contributed to this success positively. In these four years, we have made an average of 14% return on capital employed, and we were able, on an average yearly basis, to increase our dividends by 27% year after year. The balance sheet has benefited from a strong deleveraging, coming from a very difficult year, 2020, where we managed still to be in the ballpark of our target of 30% leverage. We have reduced the net debt significantly and deleveraged the company from 32% to below 10%. Even with quite some challenging two years, 2024 and 2025, we are still at 12% leverage.
This enables us now that in the course of BGI, where we will invest EUR 1.6 billion to get equal rights, equal share with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in this new excellent venture, and also the deconsolidation of Borealis from our balance sheet, we will still only be at 22% of leverage ratio. That leaves us enough space for the strategic initiatives that Alfred has introduced to you. We can also see that on all the good ratings, in spite of quite some challenges in the economy these days, we have a stable outlook on an A-rating with Fitch, on an A3 rating with Moody's. Now, let me switch a little bit to explain some of the details of the transaction around BGI. You're quite familiar with the setup, as we have explained it.
However, it's important to see the sequence and where we are today and what progress we have made. It starts with the merging of Borealis and Borouge and enabling this company to acquire Nova Chemicals. All three companies will ultimately be owned 100% by the BGI, originally with a free float of around 6%. That makes OMV and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) 47% shareholders each of this new entity. We will then, in the course of making sure that the initial listing in Abu Dhabi can also obtain an MSCI index inclusion, make a capital raise of up to EUR 4 billion into this company from external, which will lead to a shareholding of OMV and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to around 43%.
That will enable the company to then also make the next acquisition step, which is taking Borouge 4, which is currently held by OMV and by Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), into the course, get all the synergies, get all the capacities into this company until that point of time, where we're a little bit flexible on timing. This will be still operated by Borouge, but still held by its parents, OMV and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). This whole transaction is fully financed. We obtained acquisition financing in the magnitude that it requires for the acquisition of Nova Chemicals. The company starts with a strong balance sheet, very low debt, EUR 3.5 billion from Borouge and Borealis at the start, and that even reduced by the injection of fresh capital from OMV at the very start.
The acquisition debt and the existing debt that we would have amounts to EUR 13.4 billion, and we have been able to obtain a fully full financing of EUR 15.5 billion for the acquisition. Not only the financing has been prepared, it is also clear that the capital raise will happen at some stage, at some time after that merging, and we are aiming to keep this company at a good leverage. It is a target leverage for the company, of course, also building on the very strong cash flow generation of not more than 2.5 times EBITDA, which also shows that this is a strong balance sheet deserving good credit ratings. Now, we have taken it a step further in that respect. We have undertaken a confidential exercise and received confirmation that BGI will have a strong investment-grade credit rating from the beginning on.
This is important, and it is also evidence of the structure being very stable and also the flexibilities that we have built in, contributing to master all the challenges we have in the market. It's also reflecting that not only it has a full, strong investment-grade credit rating, but also on a standalone basis, it has a solid investment-grade credit rating and then, of course, some uplift from the parents' support. When we are looking at the impact on OMV, what we can see is that the free cash flow will clearly benefit. Alfred has said it, it's accretive. It's free cash flow accretive. It's earnings per share accretive. It's dividend accretive. Now, we can demonstrate this. If you will take this as a pro forma calculation, in 2024, we had EUR 2 billion of organic free cash flow.
If you would take out all what it takes from the Borealis side, as well as from Borouge's dividends, replace it by the dividends we get from BGI, you clearly see that's more. That would be a pro forma increase of EUR 0.4 billion to above EUR 2.4 billion, just coming on a pro forma basis. That said, you can see that the consolidation structure of BGI in OMV has, of course, some consequences on the KPIs, specifically on top-line KPIs, because what happens, Borealis has been so far consolidated for 100%, OMV only owning 75%, but 100% consolidated into the top lines of a clean CCS operating result, of an operating cash flow, but also on the clean CCS EPS. All that will now shift to the percentages we have from BGI at an equity-based consolidation.
This means that top-line numbers will go down slightly, while bottom-line numbers, the real numbers, will benefit from the accretion that I've introduced. We also see that the organic CapEx of Borealis had been 100% consolidated, and you saw it already on Alfred's table. This, of course, will move out of OMV, and we will more or less have no consolidation of CapEx from BGI or Borealis anymore in OMV. When it comes to the leverage ratio, of course, also there are some impacts. The impacts of having today the net debt and the equity of Borealis in there, but the net debt will increase by what goes out as an equity injection, but we will also benefit from the dividends that we get from BGI also on our balance sheet.
The equity BGI reflected via the returned earnings, that means that the net income will be the key number that goes into our balance sheets. That was a little bit technical, but it's important for you to make sure that the prognosis of our numbers can reflect all these kinds of changes. Let me come back to OMV. All this situation enables us to have a very strong focus on cash flow generation. One part of that is our efficiency increases. The efficiency increase has been manifested in a EUR 500 million improvement program for operating cash flow. The good news is we have already delivered EUR 200 million of that in 2024. If you then take our new program that we have announced, where we had said based on 2024 numbers, we will have EUR 400 million of cost savings.
This is a clear de-risking of the original plans because we are taking it out of a market perspective into a cost savings perspective. You take EUR 400 million and have an average tax impact on that. That already gives you EUR 500 million. You can increase it by what is in terms of margin improvements, customer interface as a benefit for the company. I will not go too much into detail of this chart because it summarizes all our targets for the future, and you have seen it with Alfred already. EUR 6.5 billion clean CCS, EUR 6 billion of operating cash flow, EUR 9 per share as a target for the earnings per share. We keep our smaller than 30% leverage target. We keep our 12% clean CCS target. We keep our sustainability targets. How does that look like in practice?
If you take 2024 numbers, you can see clear increases in the ambition that we have for OMV, in spite of the deconsolidation of these top-line numbers of the green bars, which has been Borealis. That shows that both the organic development, as well as growth opportunities and the impact of BGI, can strengthen OMV's performance, both in terms of clean CCS operating result, cash flow, and earnings per share. What is also important is we have included a little bit of the sensitivities in there. If you would take oil price sensitivities, gas price sensitivities, this shows the relative resilience of these targets against changes. If you would take Brent price EUR 10 down, the operating cash flow would change by a little bit more than EUR 200 million. If you take it EUR 20 down, this will be still less than EUR 500 million, more EUR 400 million of an impact.
The same with gas. This is just to reassure also that in the integrated business model with energy, fuels, and chemicals, we have a very strong and resilient business model here. The cash flow is also supported by new CapEx targets. Of course, with taking out the consolidation of Borealis CapEx, this goes down. On the other hand, we have also focused very much on where on our path forward we will invest and what's the level of investment that we anticipate. While we have anticipated in the last Capital Markets Day a level of around EUR 3.8 billion as CapEx, and we have put our foot slightly on the brake already, as you can see, in 2024 and 2025 due to the volatility of the markets, we now anticipate it's EUR 2.8 billion. Alfred has shown it to you.
A big part of that comes, so about two-thirds coming from the deconsolidation of Borealis, but one-third also from a reshuffling and refocusing of our investments to the target areas and lighthouses that we invest. Here you can see 30% of that will be sustainable projects, 70% will be traditional business, and that does not include Borealis anymore because CapEx is out of Borealis. This all leads to a clear improvement of free cash flow, and our anticipation is that free cash flow will improve by more than 50% from EUR 2 billion to more than EUR 3 billion by 2030. The major drivers for that, next to the discipline on CapEx, will be the cash flow coming in from all the projects that we have invested in the past that are now maturing and coming on stream.
Neptune being one, the activities around the green hydrogen, the sustainable fuels, geothermal, all will contribute to new cash flows with, I would say, old CapEx that's already behind us. This is the beauty about having a consistent value-oriented cash flow generation. Now coming a little bit to our dividends and the shareholder return. We have now simplified a little bit the capital allocation priorities. Unchanged, priority number one, organic CapEx to strengthen and future-orient our portfolio. The second is our shareholder return policy, where we have a progressive regular dividend plus an additional variable dividend as long as we are below 30% of leverage. Both of that will have a basis that I will explain in the next charts. Priority number three, as Alfred has pointed to it already, is acceleration of growth and transformation, our opportunities to grow even inorganically. Priority number four is to deleverage.
Of course, if we are coming close or slightly above 30%, this will change and we'll prioritize deleveraging over further M&A growth. Here is the new dividend policy. There's a lot of the dividend policy that stays as it is. It will consist of two parts. One is a progressive regular dividend, as you have seen in the past, plus an additional variable dividend. We aim to increase the regular dividends every year or at least leave it on the level of the previous year. The basis for what was formerly 20% - 30% of operating cash flow, and operating cash flow now being different with the deconsolidation of Borealis, is now to say, starting with 2026, we will distribute 50% of the BGI dividends OMV receives directly to our shareholders as part of the basis.
We keep 20% - 30% of operating cash flow as the rest of that basis. All that together is the basis on which these principles of regular plus additional variable dividends will be there. The current dividend policy is still applying for 2025. Dividend paid out in 2026 will still apply to what we have because BGI will close only in the first quarter of 2026. What does that mean? We have shown you a little bit of a comparable pro forma of the dividend. In 2024, we have seen a cash flow from operations of EUR 5.5 billion. We have seen a payout ratio of 28% within this range of 20% - 30%. That gave a dividend per share of 4.75%.
If we had done exactly the same on the same basis with the consolidation impacts in 2024, the overall cash flow from operation would have come down from EUR 5.5 billion to EUR 5.2 billion. However, due to the dividend floor of BGI, the dividend per share would have increased by 30%. We have seen that this, as such, is already the accretiveness that we have promised. The overall level of the BGI dividend is agreed, certain. We have a floor of EUR 2.2 billion that BGI will dividend out every year as a minimum. Out of that, 47%, later 43%, that is around EUR 1 billion will flow into OMV. That's the basis of which 50% will be directly going to the shareholders.
There is, of course, an upside because it is a dividend policy that says there's a floor, but 90% of the net profit will be dividended out, and there's an upside if free cash flow is even higher. That is more or less the promise to say there's a minimum and there's an upside. Let me come to one of my last slides to what I think is the most important about value creation and valuation for this group. This group has a value-generating portfolio. It is not only this first part cash providers that you see every day, our oil and gas business, gas marketing and power business, refining and marketing, the base chemicals. This is what delivers today.
On top, we have a participation value, value that is crystallizing in stock listings for BGI, for OMV Petrom, that can give you already a clear indication of the value that we hold as shareholders. On top of that, we have the future contributors, all what we have invested that will come in the future. This is Neptune Deep. It's the sustainable mobility. It's SAF. It's the renewable power in Romania. It's all the development projects also on the ENP side in Austria, Norway, and the Middle East and North Africa. On top of that, those are the strategic focus areas that will come on a longer term, the geothermal, circular economy, and future M&A. All that together is the value portfolio that OMV can show. You can see stock performance in this year was quite good. We are among the top two in our peer group.
You know that better than I. I don't need to explain that furthermore. Let me end with four core messages. The first is we optimize cash generation. Second is we have a lower organic CapEx post BGI that will strengthen this cash generation. The BGI transaction is accretive and unlocks value. We can safeguard the financial headroom with all our financial framework that allows us to grow also inorganically in the future. Thank you very much. I'll pass on to Berislav Gašo now. Energy.
Good afternoon. Let me also welcome you here in Vienna this time.
The attics of Vienna, and it's fantastic to have a full room of analysts in front of us. We can deep dive now also into an update for the energy division of OMV. I think we've heard also in the beginning in Alfred's presentation that we have acknowledged that the environment out there has changed and that we have therefore undertaken adjustments in our strategy. For the energy division specifically, this implies basically two things. Number one, we really see a bigger opportunity to grow in gas, and we want to go after that gas opportunity. We are going to grow that gas position with the ambition to become a leading producer of gas for our European core markets. I think that's probably message number one. Message number two is the energy transition out there is going in the same direction as three years ago.
However, the pace at which we anticipated that in the past is a slower pace than what we are seeing today. We are hence logically, as a result of that, also adjusting the pace at which we undertake renewable investments. In some areas, we accelerate. You will see that later on. We will try, and we are trying to accelerate, for instance, renewables at OMV Petrom. We are equally being more mindful on the geothermal side where markets and technology readiness are dictating us to adjust the pace. Now, what type of energy division or E&P business would we like to have in the future? We would like to be a leading producer of gas, of course, in and around our European markets. You've seen, I think, a similar page like this where we talked about three regions where we primarily want to be active.
That's the north, where we have a strong position in Norway already today with operated exploration, and we're present in four producing hubs. We have, of course, a strong position in Europe and in Central Europe, where we besides Austria also operate significant production in Romania. With Neptune Deep, we will play a very significant role also in the Black Sea and the European part of the Black Sea going forward. We want to strengthen that, and we want to build on that. In the south, you can see here Libya and Tunisia, but alongside that, we also have positions in the UAE and in Kurdistan. Our new growth ambition translates basically into 400,000 bpd. Where's that growth going to come from? There is, number one, a very strong organic pipeline that is in place. If you see our estimated production figures for 2025, they're roughly 300,000 bpd.
With our organic pipeline, we already see growth by the year 2030 because we will land at some 323,000 bpd . There is already some growth implied from a robust organic pipeline that is in place. You can, in simplified terms, think about two elements that contribute to that. Number one is that huge Neptune Deep project that we run in the Black Sea with Romgas, which is roughly 140,000 gross output. Net to us over an almost 10-year period, 70,000 bpd in addition. We have managed to build a quite robust pipeline also of other projects, operated and non-operated, which will roughly equally also contribute 70,000 bpd over that next five-year period. If you deduct decline from that, you would still see a 10% growth.
After that, in a second step, if value accretive, and I think many of you have heard me saying that I really love barrels, but I love dollars even more. Remember that we're going to do this only if accretive and if it really adds value and cash flow at the end. We are not chasing volumetric targets with the 400,000 bpd. We are after value creation here. Neptune Deep, quick deep dive into the largest operated offshore project within the European Union. That's a fantastic definition to give because it excludes Norway technically. We can say that it is the largest in the EU 27, which it is, with 140,000 bpd that will come on stream over an eight to ten-year plateau period, as I mentioned before, but with fantastic, some really fantastic KPIs to remember.
Below EUR 3 in unit production cost, world class, fantastic, basically, resource that can be very efficiently deployed and translated into cash flow. The second thing I would like to highlight here is also the fantastic CO2 footprint of that, of these gas molecules. We talk about 2.2 kg CO2 per barrel oil equivalent, European average 16 kg- 18 kg. Atlantic Basin LNG imported to Europe, of course, because of liquefaction, transport, and other things, would set you at 80 kg footprint, which is another fantastic advantage of our Neptune project. Not only does it add to supply security and energy resilience, especially in that part of Europe, it comes with fantastic financial and sustainability KPIs. The project is on track. I think an important side note may be to mention both in schedule and in cost.
We really expect first production in 2027, as we have announced that also when we FID that project. Now, the project, as I mentioned, is not only important to OMV Petrom and OMV. It is very, very relevant also for Southeastern Europe for the energy supply and security of the region there. In particular, of course, it has also relevance for Romania, which after the ramp-up of Neptune Deep will, after a long time, I think, again become a net exporter of gas in the future. You can see that basically on that page here. I think important to say is also, if you want to export gas molecules, and you all know that, you also need to have the right transportation capacities and pipelines into all directions in order to export. I can tell you that all of that is in place, actually.
We are really ready with 2027, not only to serve the needs of Romania and Romanian customers, but to also help to further contribute to the energy independence and security of the region and to export some of these molecules. There are also significant pre-marketing activities going on. You can see that, for instance, contracts with Uniper and others are being signed as we speak. This is in full swing, and we can't wait for those molecules to basically come on stream in early 2027. Besides that, I mentioned that already, a significant pipeline. I will not delve now into these projects, but you can see from operated, non-operated, across gas, oil, or both oil and gas, there's a robust pipeline of projects available, which will contribute another increment, significant increment of 70,000 bpd from today until 2030.
On the right-hand side, of course, valve recoveries, we left that a bit unquantified because the primary purpose of that is to really fight natural decline. We can see significant improvements in how we are doing that over the past two, three years, and a significant contribution also from these valve recovery activities, especially on larger mature assets that we operate, where we are bringing down our decline rates and we're dampening them. Exploration will remain important, and we are committed to spend another roughly EUR 200 million in exploration expenses annually until 2030. That translates roughly into 50 wells, with some of these wells being very, very exciting wells. Very exciting, meaning there might be new hub openers or new play openers.
We heard in the opening speech of Alfred Stern that we had a fantastic gas discovery in Norway, the largest gas discovery drilled last year out of many exploration wells that were drilled there. We see in that Wöring Basin and that Heidenmann discovery significant additional potential, and we want to see how much of that we can de-risk as we move forward. Besides that, there are also some very exciting prospects that we are chasing, for instance, offshore Bulgaria. It's again Black Sea. It is still early days in exploration, but there are some significant lookalikes of something similar to Neptune that we are potentially having here. We will see that once we drill it out. Of course, the nature of exploration is such that you don't know until you hit it.
Number three, besides those two hub players, we will continue, of course, with infrastructure-led exploration across existing infrastructure that we have because that can very quickly be tied back and is super value accretive to what we do, and we do that across the portfolio. On inorganic, I actually told you already, remember that we like barrels, we love dollars even more. It has to be accretive, it has to make sense. We are after the right opportunities here, and we will execute that if we really can, if we really can see that this adds value. Besides that, relentless focus on cost and efficiency will remain. I often call it when we talk to our teams or when I talk to my teams that efficiency must be the new normal.
This is not a one-off exercise, unfortunately, especially after what we have seen in the past two, three years with significant inflationary effects across all kinds of dimensions and categories that you can think of. I don't think you're only in wages. I think you're in many other cost items. We simply have to fight that if you want to remain competitive in the market. Therefore, two aspirations that we have here. One is a single-digit unit cost that we are striving for. We want to be below $9. An even stronger statement is actually the cash break even, where we say we want to push that even below a highly competitive $30 barrel per oil equivalent cash break even. That is quite an ambition, actually, and speaks about the quality of the portfolio that we are aspiring to further build here.
Second piece here, I think, is that still some optimization, high grading of the portfolio and certain elements will be required and necessary. With this, I do not think about entire countries that need to be restructured. It's more on asset level that we really need to remove a couple of things and maybe add a couple of other things in order to achieve that desired level of quality. Now, if I move over to the gas marketing and power business or the gas and power business of OMV, we'll continue, of course, with our activities around gas storages, around importing and trading LNG that we do, the gas sales, optimization, and trading. You can see many of these things here being listed.
I think what we want to see here is a significant earnings contribution coming from that gas and power segment with an average of roughly EUR 300 million in clean operating result that we expect our gas and power division to contribute going forward until 2030. A couple of sentences maybe also around recent movements in terms of fully liberalizing gas and power markets in Romania. You might have followed that the power market got fully liberalized in the meantime, Q3 2025. That took place. We anticipate now in the second quarter of 2026 also a full liberalization around gas pricing in Romania. I think we can welcome only these steps going forward. However, I would say the overtaxation, especially around domestic gas in Romania, still poses a challenge to some extent. This is the right direction to go.
Maybe a nice segue into our vision for OMV Petrom to become a leading power and market player in Southeastern Europe. If you remember at the beginning on the first page, I talked about basically we are accelerating a couple of things on these sustainable investments and we are pacing a little bit. This is clearly an opportunity where we say we want to accelerate the execution of a fantastic 1.3 GW renewables portfolio that we have built with Petrom together around a 0.9 GW or 860 MW gas-fired turbine that we run for power production in the country.
If you take that traditional business, the renewables part, and potentially even a battery business in the future, then you end up with a completely different integrated, basically, business model where you can run almost a virtual power plant. If you add Martijn van Koten's electrolyzers that he is building on top of that in the future on the refining side as a significant customer, you can really see how this grows into a fully fledged integrated business model, which, of course, comes with different economics than if you do wind or power or battery somewhere standalone. A fantastic opportunity. We see that in Romania and we want to grow in concentric circles around that. We also see great opportunities now popping up in Bulgaria and in other adjacent markets.
We really want to make a difference here and ensure that OMV Petrom becomes a leading power market player in Southeastern Europe as we move forward. Now, on geothermal, I think probably two things. Number one, we will still continue with that open loop with all the open loop projects that we had and have in the portfolio. Of course, in particular also with the joint venture Neptune Deep that we run here in the city of Vienna. I think we will visit that together tomorrow, if I'm not mistaken. You will see basically how the geothermal wells that we have drilled will supply 20,000 households starting 2028 with decarbonized heat coming from a source 24/7 base load, basically, decarbonized heat source by really reaping the benefits of this underground treasure on which the city of Vienna sits. That is going to continue.
We also see a second phase of additional 60 MW that we will roll out by 2030. We have a vision to go up to 200 MW. Just to put that in numbers, that's 200,000 households. That's half the city, actually, of Vienna. A massive and great ambition here. On the other hand, for closed loop systems, we're saying we still like the technology. We remain invested in Ever, if you remember. We're pacing those investments because of also technology maturity, technology readiness, market readiness, and other things. That doesn't mean that we have canceled now that CapEx. This CapEx simply will take place or be executed somewhat later. That might be 2031, 2032, 2033. It's not anymore as fast as we've discussed and presented that in the past.
To summarize that, I think our 2030 ambition on the E&P side will be, of course, to execute those fantastic organic projects that we have and deliver over 140,000 bpd in additional incremental production from the major projects that I have shown to you. We'll continue our journey around efficiency and cash break events and high grading. We will pursue those inorganic opportunities as long as they, of course, also make sense. In gas and power, I think we really want to strengthen profitability by leveraging this multi-commodity trading platform that we have built now, both in Gas West and in Gas East. We want to make sure that we see a stable, basically, contribution from that business. On the renewable side, we really go full steam ahead with Petrom and that ambition to become a significant power player across Southeastern Europe.
We are accelerating on the execution of that, while we are adjusting somewhat the pace around geothermal. Now, in numbers, just to summarize that, also again for you, I think on the E&P side, roughly 400,000 bpd is a target, $30 cash break, even below $30, below $9 in unit cost. On the gas and power side, we said roughly EUR 300 million in clean operating result that we expect there. On the renewables, roughly 3.4 TW h in output that we would like to see by 2030. With this, I'm coming to the end of my part, and I am now happily handing over to Martijn to explain you the fuels part. Thank you.
Good. Also, a good afternoon from my side. I indeed will talk about fuels. Later, I will continue talking about chemicals, but first fuels. I want to give you an overview of the market developments in our region. I think everyone knows, right, in Western and Central Europe, you clearly see the demand shifting. I say it on purpose like that because it is some good growth, for instance, yet also clearly declines in heating oil, for instance, and diesel. This is kind of posing us challenges, but also opportunities. I'll talk about that later, how we leverage that and capture those opportunities. In the East, of course, OMV Petrom with the refinery there and the petrol station business and the B2B business is having a more beneficial market environment.
You clearly see there with build-out of the roads, build-out, more cars, that there's still growth in the market in general. We're well positioned to also leverage that. Amongst both, you see increasing opportunities in renewable fuels and also renewable feedstock for chemicals, but especially the renewable fuels part is, of course, driven by the legislation, RED II, RED III, where it's really happening. The jet has currently 2% SAF in all the airports, right? We already know what will happen in 2030. We're well positioned to actually capitalize on that, both on the customer side as well as on the integrated production manufacturing side. How do we do that? Here's the footprint. What you immediately see, right, it's a nice integrated footprint, Central Europe all the way stretching to Eastern Europe, where we can serve customers and derive good margins. We also can integrate with chemicals.
Around that footprint, we can trade. We see actually an opportunity from here to 2030 to grow the cash flow from operations. That's exciting. Now you see a 50% growth opportunity. That's consistent also with previous capital markets. We're still on track. How do we do that? It's also a consistent recipe, deeper integration to chemicals, deeper integration with our customers. In retail, in B2B, and then capture the emerging opportunities in renewable fuels. That recipe stays consistent and we're moving to deliver on that. Here you see the first part. I'll come back to chemicals later in the chemicals part. It's a deeper integration with chemicals. Here you see the first part on fuels. That's our retail business, B2C. We're very happy with how that develops.
We, of course, have a strong fuel business, fuel brand, and that's really helpful also in the different economic environments because we're positioned in a premium brand with OMV in all the markets, but we also have in the markets a value for money positioning. That's really important. Also, strong market shares, and that gives us the economy of scale. Also, economy of scale then to develop our non-fuels business. We've moved on with that, right? We have a very strong cooperation in the West with key retailers, amplifying that non-fuels business sales. Also in the East, you see an example with Hauschauen. OMV Petrom has a big cooperation and see clear win-win there with Hauschauen on the food and also groceries and on the gastro. You've been able to taste the coffee again. This continues to be a story also on the last Capital Markets Day.
We're building out that because you see in society this kind of premium coffee is really an opportunity for us. Now, of course, we want to keep this platform really relevant. We think actually, and I'll come to it later when we sum it up, but EUR 500 million- EUR 600 million operating result growth opportunity from keeping the fuels offering strong, also with differentiated fuels, so the MaxxMotion, and then the non-fuels business. Very important to keep it, this is kind of, of course, real estate at prime locations, right? Keep the customers coming, also those customers that choose e-mobility. We have selected, and this is also consistent, the highly frequented along the road, high performance e-mobility. We're building that network out. That, of course, also keeps the shop frequented and the gastro offering.
This pool on fuels and differentiated fuels then also kind of allows the refineries to be fully optimized over the next five years. I just want to say a few more words around e-mobility. Here you see actually how far that has now come. We set ourselves a job in four key markets, right? Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania with our OMV Petrom colleagues to gain a significant market position on these high-performance chargers on the highly frequented roads. We have been quite successful there despite grid connection issues, etc., which is all about the teamwork. I'm very proud of the team to do that. We have moved into a top five position, which we want to extend into a top three position in the next years. We see actually that there's profitability there. The Austrian business on e-mobility has been able to be positive since last year.
We also see that outlook for other markets. On that basis, we decided to do a market entry in Czech Republic, where we go with a partner, Prai. OMV Petrom is looking at making an entry in Bulgaria. As the e-mobility wave comes from Northwestern Europe to Southeastern Europe, right, it's a play for the longer term. We think that we can have a very strong contribution. What we're seeing is this strengthens the traditional fuel business. In the different legislations, right, it's all about kind of making the traditional fuel business emit less CO2. You can do that by component blending, but you can also do that by being active in e-mobility. You can use those credits on the traditional fuel. This is an important play, important play in Austria and other markets. That's also why we piloted e-mobility for trucks.
We have actually established now eight charging positions in Austria. You can imagine now the truck is kind of the equivalent of 10 passenger cars. You get a lot of credits from this. We are actually quite happy with how that develops. We also do that. The beauty is also that we can do cross-selling. In keeping our traditional diesel sales up, right, we see a lot of logistics companies that are asked by some of their customers to decarbonize. Having a cross-sell opportunity is actually very helpful. We have now three big logistics customers where we could do that cross-sell. I just want to talk a bit about you, yeah, so that actually you understand how this e-mobility fits for us in the overall offering. Good. I move on to B2B. We have a strong B2B business, but actually, traditionally, we have been under-focusing on commercial road transport.
Trucks on the road because the low margin segment traditionally and also competition. We actually see that the diesel demand there is quite strong and longer strong. There is an opportunity there to cross-sell HVO, so renewable fuels, which is a nice synergy with our renewable fuels play. We have decided two years ago to actually enter more strongly in this segment. We did an acquisition, right, the AP brand, which you saw on my first slide, which was focusing on truck stops on the big roads in Austria. We're now building that out. We want to increase our liters sold actually by 25% in the commercial road transport segment until 2030. It's quite attractive for us, yeah, in a declining market to actually see this strong growth in one segment. We think we can do that from the position where we are.
There then the cross-sell, the renewable fuels and the e-mobility for trucks. On aviation, we explained that consistently, right, last years, we actually kind of do market entry. We are getting active on more airports. This has proven, of course, in hindsight, really excellent because with this strong jet growth, we now benefit. We have expanded the amount of airports where we're active. We are now active in 17 airports. Last Capital Markets Day was 14. We're also working on access from the pipeline from the ARA region. You can recognize, right, with the diesel sales, with the jet sales, we're shielding our refinery platform so we can optimize that with the trading and marketing around that and focus on cash flow delivery. A few more words about the renewable fuels opportunity. This is very interesting.
It's a market with very big growth, but also very big swings in supply-demand balance. You see also the cross-region arbitrage. As the Asia region and the U.S. region haven't moved as fast on this, you see a lot of arbitrage coming into Europe of renewable fuels. We are very happy actually with how we have approached this because first now it's about delivering what we have put on the road. We've started up a co-processing plant. Those of you that will visit Ferhat tomorrow, you can hear more stories about that. We have a 10 MW electrolyzer in operation. We have done a lot of learning also around that. We de-risked the other electrolyzer projects. We have put on the road, so they are now post-FID. They're in construction. Important four more projects, right? The SAF HVO plant from OMV Petrom.
This plant can make all the SAF that we need by 2030, so until 2035, in the OMV group. All the marketing we're doing for jet on the airports, right, is kind of also pre-marketing for this project because we can sell it into our own demand. Now, it is nice because with the supply-demand swings, this is a stability of offering that we can offer also the airlines. Included in that project, right, are two electrolyzers, boosting the value of the HVO and the SAF because you get extra credit for this. We have just done the groundbreaking last week, Monday, on a huge electrolyzer here in Brook and the Leith, 20 km from the refinery. You hear more about that tomorrow. Alfred explained importantly that this is into our own production.
We're not depending on any market developing for industrial hydrogen or for hydrogen in steel or hydrogen in mobility or whatever, right? We're using it in our own industrial production. Again, all these are double-digit IRR business cases that we're now focusing on executing. How does this work for such a big hydrogen plant, right? It's kind of scope one reduction. Obviously, that has value. You saw in the outlook that we expect the CO2 price to go from EUR 70 to EUR 110. That's good. We'll reduce gray hydrogen production in the refinery. It amplifies the value of the traditional fuels. They need by specification more greenhouse gas mitigation every year, 1% more roughly in all the markets. The blending components and the green hydrogen get a higher and higher value. Certainly, renewable fuels. You also boost the value of HVO.
You boost the value of SAF because they are kind of judged on the percentage of greenhouse gas savings that they achieve. You can, of course, also stay at the minimum and take cheaper feedstock, which allows you to be more flexible in your feedstock selection. Fourthly, it improves the value of our chemical recycled feedstock. We have now the ReOil plants running, 16 kilotons. We need to hydrogenate that. You do that with green hydrogen, you get a better value, obviously, because it's all priced on CO2 savings. The fifth opportunity is around e-fuels and e-olefins. This is a future step, which we're doing innovation on. Alfred explained that. That gives clear upside also for such a big electrolyzer project. I wanted to stress it's all internal business case that we have own control to deliver. What we'll then do is we'll kind of carefully watch the further developments.
We have a number of projects in advanced stage, so select and in feed stage. Feed is the last stage before FID. We can decide ourselves when we will actually take final investment decision and progress those. I think that's also competitively seen a really good position we are in, right? We can actually look at how the market develops, how the customers demand the products, and we can then trigger that. That's the approach that we'll do. If Reinhard talked about switching some of the CapEx from sustainable to traditional, right, you can see where that is part coming from. There's flexibility in my portfolio here. We think from renewable fuels also EUR 200 million- EUR 300 million operating result contribution. That's from all projects that are post-FID that we're building or have already in operation.
Across that platform, and I explained the customer side, I explained the renewable fuels opportunity, we'll optimize and trade, but what's very important is to focus on efficiency. Our refineries have a good position in cost benchmarks. We've shown here, we're showing you here the cost benchmark. You can see where we are positioned competitively. That's a position where you can fully load the assets because you have an advantaged cost to serve and margin position. We can, of course, also outcompete the refineries more on the right-hand side of the curve. That's the approach for the next five years. We actually think that with all the announcements you've seen on rationalization, we'll be on the other side of the curve. We'll be pushing to actually optimize our business and serve the customers well. Very important kind of concepts, right? That is kind of an integrated approach.
With that, I'm going to summarize the ambitions for 2030. We'll transform in line with the market. This is not the energy transition that I mean here. We'll transform as the yield shift in the market. As our customers demand more or less of the product. Heating oil goes really quickly down over the next five years, right? We'll have a residue strategy, reoptimizing the refining platform. See, chemical strengths from our crackers still being good, right? That means actually that we can start shifting more of the heavy part of the barrel into the crackers. We'll do furnace modifications for this. We'll integrate then the renewable fuels in this. It's not a transition, the energy transition, but it is more the market shifts that we'll make sure we transition with those shifts. On the customer side, we'll keep the key to the customer and further develop that.
I explained how we will do that on the retail network and also the shop and the EV, how that fits commercial. On sustainable fuels, we'll focus on the opportunities that we've brought on the way. They will come all on stream 2028, 2029, and we'll see that by 2030. We'll watch when is the right moment to do final investment decision or M&A on the next part. With that, we think we can grow the cash flow from operation by 50% and also underpin the group success. Barry talked about the gas growth. Grow retail and also make sure that we actually have a profitable business because that for sure will grow the demand for renewable fuels and feedstock. Actually getting this recipe right also is then allowing us to scale it. That's the fuel story. I'll move over to the chemicals.
I'm actually now kind of first talking about BGI because that's really our big growth step in chemicals. This is, and Alfred explained it, but this is where Borealis and Borouge are coming together as two formidable companies. At the same time, the takeover of Nova Chemicals. It's roughly one third, one third, one third. There's a big growth in there for OMV and equal share and joint governance, which allows us to strategically work together with BGI. It's very important. BGI, three complementary firms, geographically complementary, and also complementary in product portfolio and customers. That is giving us a lot of opportunity. I want to explain that now to you. I want to explain the competitive strengths now, but also how that then develops.
What we're creating is a globally set-up company, integrated, so between olefins and polyolefins, very important because then as the market has the cyclicality and the margin shifts between the two parts of the value chain, the BGI will be well positioned to have through the cycle good returns and also kind of then in-build growth. I'll come to that as well. An additional strength is in these technologies and differentiated products. Borealis has four key polyolefin technologies with a big market share in each of these: energy, healthcare, automotive, lightweight in cars, and infrastructure, pipe. It can really play into that. Nova comes with also ClearTech technology, with advanced packaging, complementary. That's very attractive because that's where the upside sits in the market through the cycles. Actually, specialties tend to be project-based business, right, electricity cables for wind farms, energy segment.
You know this years in advance, right, and you sell with a good margin in there. Very specialized product. Must get right. Yeah, but that is very different than the cyclical part of the productivity grades. It's very important to have a big part of specialty sales in the portfolio. Third key differentiator is, of course, now, and Alfred talked extensively about this, this rotation for us from our perspective into advantaged feedstock. You could say for BGI, the rotation is also in depth into the technologies and the differentiated fuels. From our perspective, 70% is now in differentiated feedstock, advantaged feedstock. I'll come to that. This all together gives us very attractive shareholder returns. First part, the integration along the value chain and global setup. You see that here in one picture.
See, Borealis traditional business in Europe, right, good share of olefins, where it wasn't fully backward integration on propylene, right, that is where the Kallo project fits, world scale PDH plant, right, propane to propylene, and then polypropylene. You see there, that green part, right, that is that project, further building the integration, strong position. Because it's so much leverage to differentiated products, we think also continuing profitable position. Middle East, Borouge, huge strength, and also huge expansion on both sides, right, on olefins with Borouge 4 and on polyolefins, Borouge 4. There's a significant revamp step of Borouge 1, 2, 3. So attractive. The Nova Chemicals portfolio in North America, also integrated with the advanced packaging focused strengths on polyethylene. It's only polyethylene there. You see it more heavily weighted on olefins, and that's logical in a historic context and also beneficial going forward because in the U.S.
it's all about the ethane, the advantaged ethane, right, and bringing that to market. You do that via the cracker. You need a certain amount of polyethylene to market, but that's why the olefin part is bigger. You're well set up, right, to benefit from the market, for sure. The market in polyolefins we see actually growing above GDP. Yeah, that's our outlook for the next 10 years. That is an attractive opportunity. Of course, again, it's supply-demand that will determine the cycles, but the fundamental products are very desired by the customers. That's because they solve so much societal topics, like energy transition, like lightweight in cars, like healthcare, growing population, growing living standards. That's actually why we have this outlook. What's special, and you see that on the chart on the right for you, it's all regions.
In Europe, there'll be modest, very modest growth, North America as well. Asia, huge growth in China, of course. In China, you see the economy and our outlook switching more to services. That's why it tapers off a bit, but it is a huge block. The rest of Asia is strongly coming. You see that here. It's India, it's Southeast Asia, and so on. I think then from the Middle East position that BGI has, you can really serve this well, also from the Northern U.S. position, and then with the specialties from Borealis. On the specialties, I want to bring that a bit more to point. I gave you the examples of what type of specialties. You see that here highlighted, Borouge as well, and then Nova. We've kind of shown you where they are regional leaders. Also within those specialties, actually, they're well positioned.
We together in BGI are really well positioned to benefit from increased growth in the market. On the feedstock, that 70% is advantaged, right? That's ethane Middle East, ethane North America. You can see in the chart actually how that gives you an advantage for naphtha-based crackers. Naphtha, of course, could be China, but naphtha here is also really Europe. That's an advantage. What's special is the Borealis crackers in Europe, so in Sweden and in Finland, they're actually not European naphtha crackers at all. They kind of have been converted over the last 10 years more and more to now a position that they're fully light feedstock based. It's ethane with long-term contracts and lease ships from the U.S. It is propane from the U.S. and the road markets, and it is also butane. Those locations in Stenungsund and Porvoo, Finland, they have huge caverns.
There's also a lot of trading opportunity around the large feedstock advantage. They are consistently in the benchmark also net cash margin first quartile because of that. Yeah, that gives us a real competitive position also in a consolidating European market. Those things together, which I've explained, the setup, the integration, olefins, polyolefins, the differentiated products, the light feedstock, has also built a track record. Here you see the pro forma average EBITDA for BGI. You see on the left, actually, that on average, it's a superior return, 26% EBITDA margin. On the right, we give you an idea of what the peak and the trough has been in these five years. You see, because of this setup, the trough, and that's, by the way, the recent years, right? The corona was kind of the peak because everyone was buying goods, right?
Now we're in a difficult situation, but it's 19% EBITDA margin. That track record shows actually the robustness in that platform. We think actually that from that platform, there's a lot of growth to unleash. That's why also BGI is for OMV a key way of participating in the chemicals growth. Here you see a pro forma EUR 4.5 billion EBITDA level. The first big step is the already in construction or just finished, but now maturing, growth project, adding another EUR 1.6 billion. I'll come to that in the next slides. Nova had already an impressive efficiency program ongoing and also an effort to bring the assets to Q1. That will continue and will deliver another EUR 0.2 billion. The synergies, because now coming together, and it's, of course, also in competitive perspective in a difficult market, actually a huge opportunity because you can now leverage all kinds of new synergies.
We guide at EUR 500 million, but now that we're working on this for five months, the teams are working on it in the three companies. Of course, watching not to gun jump, but planning is ongoing. We see actually that this pipeline extends well beyond EUR 500 million, potentially double. There's a lot of focus on that planning effort so that we hit the ground running from Q1 next year. I'll talk more about that, but then you see that stretch to EUR 7 billion EBITDA when the cycle also is fully normalized, mid-cycle. If you then calculate that, actually gives the upside on the dividend that Reinhard talked about. Let me talk about each of the elements in more detail. The five growth projects, and we also shown this when we announced the deal, right, they're spread across the three companies and also different kind of themes.
The PDH I explained is the backward integration for Borealis in Europe. You can also see why in a European consolidated market this is a strength because now you're kind of reintegrating. It's actually some of our competitors. One competitor builds an ethylene plant, right, in Antwerp. Same theme, integrate, right, and that actually means that others kind of lose their customers. Yeah, that's a consolidating market, but for us, for Borealis, this will be a real strength. Baystar, that's a polyethylene-focused joint venture in the U.S. with TotalEnergies, has started up. Reliability is improving. Now the focus is on getting the best of the Borstar technology. This is the first third-generation Borstar plant in the U.S., unique product on the infrastructure, for instance, on pipe, et cetera. The teams are very focused now on actually addressing that in the U.S. market and capturing that upside from these specialty products.
If it fully matures, right, also significant EBITDA contribution to this EUR 1.6 billion. Nova has started up the AC2 in 2025 and have just the same, right, as I explained with Borstar. Also, they have now the advanced packaging products and are developing the customer pipeline where you see the full benefit from these specialty grades and then unleash the upside. Barouge, Borouge 4, phenomenal project, also with two third-generation Borstar projects included. The polyolefin side will be starting up, basically starting Q4 this year all the way through to end next year. The cracker comes on stream as well, giving a huge opportunity there. Borouge 1, 2, 3 is a debottlenecking project, so relatively CapEx efficient, right, and further stretching the capacity in Borouge, which all can aim at the growing Asian market. This is a really nice in-built pipeline.
No acquisitions to be done or in that sense or kind of FIDs to be taken. This is all focusing on actually what's there and maximizing the delivery, the performance. Now, synergies, I promised to say a few more words. What's obvious, yeah, out of the EUR 500 million, there's a big part cost synergies, procurement, shared services. You can have shared marketing, shared operations, best practice. That's clear. Yeah, cost-driven, I call them. What's also a unique opportunity here is this complementary portfolio. There is here shown about 40%, but if you look at that extended pipeline, which I talked about, above EUR 500 million, actually we now are looking more at half marketing opportunities and supply and operations optimization opportunities where you kind of now globally optimize. Let me say a few more words around this. Why is this special and why we are very excited about it?
Why this could mean or this will mean that Nova can look at actually in the BGI context once the deal closes, right? Can we not bring our advanced packaging products to Europe? Can we not bring our advanced packaging products better to Asia via also the Borouge sales force? Because now Nova sells a lot of trading, et cetera, and Borouge has a lot of people on the ground. Borealis can look at globally selling the specialties much better. Then you can do the production wheels in European plants more efficient. Rather than every day a new grade, you go to kind of a couple of days, you have less non-prime, right, and you make more efficiently also these specialties you can globally market. Opportunities for Borouge to sell better in Europe. Europe is a patchwork.
Borealis is very strong and central in Northern Europe, right, but in the Mediterranean, big opportunity. This also volumes from Borouge, right? Very, very exciting actually. Exactly what you need in a difficult market. You can fire on all cylinders. That's what's being prepared at the moment, right, and which underpins the staircase. Now, how are we doing on actually getting to the close? Very well. I think Reinhard also highlighted that. We see good progress on the regulatory approvals, still a few to go. You, of course, never know when that's done, but we're still kind of guiding for Q1 close. We've also taken already important steps on the company structuring side, so that because it's quite a complex transaction, as you can imagine, right, with this coming together of two companies and an acquisition at the same time. We make good progress.
We're looking at selecting the leadership and the Supervisory Board to have that on seat when the close happens and also the day one readiness. So far, it looks good. Q1, it should close if everything goes well. We go do that full play, including the staircase delivery. That's a key contribution to OMV's chemicals growth. I did say I will also talk about the OMV-based chemicals integrated in the refineries because that's important for the refineries. We have two crackers, of course, one here in Vienna, one in Munich. These crackers are also well positioned on the net cash margin curve. You see that here in the graph, how we regularly benchmark them. There's a lot more focus on efficiency and reliability. It's all about this integrated team play with the refinery and with the customers. An important group of customers or the most important customers, of course, BGI.
It is also kind of the ethylene remarket via the pipeline and in the Chemiedreieck, sorry, the chemical triangle in southern Germany. We're very focused on that also to make sure that we maintain high utilization rates until 2030. We think actually that we can then deliver a very good contribution to the cash flow from operations. What's special is we, like with renewable fuels, right, we have now key strengths in renewable chemicals because the biopropane from the HVO SAF plant is unique, of course, very good cracker feedstock. The HVO is better than gas oil, which is a traditional cracker feedstock. We can process that as well. We have already starting on a business. We're selling now 20 kilotons very profitable renewable chemical feedstock, chemical product. It's not nothing. It's 20 kilotons and we're growing that. We're just looking at that opportunity.
We also have a unique circular chemicals position because we have our ReOil plant in operation. We're optimizing that at the moment. It's fully sold out. At the moment, all the chemical recycled products are sold via Borealis. We also look at opportunities to sell circular C4s from Burghausen, circular ethylene into Germany, right? We'll mature that opportunity. We look at the right moment to take FID for a larger project. We are very happy with that position. We're ready when the market comes and then we'll pull in the lead. That's the idea. No change in strategic direction, but we'll look at the timing. With that, we actually think that we are uniquely positioned to deliver very good results and upside from BGI, EUR 1 billion floor dividend, 90% cracker utilization for the OMV crackers. It's important. Hey, we're at the closure. There's consolidation ongoing.
We're actually kind of aiming to be on the other side of that, doing the consolidation to the market, right, rather than having to consolidate ourselves. Then EUR 200 million operating result contribution from the OMV chemicals part. It remains in OMV. That's kind of the story. That's how we think we'll have together a strong contribution in the OMV group. With that, I'm handing back to you, Alfred, to summarize.
Thank you very much. Thank you also for staying here with us. I was looking around a little bit. As we do with our own company, we try to stretch results. We do the same with you. Thank you for staying. I know it's getting a little bit long. Only five more minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, as we conclude today's presentation, I want to reiterate why OMV stands out as a compelling investment case for the future.
We are driving an agile transformation by reinventing essentials for sustainable living. We are focused on delivering secure, affordable, and increasingly sustainable energy, fuels, and chemicals to our customers. Our capabilities in operational and commercial excellence are core to maximizing cash flows from our integrated business model. We drive growth in energy, enhanced value in fuels, and build a world-class position with Baruch Group International in chemicals. This is supported by disciplined capital allocation and operational excellence to boost free cash flow by 2030. We are committed to an attractive and robust dividend policy. Thanks to our integrated business and substantial BGI dividends, our dividend policy is becoming less exposed to oil and gas price volatility, allowing us to commit to a progressive regular dividend complemented by additional variable dividends.
In summary, OMV stands for agile transformation, targeted growth, strong cash generation, and attractive dividends, delivering sustainable value for all stakeholders. With that, I would like to thank you for your attention, and I hand back the floor to Florian.
Yeah, thank you, Alfred. Thank all of you for your presentations. Before we now come to the Q&A session, we take a 10-minute break so that we can set up the stage. We will meet again, I think, in 10 minutes, 4:18 P.M. Very exact.
Good.
We're back in two minutes.
Welcome back to the Q&A session, for which we have foreseen about 90 minutes. We will begin by taking questions from participants in the room. I will call on you and would ask you to limit your questions to two questions initially. You can always re-queue for follow-up questions. We may also take some questions from virtual participants at a later stage. With that, I want to start with Chris Kuplent. Then we have Alejandro. Then we come to Paul. Then we come over here. Chris is...
Thanks, Chris Kuplent from Bank of America. This is particularly about energy, I think, where you've presented quite a bullish outlook, almost an acquisitive outlook. I just wondered whether you can describe your view on which part of the cycle we're in when you consider particularly M&A. You've sold a few assets. You're out here saying, "Hey, I want to get to 400 with inorganic steps." Where are we? Is this a better time to sell or to buy? What are you waiting for? That's question number one. Question number two, of course, maybe for Reinhard, these 2030 financial targets, are they based on purely what you have today? Or did you already include some of the M&A excitement from your colleagues around the shop?
Sure. First of all, I'm not sure I would agree with the bullish outlook. I think it's a factual outlook where we simply say, and we've heard that today a couple of times, right, that the energy transition, the pace of the energy transition is not taking place at the same pace as anticipated earlier. I think that was one reason. The second reason was that we looked also a lot into demand, specifically also European demand for gas, but also global demand for energy, for instance. If you look into what the International Energy Agency published in March, for instance, then you see incrementally 2024, right, was almost a 60% - 70% higher growth for energy than the comparable preceding 10-year period. Where's that coming from, right? That is, you know, there's a massive electricity hunger that has triggered new sources of demand.
One thing, GenAI data centers, you name it. Second, of course, also decarbonization efforts because that translates into electrification. If you take that entire view, then I don't think that we are necessarily bullish with the outlook on gas demand in Europe. I think we're just simply acknowledging the facts and the reality out there. You see that also underpinned, for instance, with the recent discussion that German policymakers are having, where they say, of course, we want to push the renewables as much as we can. Any form of energy that we can add to that massive demand is more than welcome. We are equally realizing we can't do it with the renewables alone. We'll need gas-fired power plants in order to, you know, swing them on and swing them down as much as we can in order to stabilize the grid.
Gas is going to be there for longer. It's going to be an important bridging technology and an important bridging fuel. That is, I think, the basis of our thinking. We sit in Europe and we sit in and around Europe. We sit today already on some fantastic gas reserves and gas resources and some of the most exciting gas projects that can be developed, in particular pipe gas projects to Europe. We want to do more around that. I think it's pretty logical in terms of how we derived that. Second, to your question, where are we in the cycle? I mean, that's a difficult question. I'm long enough around not to tell you where we are in the cycle and what I believe around oil and gas prices.
I can tell you, though, one thing, and that is, you know, that independent of where you are in the cycle, if you get the right opportunity at the right price, you should go and execute. I understand the worries in this room about, oh my God, does this now imply billions of acquisitions and money that OMV wants to spend? Now, what are they going to do? I can only repeat what I said earlier, that I really like barrels, but I love dollars even more. My colleagues here think alike and think the same. So does also our Supervisory Board. We're not going to do something stupid just to chase a volumetric target. There are opportunities. There's not too many opportunities. It's not necessarily a buyer's market. If you work hard, you can still find those opportunities. Apologies for the somewhat long answer.
Chris, I'm taking a try on your second question because I cannot give you a precise answer, but I can give you a clue. When we were talking about the target of the previous strategic plan, we have reduced the inorganic part when it comes to CapEx probably by around 50%. Why? First of all, we stay below 30% leverage. Secondly, we are investing EUR 1.6 billion in BGI. Thirdly, in the last plan, we were focusing inorganically very much on the chemical side, which has higher multiples than what you would find when you're looking into, be it on the fuel side or specifically on the energy side. Therefore, from the leverage, from the stretch side, I'm relatively relaxed on that. On the other hand, you can never anticipate an M&A opportunity. You cannot see what is giving you the best value for money.
That is what Barry is talking about. Maybe it's a small deal with fantastic value. Maybe it's a little bit larger, giving you a lot of long-term opportunity. We don't know yet. We wouldn't talk about it now. Even if we would know exactly, that's not what we can do. I think it's important for you to understand this is not a quadrazillion number of CapEx in there. It's around half of what was in the previous plan. We still are almost there with the previous plan, taking even into account the deconsolidation of Borealis.
Hello. Thank you for taking my questions. Alejandro Vigil from Santander. Two questions about dividends. The first one is about the BGI transaction. How confident are you that these comments about dividend floor actually will be there in the sense that we are still probably early in the cycle? Probably there is more capacity of ethylene coming to the market, you know. How confident are you about this floor? The second question is about the 2025 dividend. Market expectations are that you are going to cut dividend by about 10%. It's below last year. Do you think this is a fair assumption considering all the messages you're bringing today of growth and strength? You're expecting dividends to be lower this year. Thank you.
I can take this, Alejandro. Thank you very much. First of all, your first question, I hear that quite frequently because there is a not so exciting situation in the chemical markets. We see a big acquisition by Borouge, Borealis to get Nova on board. We see a very attractive value of that floor. What I can tell you, a floor is a floor is a floor. That has been an agreement between the two major shareholders. That is important for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and that is important for us. If we have close to or north of 90%, you can imagine that we will do the utmost to take the dividend. Of course, equally important for us, it is to look at the stability of the company in terms of the balance sheet, in terms of the ratings, and all of that. That is important.
Now, why am I saying that? You could now ask, what is now priority one? Both. We have established a flexibility in order to also preserve the strength of the balance sheet. The flexibility specifically is around this Borouge floor. Just imagine today, we have started with low debt. I gave you the amount of debt that adds from the Nova acquisition. Then there is a capital raise. That will strengthen with a double whammy this company, creating equity on the one hand side, reducing debt on the other side. There is another big acquisition. The timing of the acquisition, we have agreed to be flexible in order to make sure that the balance sheet at all times is stable, at all times gives you an investment grade, at all times gives you also the stability of the integrity of the company.
As you can see, there's a lot of additional cash flows coming in because with Borouge being operated, if not owned, there is already some opportunity to get some cash. With additional assets, Baystar running up, AST2 running up, also the PDH2 in Kallo coming in, that is a lot of assets from investments from the past that add additional cash flow. It's, I would say, a matter of time in correlation with the market to say, do we have to wait one year, maybe two years for the recontribution of Borouge, but we have that flexibility. That also has been agreed between the shareholders. Therefore, both are priorities, being able to deliver on the floor and being able to keep a stable balance sheet with an investment credit rating.
Okay, we now go in the second last row.
Sorry, there was a second question, which I would love to skip. I can ask for your patience because it will be January until we will announce the level of the dividend for the year 2025. The year 2025 is happening in a challenging environment. We don't need to discuss this. Everybody knows it. On the other hand, the resilience of this group is able to also provide a cash level that we think is, compared to others, very stable, very resilient. We will discuss this. We will discuss it in the Executive Board. We will discuss it with our Supervisory Board because we still have this 20% -3 0% range. What's the adequate range? We will decide then at that point of time. Please be patient until January.
Good. I guess we have now answered all questions and come to the second last role to Paul.
Thank you very much, Paul Redman from BNP Paribas. I just had two questions. The first is on the production guidance. I was just intrigued to know why you need to mention the 400,000 bbl a day, why that's important to you to show the market that you will go out and acquire and get up to 400,000 bbl a day. You're already showing organic growth. You'd already committed to 350,000 bbl a day. Why is it important that everyone knows it's 400,000 bbl a day? You say not the target, but it's clearly something you're thinking about. Secondly, when I think about the dividend you're now or the guidance you're giving on distributions, what decided 50%? Could it have been higher? Could it have been lower? What drives that 50% commitment?
Yeah, do you want to start, the 400?
The answer on 400 is pretty simple, quite honestly, right? The thought that we had was exactly what Berislav said versus the anticipated speed of transformation in Europe. We are seeing industrial implementation and implementation in the markets, the regulation being a little bit slower than the hope that maybe society, let's just call it that, had three, four years ago, which means we will need gas for longer and we will need more gas than we previously thought, right? Also, in Europe, we believe that because of the work that we have actually done over the last years to, first of all, create a fully diversified gas portfolio where we are no longer dependent on any single supplier, yeah, makes us a stronger kind of gas player in Europe.
Secondly, with our current portfolio in and around Europe, we are in a pole position to take advantage of that change in the market, right? The in and around, right, the Neptune Deep project, Berislav mentioned it. We also have some exploration ideas in the Black Sea. There could be more kind of ideas with all we can do. That was the signal we see that is stronger than we saw even still last year when we said 350. I don't know if you want to add anything, but if not, maybe Reinhard.
Yeah, on the 50%. I can confirm that 50% has been a very deliberate and very analytic choice. Maybe the reasons in its sequence. First of all, very clearly, 50% of a free cash flow is more than 20 %- 30% of an operating cash flow. Yeah, so that was the first calibration that we did. The second was that BGI dividend has a little bit of a different scheme than just a 20 %- 30% of an OMV operating cash flow. Why? Because it has both a downside protection and an upside assurance, which means that for an asset that we do not control 100% or 75%, we see that the market fluctuations are very much covered by that kind of floor concept. That was true for both ADNOC and us. They are losing their clear majority on Borouge, we are losing that on Borealis.
We thought, what's the best assurance for us to still get the money and the return on the investment that we need? Now we see that if the market goes down, we're protected. If the market goes up, there is an upside. I mentioned that upside not only from the net profit side, because probably you couldn't today take a model for how net profit looks like after a PPA of Nova Chemicals. However, if you then compare it to say you have a net profit, 90% of that, wow, that's a high number. If free cash flow is higher, there's an upside to that. That gives you really an opportunity because if the market goes up, the free cash flow is the first thing to go up, because you still have curbed CapEx and a great operating cash flow then.
Therefore, this is a little bit more asymmetric than you would say 20 %- 30% of operating cash flow. Then you're fully exposed. On the other hand, OMV stands for Integrated Business Model. We keep our promise of 20 %- 30% of operating cash flow with all the resilience that we have. Therefore, we viewed it as the best of both worlds. Why then 50%? Because we said it's really our deliberate decision to pass on directly 50%. We also need to keep 50% because OMV is there with two strong pillars that we want to grow, that we want to develop. There is a lot of opportunity what we can do. If we are so successful, then also our share of dividends passed on from that with the operating cash flow gets higher.
Okay, thank you. We now come here in the second row. Michaela, Josh, and then we move again to the other side.
Hi, good afternoon. Guilherme Levi from Morgan Stanley. I have two questions. The first one, if you could walk us through the trajectory of commodity price assumptions and refining margin assumptions that you have used in your plan. I see that the average Brent price is EUR 70. It ends up at EUR 75 by 2030. Also, refining margins at $6-$7. Then the second one, connecting the first question, but also going back to the M&A theme, could you say a few words about how you see your firepower during the plan? How should we think about your appetite to get closer to the 30% gearing level, depending on which point of the cycle we are in?
Yeah, maybe I can start with the assumptions. Assumptions for the next few years is an oil price at EUR 70. Only on the further end towards 2030, we would see a recovery to EUR 75 again. We have said, and Alfred showed it in the average, it's around EUR 70. Gas prices also on a rather flat level with an average of EUR 30. The refining margins, we are not lured into high optimism from today's situation. I mean, today we are talking double digit and really also not a perspective that this would end tomorrow. Nevertheless, we are keeping cautiously optimistic with this level of $6 - $7 per barrel. This is around the assumptions. M&A firepower, I think the firepower is very well defined. If you take 22% after BGI and headroom to 30%, this is where my discussion room is defined.
If there are better or smaller opportunities, this is what we'll discuss and we'll see. Don't expect that we are spending EUR 10 billion on something. No, why? This is a company that keeps financial stability, predictability, also the dividend distribution opportunity as a very high value.
Thank you, Guy, for your questions. Michele, Josh, then Adnan, and then we move again to the other side.
Michele Della Vigna from Goldman Sachs. First of all, congratulations on the transformation of the company in the last four years. I wanted to ask you two questions. The first is more of a financial question. When we think about Borouge 4 being contributed at some point into BGI, how should we think about adjusting the 22% leverage for that? What would be the impact on your balance sheet from doing that? Secondly, going back to the extraordinary growth you're going to see in Romanian gas, I was just wondering, in a liberalized market, how should we think about the Romanian gas price in that liberalized market? Should we think about TTF plus, TTF minus, about a kind of insulated market?
It's interesting because that region has really suffered from the lack of Russian exports and is not as well connected to the LNG market as some of the other regions. I was just wondering about how we should think about it in the modeling of Neptune Deep coming on stream in 2027. Thank you.
Yeah. If I would take the first question, Borouge is currently a company where we ultimately will hold 70% ADNOC, 30% OMV. Why is that? Borealis held 40% and OMV had 75% on Borealis that then calculates to 30% on Borouge 4. Why is that important? Because Borouge 4 is more or less financed by two things in its project phase. The first is shareholder loans and the second is external financing. There is a majority of external financing in there. The shareholder loans are more or less distributed in the same ratio as the participation values to the individual shareholders. That means you can calculate this is about EUR 1 billion or a little bit higher than EUR 1 billion of skin in the game for OMV in Borouge 4.
That is where the impact of a fast deleveraging of the 22% when the recontribution comes or somewhat later deleveraging if we strengthen the balance sheet of BGI. That's about the value that you can have in your calculations. Yeah. Maybe your question on the gas price is a very good one. I would think about this on three levels, right? Number one is what is the amount of price caps introduced through regulation which are going to disappear? Number two was a question on a different flying altitude that you asked, which is what is the market quotation that will be used to price molecules in Romania in the future? Is something going to change? Number three, I think you didn't mention it, but probably implicitly assumed is what are taxation effects that will not be?
I would really suggest that you maybe with Florian go into a deeper discussion of that. The one thing that will be removed are the price caps. No change so far to the market quotation. That has implication on the third leg, which is the taxation plus the overtaxation. I think IR can probably help you with a bit more details on that. For now, the price caps are gone. The taxation problem remains.
Thanks, Alex. Josh Stone here from UBS. Thanks for the presentation. Two questions. Firstly, on the financial framework and updated targets, one thing that struck me was you've reduced your CapEx on a like-for-like basis by about 8%. Yet your operating result target in 2030 is unchanged. Maybe just talk about what's going into that. I know there's a number of moving parts. The macro index has got a number of pluses and minuses. In particular, what are you assuming for like BGI net income within that? Do you assume some growth going through to 2030 within your financial targets? Second question, focusing on the petrochemical markets. I'm curious as to if your view has changed at all since you did your last capital markets updates on the outlook. We've seen U.S. margins have been pretty abysmal, really, in the last six months. Europe's held up a bit better.
What's your view on what's going on? When do you think, you know, where are we? You've asked about oil, where are we in the cycle? Petrochemicals? If you could just share your views there, that'd be great. Thank you.
You want to do the financial framework and Martijn? We'll see if Martijn is also long enough in the game not to comment on cycles.
Yeah. Yeah, let's start with that, Josh. I think this is a very, very good and clear question and observation that, of course, the level of the target changed in a different way. There are two explanations to that. The first is the sensitivity of operating result and operating cash flow are very different. You see that also in our sensitivities of oil prices and gas prices. Sensitivity is maybe half of what it is on the cash flow versus the operating result side, simply because of the tax that we have with around 50% in average. That is one thing. The other thing is that in operating cash flow compared to operating result, there is much more from Borealis in there on the reference side that we had when the plans were on having still full consideration of Borealis.
That means if you take out Borealis and replace it on the operating result side by net profit and on the operating cash flow with a dividend, then you automatically have a different level. That is also why this dividend policy is so important because we want to demonstrate with the operating cash flow going down that does not mean the dividend potential goes down. On the contrary, there is an accretiveness also on the dividend. That is the reason why there is this not in parallel development of the targets between operating result and operating cash flow.
Yeah, maybe add some color in it. We don't know exactly how the cycles develop, but we think two to three years, and then we see a normalization coming. In order to understand that, it's important to see the different effects because there are multiple effects now that come on top of each other. I think one key one that impacted the North American markets was the whole tariff uncertainty, which actually led to, because the U.S. normally is exporting a lot, right, also to Asia, these exports have been disturbed, which actually led to a short-term market ripple, but we expect that to even out. The next effect is the sluggish growth. Asia, China especially, right, also in the European market, we see that coming back. I guide that we think that the polyolefin market especially will grow above GDP in the midterm.
The third effect is actually simple supply and demand, mostly supply actually. There has been significantly extra capacity coming on stream, especially in the U.S., also in China. That coinciding with the other two effects leads to a tough market, especially in the U.S. That swaps, of course, over to Europe. Imports, the whole pressure, and that now leads to a number of European derivative producers having a really difficult time. Not so much polyolefins, but especially also other derivatives, everything from cosmetics, building materials, and so on. That actually then necessitates capacity rationalization. Now, we see a lot of announcements in Europe. We also see announcements in Korea, China. If they all happen, we actually think that will support the cycle coming back. If they would take longer to actually materialize, that's a different thing.
You have to look through these different effects because they all come on top of each other. Fundamentally, we still see chemicals, of course, as a midterm growth play. We think we're well positioned and also BGI is well positioned to weather the storm, so to speak, and then come out and strive when the cycle normalizes.
The only thing I would want to add is that these closures that Martijn was talking about, they will not come at a certain moment. They will gradually happen over time. We do see some capacity going out, in particular in Europe, has already happened. This is interesting, but I also think it's not the time beyond cycles to just wait for improvement. Self-help is critical. Baruch Group International is exactly that. It's a consolidation. We will drive the synergies, as Martijn pointed out, relentlessly because this is what we actually need. Already, BGI will be one of, if not the best, positioned from a feedstock position. We are moving from Borealis 60% European to BGI 70% in advantaged feedstock. That is great. We are moving more geographic diversification. We need to focus on synergies and first quartile performance in all geographies.
That's what we will drive so that we are more independent of what the cycles do, can move forward. Last but not least, building on the innovation power of Borealis. As you know, 45% of our sales in Borealis are specialty products. We continue to see those holding up pretty good, both from a volume perspective, but also from a margin perspective because they are just addressing whether you have EVs or combustion engine cars. It doesn't matter. Lighter means less energy consumption. More of these materials and things like this. I think self-help is critical to do on the way forward.
Yeah. Thank you, Josh. Now, Adnan and Nash.
Thanks, Adnan, ARBC. Two questions from me, please. The first, as it relates to your BGI dividend and the two priorities you said you have, do you and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) have an upper limit on the leverage that the business can have if the chemicals market worsens from here? If that ceiling does get hit, how does that impact your thoughts on the floor dividend? The second one on the gas opportunity, obviously, you emphasize it's a pretty strong opportunity out there in the coming years. There's also a lot of LNG capacity coming online. That might impact the prices. Some of your peers have acknowledged it might be a glut coming in the coming years. How do you think about the pricing in that context?
You want to talk to the leverage and..
Yeah, very good question. I tried to explain already what's the thinking. We said that in the long run, we have a target to be below 2.5 times EBITDA in the net debt. That is, I would say, a more than adequate strong balance sheet. Of course, you start immediately after acquisition of Nova Chemicals on a higher level. You deleverage automatically with the capital raise and with the cash flows going in. That is why, in fact, we estimate that for the first two, if not three years, probably we'll find ourselves at the floor of the dividend, and then the upside will kick in. On the other hand, I do not expect that in the first year, we will more or less force BGI to do the recontribution or the acquisition of Borouge 4. That is the flexibility that we have.
This is, I think, the way how we stabilize this. For you to say, the upper limit of the leverage in the long run is 2.5 times. In all our simulations and sensitivities, this gives a very stable picture. That is also, I think, the proof that we have gotten that this is really good news for us, but also for you, that the ratings we got in our exercise that we did with the rating agencies all pointed to a strong investment-grade credit limit, already starting with a standalone investment-grade credit limit. That gives you some evidence about that. Knowing the rating agencies, you all know they do not work without haircuts. That gives us some confidence. On your second question, and thank you for asking that, I think probably two things. Number one, yes, you're right. There's significant U.S.
LNG, Qatar LNG, African LNG quantities potentially coming on stream, and some of that might hit Europe. That import parity pricing, first of all, will, of course, remain. It will remain priced versus LNG. Second, and I really want to remind everybody in the room briefly, for decades, we have been operating on European gas prices of EUR 10 - EUR 15 MWh , right? That was below $5 MMBTU. If you wanted an MMBTU in terms, that's half the price we see today, basically, for landed U.S. LNG to Europe. We've made some of the biggest discoveries in Europe and developed some of the most profitable fields. Just as a reminder, it's since Ukraine that that level roughly doubled or we're now at 2.5 times that price, right? For decades, it worked. That's one.
Even more so, I would argue that piped gas will have a competitive advantage if you sit on the right equity position. If you look back at what we, for instance, presented the Neptune, $3 unit cost, it's a fantastic resource to sit on in such an environment, right? I'm not worried about that.
Okay.
Good afternoon. Nash Swee from Barclays stands for the presentation. I also have two questions, please. The first one is on your EUR 6 billion CFO target by 2030. I wonder if you can unpack that a little bit, please. What is the contribution coming from the energy segment, for example, especially given that now you are adding CapEx for energy, then cutting CapEx for some of the low carbon segments? My second question is on low carbon fuel. Some of your peers, they have decided to pull out from this niche segment. It's great to hear that you have done some pre-marketing. I just wonder if you can talk about some margins, economics, and returns about your SAF plant or SAF HVO plant. What have you done right to make sure you can proceed on those projects? Thank you.
Yeah, very good. Let's maybe start with the sustainable fuels, Martijn. Is that okay?
Happy to do so. The sustainable fuels opportunity, right? If you think back, there were kind of a lot of concerns around this, concerns around the market. That actually is now clear. With the 2% mandate in place and the 6% coming in 2030, this is a growing mandate segment. We've also done voluntary sales. We've launched also SAF business solutions, right? We see also there an uptake, and we expect that to grow. On the market side, we feel that we've de-risked the opportunity. I explained that we have the jet sales, right? With that, we have also the SAF market side. On the feedstock side, that was another key concern, right? Do you have the feedstock for these renewable fuels projects? Now, we have developed a huge pipeline, a mix of different types of feedstock sourcing. We've taken some equity stakes in collectors.
We have developed a trading organization in Singapore. We've also bought into a trading operation in Milan. We have done long-term contracts. On the feedstock side, we also feel that we have de-risked it. The beauty is we have quite a lot of European-sourced feedstock in there. For instance, for chemicals customers that want proof of origin or kind of traceability, we can supply that. Also on the feedstock side, we've de-risked it. On the SAF HVO plant itself, what OMV Petrom has done is they have actually built a smaller facility which can do very high percentage SAF. This, in hindsight, is actually really, we like this. Because if you build a larger facility, which is 70% diesel and 30% SAF, I'm not sure, right? This diesel part, this is actually where I talked about the arbitrage from outside. A lot of diesel components coming in.
To actually be able to make for every molecule feedstock a lot of SAF, we feel this is actually the right thing. That's the third thing we've done. Actually, remember, we have two electrolysers feeding this. Again, this gives the maximum upside per ton of feedstock that we have. Maximum upside SAF, and then also the quality of the SAF, the greenhouse gas impact of the SAF. We actually feel that we have four kind of tactics how we have de-risked this opportunity. Even with now the supply demand on diesel components not good, some of kind of the shady feedstocks, now we know where the feedstock is coming from. We have de-risked that. We feel really good about this opportunity. When we then do the next one, that is actually what we're watching.
Unfortunately, we're not yet building on the next one, but we can re ally look at when we will take the next FID.
Yeah. Let me give a try on your first question. We have not disclosed any specific breakdown of the EUR 6 billion, but I can give you a little bit of a hint. The first, the easy one is from chemicals, you'll get as operating cash flow, the part of the dividend that we receive. Now, this is EUR 1+ billion . Why do I say plus? Because we expect until 2030 that marketing chemicals has picked up, gets into more or less to the normalization of the cycle. Therefore, we should be quite away from a floor dividend, from a minimum dividend. That's the first part that you can, I think, grab. The second is that the rest of that, the larger part comes from energy.
The slightly smaller part comes from fuels. Why is that? All the sustainable business that we are investing in, that we are focusing on, will have cash contributions at a later stage. This is organic growth. We'll have some of that in your area, Martijn, that will come into this 2030 target, not in full yet. Whereas on the energy side, we have most of the projects, be it the sustainable energy in Romania, will be built by that time. Neptune will be built by that time. Norwegian organic parts will be built by that time. There are already quite good contributions from that side. In addition, we can see that the parts that I explained in the very beginning about M&A, the beauty about M&A versus organic CapEx is you spend the money and you get the cash. Yeah, the cash immediately from the operations.
There's a part in there as well. Therefore, the energy part is larger than the fuels part in that total. I hope that helped.
Thank you very much.
We go in the first row, Tomas.
Yes, Tomas Pletser from Erste Bank. I got also two questions. First of all, you mentioned in the presentation the cost cutting. I think it was a quite ambitious target of EUR 0.5 billion. Can you elaborate a little bit more on that? Because we haven't heard a lot about this. The second issue is your dividend from BGI, this floor. Do you have an expiration of this dividend? Do you have a term for that? Or do you expect to receive it as long as you are a shareholder there?
Thank you. Okay. Let me try to start with the cost cutting. The EUR 0.5 billion is not EUR 0.5 billion, but more than half a billion. It's not cost cutting, but it's cash addition. We have said that this was the original target of the last plan. We have delivered already EUR 200 million in 2024. At that time, when we first anticipated the EUR 500 million of cash addition, we said it's about 50/50 coming from cost savings and coming from market. That is the difference to what we have today because we have added on the top of the EUR 200 million we have captured already a EUR 400 million cost savings program, really cost savings. Why is that? We see the opportunities in a challenging market to capture it directly from the market as cash flow are more limited. We have to look at quoting Alpha at self-help.
That is why we say, okay, this is a group-wide program where we are really lowering our costs by EUR 400 million. Of course, the EUR 400 million are a gross cost topic. If you take it to a real free cash flow addition, then you have to deduct the tax. Therefore, from the EUR 400 million, it's roughly EUR 300 million. That's why I'm so confident because if you take EUR 200 million plus the EUR 300 million, plus then still market opportunities, you are easily above the EUR 500 million.
Yeah. Just to follow up, how do you, what kind of actions do you do to make this?
Okay. Plenty of action. Actually, actions in measures of operational nature in Martijn's and in Berislav's area, but also decisive areas in cutting our overhead costs here. The measures that we are applying there are structural optimization in how we group functions, how we lead participations, how we look at portfolio optimization, but then very tangible things like standardization, automation, the use of digital areas. You certainly remember we have taken all of the company now on SAP for HANA. We have by far not exhausted all the opportunities that this new top technology provides us to get more efficient.
The last thing is we will take in a strong emphasis on shared services, which means leveraging labor arbitrage, leveraging the opportunity of getting bundling of activities, having end-to-end use for process optimization, having functional areas more or less in centers of excellence that we can control for the group in a more efficient way. This is very concrete actions that we are currently developing that are going into operation over the next years that ultimately help us to save that. The due date for that is end 2027. We are not talking about five years out. We're saying end 2027, we want all that delivered.
Yeah, and we've very deliberately also looked at how we can really be fit for the future. On the operational measures that Reinhard talked to, it's, for instance, also improving the customer service. We're looking at chemical customers, fuel customers, B2C, B2B, e-mobility, right? Really looking at kind of how can we serve these customers well with an IT solution, a web platform. How can we then streamline the customer service behind how we can do the pricing? How can we then also use the shared service concept? That is really both kind of for the functional areas as well as for the business areas, a comprehensive program to make us fit for the future.
The only thing that I would add is, as Reinhard said, the aim is to get there by 2027. There's a whole bunch of different activities that we have. We will also not be able to avoid personnel actions, right? In total, it will result in a reduction of workforce. Current estimate, right, we don't know because our target is EUR 400 million cost reduction, but the current estimate is that that will be about 2,000 FTEs out of 24,000 today in the group.
Next question, Bertrand.
Question on fuels. You have a very strong ambition, + 50% in cash flow by 2030 compared to 2024. I'm always a bit suspicious when I don't see the base of this cash flow because it's been a bit resegmented. Can you give us a bit of clarity on that? I also notice that in terms of CapEx, you're going to grow significantly. This
CapEx exposure, at least for the next three to four years, or let's say three years, from a base of around EUR 800 million in the past years to something like EUR 1.1 billion. I wanted to check if my numbers are right. If you can, a bit more, explain on the moving pieces on the cash flow growth and also on the base. Thank you.
Yeah, very happy to. Actually, you're spot on. Our CapEx is about EUR 1.1 billion. Why is that going up? That's because we've taken FID on the HVO SAF plant. We've taken FID on these three electrolyzers. We also kind of announced for the electrolyzer here, it is a mid-three-digit million number. The HVO SAF plant, Petrom actually announced it was EUR 750 million. That's all in construction, and you can put it on top of the maintenance CapEx because we have turnarounds and the run-of-the-mill CapEx also for the retail business. Then you come to the figure that you have. I think your model is pretty good. We are comfortable with that because that's all projects that we have a clear idea how the business case will work. There's lots of focus on making that happen.
In our Strategy 2030, we had then also a lot of projects going behind, the next HVO SAF, big organic project, and so on, where I've explained that we will take a look at that. What is the right moment to take FID? We shift it a bit back in the time so that it comes at the right moment between 2030 and 2035. We're still in the lead, but we also kind of make sure that we don't kind of put CapEx on CapEx. That actually allows us to really have a good cash delivery. If I can easier talk about operating result and you can translate that into cash. We guided, I mentioned that the retail business is EUR 500 million and we see an outlook to EUR 600 million. Two to EUR 300 million coming from this renewable fuel business on the projects under construction.
Keeping healthy, the underlying refining and trading business gives together this growth in operating result, which is roughly also kind of 40%. This kind of CapEx discipline gives the 50% cash flow from operation and free cash flow, roughly. That's kind of the makeup. We don't disclose exactly all the details, but you could get the numbers I mentioned from the presentation. I think you're quite spot on with the modeling.
Yeah, good. Are there the last or second last thoughts, Satnam? Oh, first here, Mark. Sorry, I didn't see you.
Okay, thank you. It's Mark Wilson from Jefferies. Hello. I'd like to ask more on the upstream, please. It touches on some of these points about where we are in the cycle. Neptune Deep, clearly the highlight and more optimistic on gas demand in Europe. You've got the 350,000 growth target and possibly to 400. Neptune Deep itself took like 10 years to get to FID, which is a comment on a cycle in itself. It has made super majors leave over that time and markets come back. Growth in the upstream means more reserves and more resources to maintain in the future. Given that kind of length of bringing through developments to FID, what is the view on exploration and maintaining the 350 or the 400 longer term? A number of your European peers who produce about that same amount are really leaning into exploration in places like Norway.
I'd just like to know where you stand on that next leg of the cycle. Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. I think, first of all, my recollection is that Neptune, the sanctioning of Neptune and the protracted length and how long it took to get there was much less about the resource base and the reserves, which are world-class and are there. It had to do much more with fiscal stability and off-taking and getting that right, actually. It was much more tied to basically the fiscal principles under which the field can be developed. Once that was in place, we expedited the FID that was in 2023. It is unfortunate, and it also makes my heart bleed when I see such fantastic resources sitting around for 10 years and then not being developed. That is, it doesn't feel right. It was not due to the subsurface. It was due to other reasons. Second, what's the role of exploration?
I think you've heard us saying today that we are going to continue to commit some EUR 200 million every year into exploration expenses or expenditures. We're going to drill 50 + wells. Some of these wells are super exciting wells. Q4 this year, we're going to spot with OMV Petrom, for instance, a fantastic Bulgarian offshore opportunity and look-alike in the Black Sea, which can be very, very exciting once it's delivered. I don't think that we are thinking like 10 years ago in KPIs like what's my reserve replacement ratio and how much of that can I now deliver from exploration or from other sources. You've not seen us talking about that. The simple reason being that I think until 2030, we see growth, gas growth as a fantastic opportunity.
I think we will need to reassess from 2030 to 2040 in a new update how the world out there will behave. Today, we talk about that five-year outlook. I think there's going to be a time when we will reassess, you know, how attractive gas or unattractive oil might become by the point we reach 2030. Too early to say that.
Okay, thank you. Mark, we now go to Sadnam in the second last row, and then Oleg.
Hi there. Sadnam Ali, HSBC. Thank you for taking my questions. First of all, I just wanted to revisit the new distribution policy. I understand it was answered, but I just want to approach it from a slightly different angle. In the past few years, peers have been increasing their percentage of CFFO payout. Obviously, you've opted not to approach it from this angle. I just want to understand your thought process of opting not to follow the likes of peers. Secondly, if I'm not mistaken, the CFFO historically has included dividend payments you receive. For example, in 2024, it was some EUR 400 million of dividends received from BGI. Going forward, the CFFO linkage is now sticking to 20-30%, but of course, not including dividends received from BGI directly as it's 50% separately.
My question is, on page 37, when you're comparing the new dividend policy, in 2024, when you're showing the EUR 4.3 billion of CFFO, on a pro forma basis, does that also include the EUR 400 million received from BGI? Is that not sort of double counting it on a pro forma basis on that chart because you're including the 50% from BGI, but does that not also already include the EUR 400 million from BGI? Thank you.
Let me start with the first question around why we are not directly following the peers, where I have to say the peers are also not following just one scheme. There are different schemes. It's true that in terms of share buyback programs, some companies offer a special program on top of their dividend policy. That was one of the reasons why in 2022 we changed our dividend policy to, at that time, progressive plus special dividend, because we wanted to make up with a full cash special dividend to make up for this non-full cash but indirect positive development of share buybacks. Now we have upped that even in saying this is not a special dividend with the character of this may come or may not come to say there will always be an additional variable dividend because we intend to be below the 30% threshold of leverage.
We also see that the ability to distribute 20% - 30% of our operating cash surpasses the regular dividend level. Therefore, we just kept this kind of discretion between the 20% and 30% to adjust for two things. First of all, is there an economic environment that would not make it recommendable also from a shareholder's point of view to dividend immediately a very high dividend? The second is if you take it that you have, for instance, an acquisition opportunity or something like that that consumes a little bit of the cash but preserves a lot of cash inflow in the future, you can also lower this in the promise of then having a higher distribution in the future. Regarding your question, you're right, the 4.3 more or less stays the same in the comparison between old and pro forma.
We have on top what is more or less the operating cash flow from Borealis. In the operating cash flow of Borealis, if I'm not wrong, we have the dividends of BGI fully included. There's not a double count in that respect. That really means this dividend is already something that is according to our accounting and reporting rules in the operating cash flow. That gives us then the comparison right in terms of deducting that and adding back the at least floor dividend of BGI on top of the 4.3.
Thank you. We come to Oleg.
I have two questions, and I guess both are for Mr. Florey. Could you please help us understand the difference between your new and previous financial targets? Specifically, I'm talking about clean CCS operating result and clean CCS EPS. In case of the first one, we see the same number, more than EUR 6.5 billion. However, I believe the moving parts are a bit different. One I can think of is the synergies of half a billion, which I believe were not part of the previous financial targets. Understanding which parts led to an increase and which led to a decrease would be very helpful for the operating results. For the clean CCS EPS, we see a decrease of 10% from the previous targets. It would also be helpful to understand what led to this development.
Lastly, the second question, a very short one, what level of effective tax rate would you see after the deconsolidation of Borealis? Would it be much different from the current one, which is around 50%? Thank you.
Yeah, thank you. Both, of course, relevant. In terms of the clean CCS operating result, there is about the same level, but there is a little bit of change in the composition. If you anticipate a higher growth in energy compared to what was at that time, a higher share in chemicals, fully owned chemicals, you would see at the same level of an operational success, a higher operating result on what comes from energy than compared to chemicals. That is also why there's a higher multiple on chemicals than on that, because it is before deducting the tax. You have a situation that, of course, this shows a higher level on energy as a result because the operating result in comparison to the other areas is ultimately with a higher tax, but they're also with a higher starting point.
This composition has changed, and it has changed because you have from the chemical side a bigger piece, but only at a net profit in there, in the operating profit, because an equity consolidation of BGI only results in the bottom line being reflected in the top line. You have a difference between the original plans to say, let's grow our own business in chemicals compared to the much more profitable and much more success-oriented situation to combine that in the BGI. That is a little bit the same effect on the EPS side. That leads to the situation that the lower you get, the higher your impact of the different ratios gets, because the EPS as such will be slightly lower compared to an operating result in energy. If you have a higher energy share in there, your bottom line gets slightly smaller.
Therefore, that is a like-for-like translation with all the ambitions in there, which ultimately gives you specifically also when you have the earnings per share as such, these effects. However, we also anticipate that there is less of a capex need for achieving this than the previous plans. Your second question was...
Effective tax rate?
Yeah, the effective tax rate. Look, that depends. Not a very good answer, but the effective tax rate is very different in the very different regions of upstream. Wherever the growth in upstream is stronger, you can either have a higher tax rate that the effective tax rate may grow above 50%, or you have it in lower areas. As such, the deconsolidation of Borealis leads to a higher tax rate in comparison because the tax rate of Borealis fully consolidated was lower. However, if you take it to the full, you have already post-tax net profit that you get in your equity consolidation, and that makes up for some of that disadvantage. Therefore, whatever our ultimate successes are, then you can see that will deliver because you have between tax rates of 30% and tax rates of 80% or 90%, all the range in the universe of upstream.
I have to say, Reinhard, I disagree with you. I think it depends is a very good answer. It's just not very useful to the guy that's asking the question, but...
Now you see the experience of our CEO.
It depends.
Are there other questions here in the room? Here in the first row, Roman.
Thank you. It's Roman Eisenschenk from Kepler Cheuvreux. Just a quick one too. The one is on governance. You said you will choose the management of BGI after the closing. Maybe you can help us, please, how it or walk through, you know, how it will be done. The second one is one on security. The one is on physical security, the other one on cybersecurity. On physical security, we are in a new geopolitical situation. We see these drones flying around everywhere and gas pipelines exploding and so on. How can you, or is it possible to secure your assets? The second one is on cybersecurity. We saw that, you know, airports not working or whatever. If you see any impact on your investments, you know, CapEx going forward on the cybersecurity side.
Yeah, I'll start with both answers. I see if maybe Reinhard wants to add something on cyber or maybe Martijn on physical security. On the governance of BGI, it's actually such as we announced, right? We agreed we will have a two-tier system. It will be a company located headquartered here in Austria. We'll have a two-tier system. There will be a Supervisory Board. There will be a Management, an Executive Board Management that consists of three people: a CEO, a CFO, and a COO. On the Supervisory Board, we will have five members from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), five from OMV, and then most likely due to the legislation here if the Works Council decides, five from Works Councils. For the shareholder representatives, both sides are working on how we should set this up.
We are making profiles and we are putting this together and are in a process so that when we come to the closing, we will have a functioning Supervisory Board, which is also needed in order to appoint and do things like this. On the Executive Board Management, also a process is being run, right? Maybe there was a misunderstanding. It's not, we didn't mean to say that we will appoint them after. We will, of course, need the...
We're appointing before, so that's...
We will need to appoint management before. There is a process running at the moment, and we are very busy doing that, right?
The point was we want a flying start for BGI, so there will be a seat.
To your first question, the second one on security, I think you're absolutely right. I think both, as you know, OMV safety has a very high priority. With that also comes security and cybersecurity, just as a sign of the times, right? This has been around for much longer than 2022, right? We invested into those areas, but I do have to say that in 2022, with the Russian attack on Ukraine, we did ramp up our efforts. I would say today we have both significantly increased measures on physical security and on cybersecurity. This is a game that you cannot stop, right? You cannot. It's different than building a plant where you maybe say, okay, now we built it and we turn it on. I think every day we learn new things and we need to strengthen our resistance against these kinds of attacks.
You potentially heard about an incident that we had where we had to separate from an employee because he provided, there's a suspicion that he provided company information to a Russian spy. We will find out what that is exactly, but that just highlights that we need to continuously and all the time increase our things. I think we are actually at a quite high level with our ethics and compliance work in the company where data security and who has access to what information is quite elaborate. Also, we have limited significantly the possibility to export information through IT channels, right? USB sticks or anything is not possible anymore in OMV. It's a never-ending story, right? Maybe on cybersecurity.
Yeah, on cybersecurity. Actually, this is an area that is getting more and more complex and more and more, I would say, challenging. However, we had started five years ago a quite significant effort to ramp up all the measures, the know-how, but also the physical, the IT-oriented equipment in OMV. We have not stopped ramping that up. It's always a little bit of a cat-and-mouse game. So far, I can say we are exposed to almost daily attacks. Some of them, specifically those who are not even very strictly hidden state-led attacks, they are heavy. Sometimes this is an hour-long, sometimes a day-long defense battle. So far, knock on wood, we have won every of that. We had never had anybody intruding into our system. We have secured massive bandwidth opportunities to withstand massive attacks.
Of course, as Alfred says, after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, specifically also the Romanian activities are under attack. There's very close cooperation, even an opportunity to switch systems. We feel we are on a very advanced level. We are also supporting the Ministry of Interior and working together. That is a both-party support because critical infrastructure, that's also Austria. We have to be aware that this is not only a company issue. This is also a national issue. For that, we have equipped ourselves.
I think the same on physical security. We had that always integrated with the HSE departments already. After 2022, we also kind of had a group-wide activity where we kind of have a very sophisticated approach. We need to be humble also there. We see intrusions and attempts. Drones is an example that's often discussed also in public. We're ramping that up. It's like safety. It's really trying to improve and improve and improve.
On the energy side, of course, as you can imagine, there are some places which are not picnic places where we operate. That's not only the Black Sea where Neptune is developed. That's also Libya, for instance, which is a country that has been in significant turmoil for years.
Yeah, I would say resilience is a serious part also of value, and so we focused on that.
Thank you. Are there further questions in the room? Yeah, just wait for the mic, please.
Thank you so much. Thomas from the SD Group. Only one short question: how long will this floor dividend be paid? How many years? Thanks.
Yeah, just to clarify, a floor is a floor, which means it's always there. How long it will be paid only at the level of the floor is dependent on the ramp-up that we have, both in terms of the synergies, the integration, the operational excellence efforts, but also, of course, of the market. That's why I previously said I'm expecting that we are seeing more on the next two to three years, the floor side and the upside somehow later. The floor will not stop existing. That's always the fallback position.
Thank you. That's exactly the answer I would like to hear.
Thank you.
Good. Any further questions? That doesn't seem to be the case. I would like to thank you all for your questions and active participation. This now concludes the webcast portion of the Capital Markets Update. I would like to thank all of you who joined virtually. For those in the room, let me.