Good morning, dear listeners. Welcome to Klaipėdos Nafta meeting with investors. I'm Emilia from Nasdaq Vilnius, I'll be moderating today's event. We will start with a presentation from the management, which will be followed by the Q&A session. Please be informed that this webinar is being recorded and will be available for a rewatch. As always, I encourage every one of you to ask questions in the question and answer section at the bottom of your screen, you can submit them either anonymously or with your name. With that said, I'm pleased to introduce today's presenters, Chief Financial Officer, Mindaugas Kvekšas, and Chief Executive Officer, Darius Šilenskis. Dear Management, please, the floor is you rs, g o o d luck.
Thank you, Emilia. It is my great pleasure to introduce and cover our financial performance and operating performance throughout quarter three, and also present some of the highlights since our last webinar in summer. I would like to begin with the contents of today's presentation and as has been our practice. First of all, we start with the highlights, then cover some business overview, be followed by the financial results. We also have some additional information in our package that we present on the Nasdaq after the presentation, after the live webinar. Talking about the highlights, since our last webinar, a couple of important milestones were achieved in the regulated business.
At the beginning of October, we notified the current owner of FSRU Independence that we intend to exercise an option to acquire the vessel. According to the contract, transaction is expected to be completed in December of 2024. An investment in FSRU as a regulated activity asset was already approved by the National Energy Regulatory Council last January, and the acquisition would be financed by the loan from Nordic Investment Bank. Another key event was the announcement of public procurement for operation and maintenance services of FSRU Independence for the period starting after its acquisition. The selected contractor would take the responsibility for the safe and reliable operation of the vessel, the management of the vessel's maintenance and technical risks, and for the compliance with environmental and other requirements.
In new business development area, we have also been quite busy trying to exploit the opportunities that have been present in the market and that could lead to the optimistic future of this enterprise. First of all, we are happy to see that our long-term experience in the floating LNG segment is valued by the very established energy companies like Uniper. We secured a contract for operational services to the floating LNG terminal in Germany on the North Sea coast. We are also active in exploring opportunities with technologies that are at various stages of development.
At the end of August, we announced that we together with Akmenės Cementas and ORLEN Lietuva signed letters of intent for a joint feasibility study to assess the potential and feasibility of liquefied carbon dioxide capture and storage technology for industrial companies in the country. The feasibility study will analyze the potential to reduce atmospheric emissions through the whole carbon dioxide management value chain concept in Lithuania, and the applicability of this solution to companies with unavoidably high greenhouse gas emissions from their business processes. Also, at the beginning of November, the international project Carbon Neutral LNG was launched in Germany with the participation of our company.
The three-year project will aim for its participants to collaborate on the development of a hybrid process chain involving the production of hydrogen from biomass and its conversion to synthetic methane, using a variety of chemical and biological processes. I will comment on the continuing positive trend in financial performance, in the upcoming slides, so I'm not stopping for much here. Lastly, we had some changes in collegial bodies. Just recently, a new supervisory council has been elected with two independent members out of a total of three. Mr. Robertas Vyšniauskas was elected as the chairperson of the supervisory council. The new composition of the audit committee, with two new members elec ted, and also a new remuneration and nomination committee was established.
Selection of one additional audit committee and one additional remuneration and nomination committee members shall be soon announced. I will present the overview for our oil segment and followed by the regulated LNG segment. The key word for recovery of the oil segment's performance has been diversification of both the clients base and services. Despite great inflationary pressures, particularly that we experience in the oil segment. Our strong financial performance is driven by the higher transshipment volumes, and they were higher by 35% in comparison to the same period for 2021. 43% higher transshipment of biofuels and petrochemicals was the key contributor. During nine months of 2022, transshipment of petrochemicals increased by approximately 6 x, while transshipment of renewables, the biofuels increased by 22%.
Now, Klaipėda also takes 21% of bitumen transshipment market in the region. During the nine months, Klaipėda Liquid Energy Products Terminal was a quite significant player in this area. Right now we have a total of 14 types of products being transshipped. In comparison to the previous periods, we are continuing this trend of further expansion of our services portfolio. Next at the regulated LNG or the regional LNG activities. Well, for the first time, Klaipėda LNG terminal has allocated long-term capacity. Overall, this these recent months were very busy for our team as well as for the institutions that are involved in the process. Because approximately 60% of the total LNG terminal's capacity has already been allocated for the period of 10 years.
A further 9 terawatt-hours of the capacity have been allocated in the annual regasification capacity has been allocated for 2023 to five customers. The average utilization of Europe's LNG terminals was 66%. Our terminal at Klaipėda was utilized at the similar level. There is a significant increase comparing to its utilization in 2021. This, of course, is explained by the significant increase in the demand for its services. Also, lastly, the average Dutch TTF natural gas index was almost 5 x higher this year during the 9 months ended on 30th of September, comparing to the average for the last year.
This also kind of explains why we see this increase in demand for our services, but also has some negative impact on our oil terminal segment. Now, I shall proceed with the overview of the financial results. Quarter three was exceptional for the highest so far natural gas and electricity prices. However, the company found measures to amortize rising costs and demonstrated strong financial performance in the most challenged oil terminal segment. Revenue was up by EUR 10.2 million, and of that, EUR 3.7 million in oil terminal segment as transshipped volumes, as I already mentioned, increased by more than a third.
Driven by the growing consumption of fuel in the world, which for 9 months of this year exceeded the volumes for the same period of 2021 and was close to 2019 indicators. After the pandemic reduced refining capacities and the changing geopolitical situation led to a tight supply and demand balance in the market and increased the demand for both the production of European oil refineries and demand for our oil terminal services. Regional LNG, the regulated segment contributed significantly to this increase in revenues and nearly EUR 7 million increase in LNGT regulated revenues comes from the fact that there was a significant increase in demand for regasification services in the terminal and also a change in regulation. The latter change in regulation led to an increase in the regasification tariff by nearly 3 x.
However, since May, fixed part of regasification service fee, which was part of security supplement paid by gas consumers, has been reduced to zero. Subsequently, because of these two conditions, revenue increased by slightly more than EUR 5 million. On the other hand, it is important to know that the company's profit from regulated business remains limited to regulated rate of return for any temporary excess profits according to current regulations shall be paid back in the future periods. Talking about EBITDA, it is up by nearly EUR 7 million compared to the same period of last year. I'm happy that EUR 1.5 million of that is coming from the oil segment, achieved by growth in revenue and effective management of fixed costs. Also the variable costs, achieved by some energy efficiency measures.
Electricity and gas costs were higher by 2.3 x, which results in EUR 2.2 million compared to last year. This is a very significant factor behind our financial performance, which we amortize successfully with the increase in revenue. EUR 5.7 million of EBITDA is coming from the regulated segment, mostly due to higher revenue. Key element behind almost EUR 1 million increase in cost was the cost of emission allowances, which is affected by larger regasification volumes and as a result, higher emissions, more importantly, affected by the higher prices of emission allowances. Performance of commercial LNG segment remained at a similar level. Net profit and loss. The depreciation of euro against U.S. dollar had a major effect on the non-adjusted net loss according to IFRS.
During the reporting period we incurred a total unrealized foreign exchange loss of EUR 35 million, less deferred taxes compared to only EUR 12.4 million during the corresponding period in 2021. After we eliminate the unrealized currency exchange losses of the regulated segment, its adjusted net profit amounts to almost EUR 5 million. Last year in quarter three, we recognized a significant EUR 54 million impairment loss for the cash generating unit of Klaipėda Oil Terminal, which was a key factor for EUR 47 million net loss in oil terminal segment. This year, so far, no additional indications for impairment were recognized.
The net profit of oil terminal segment is also affected by rising gas and electricity prices, the increase in revenue and continued efficiency improvements allowed to finish the reporting period with a positive EUR 1.5 million result. We also measure indicators that take into account temporary regulatory differences, such as previously mentioned excess revenue in the regulated LNG terminal segment that should be paid back in the future periods. Accordingly, for the nine months of 2022, EBITDA adjusted for temporary regulatory differences would amount to EUR 26.5 million compared to EUR 21.9 million last year. The similarly adjusted net profit for the nine months of 2022, having also excluded the impact of unrealized currency exchange losses, would amount to almost EUR 6 million.
namely EUR 5.7 million compared to a loss of EUR 45.5 million last year. About the free cash flows. Strong improvement in the group's free cash flows was to a large extent driven by the growth of EBITDA, which I have already discussed. Furthermore, decline in the working capital contributed to an additional almost EUR 2 million positive effect. The lower level of investments has led to a EUR 4.1 million improvement. No significant changes in the capital structure except for undertaking loan to finance reduction of the security supplement in the regulated segment. While EUR 35 million of lease liabilities were settled during the 9 months of 2022.
Due to depreciation of euro, the remaining balance, which is mostly related to the lease liability for FSRU, still increased in total by EUR 11 million. The most of that amount is related to the mentioned lease liability of FSRU which is denominated in the United States dollars, and therefore this increase in the liability. Lastly, about key performance indicators or key ratios. The profitability margins have improved compared to last year. Net profit margin this year even exceeded the level of 2019, indicating recovering performance after a huge decline in revenue throughout 2020 and 2021. Return on equity, return on assets and the price earning ratios are calculated with the net result of the last 12 months.
Therefore, this quarter they are no longer affected by the impairment loss which was recognized in quarter three of the last year. That's it for the financial performance and the business overview. We have finished with our presentation and ready for the question and answer session.
Thank you very much for the presentation. Indeed now we will proceed with the Q&A. Before we're waiting for the questions, I would like to remind all the attendees that you can send in your question in the Q&A box of your screen, and I will read it out loud. Let's wait a minute for the questions to arrive. Right. We have the first question, which is regarding the dividends. Will there be dividends for the 2022 financial year?
We are following our dividend policy, which is publicly available and has been announced in the past. So far, no changes to the dividend policy are in the plans. We anticipate to follow the dividend policy. Depending on our performance throughout the full year, 2022, we will evaluate and take into account the results in the dividend policy while proposing allocation of the retained earnings for this year.
Thank you for your answer. We are waiting for more questions to come in. All right. The next question is, how the company will pay for so high net debt to EB ITDA?
It's important to note which segments are the most leveraged. For us, it is the regulated regional LNG segment. We believe that our long-term financial plans are completely sustainable and we can pay out the debt. It's also important to note that the regional LNG is financed by the long-term debt, which have the maturity which will be paid back during the period which ends after approximately 20 years. They are spread out over the very long period, and therefore, we believe that our financial position is very strong and not affected by the relatively high leverage.
Thank you very much. Are there any changes due to the recovery of unused asset deferrals?
I'm not sure if I understood the question. Yeah. Could the person who asked the question elaborate more on the context?
Yes. I see that this is a question from an anonymous attendee. If you could, just paraphrase the question in the Q&A box, we would very much appreciate it.
Yes. Providing some additional context would probably help to answer the question better.
The clarification would be, there was deferrals for unused asset of oil business. Will it be recorded? Oil business is growing up.
I suppose the question is about the impairment losses or the impairment of the assets that was recognized last year. The impairment was recognized in accordance to the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards. The standards require that we assess for any indications of impairment at each reporting date. That means that we have also assessed for new indications for additional impairment at the end of quarter three, and no additional indications for impairment were identified. So far we haven't also determined any indications that would lead us to believe that the reversal of previously recognized impairment loss is possible. The situation might change in the foreseeable future on the upcoming reporting dates.
Especially if the strong performance in the oil terminal continues, but for that, we need even stronger recovery probably.
Thank you very much. As it seems, there are no further questions. Would the management like to give final remarks in this presentation?
No, thank you, Emilia. Thank you for the assistance, and thank you for the questions to the participants of today's webinar.
Thank you. As all the questions are answered, on behalf of Klaipėdos Nafta and Nasdaq Vilnius, thank you everyone for joining us. The recording, as always, will be available in the company's website and Nasdaq Baltic YouTube channel. Dear management, thank you very much, and have a good day, everyone. Goodbye.