Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference, press conference, which will be devoted to the consolidated financial results of PIKEN, Olin and the Olin Group for the Q1 of 2021. I would like to particularly welcome members of the management board, Mr. Janus Shevcek, Member of the Management Board for Finance as well as Mr. Pygne Leszteski, Member of the Management Board for Development. Good afternoon.
In the first part of the presentation, we will discuss details on the financial performance. We can order and This will be followed by a Q and A session. We received and will receive and keep receiving your questions. Apologies for the mic being off. So let me repeat, welcome to the next conference, yet another conference summarizing PIKN Odland's results after the Q1.
A weird and very difficult and challenging year of 2020, which was the pandemic year, the coronavirus year, although the first half of this past year of 2020 did not bode very bed. And it was normal compared to this Q1 of 2021, which was fully COVID quarter, both for the economy at large and for the society, and very difficult and very challenging period for us as well. This quarter, Q1 of 2021, was a real challenge for us and also a real test for us for our competencies, for our flexibility in the way we can adapt to those challenging conditions for the business in general. And we can say after this experience that our performance was very solid. We have not put any brakes on our investments, neither Have we see do we see our solid financial performance being affected anyway?
I'll obviously discuss the mailed indices later on, and we'll discuss it in more detail on the following slides. BKN Orland closed the Q1 of the year operate with an operating LIFO EBITDA profit at PLN 2,400,000,000, nearly PLN 2 point 0.5000000 PLN in a very let me repeat again, a very challenging lockdown quarter with lots of restrictions imposed and lots of limitations on transport and communication as well as the consumption, which obviously could not be comparable to the periods. And in terms of our net profit, we almost reached EUR 2,000,000,000 PLN, specifically, euros 1,900,000,000, which was a very positive and solid results versus the Q1 of 2020. In terms of the consolidation effect, a solid EBITDA was also reported for the Energa Group at 800,000,000 PLN, €800,000,000 which is yet another proof that our very challenging decisions very forward looking decisions of the management board and specifically the President of Management Board, Daniel Obaytek, and also the corporate decisions, corporate approvals of the supervisory board, were very positive and very well grounded and corroborate that our aspirations and our possibilities of creating a multi energy group were obviously Right. As you can see, the power energy, power development and power generation sectors input is very, very SOLID and this proves that our decision was well based.
In terms of revenue, the revenue was close to 20 PLN 5,000,000,000, specifically PLN 24,600,000,000 despite a lower and significantly lower consumption and also limitations on tourism and communication in general. And also despite a lower throughput of crude oil because We processed less oil, obviously, down 19% year on year because of different and obviously lower demand from the market. We also reported a drop of sales, down 11% year on year, which is obviously due to lower consumption persisting as we speak and as we can see that in many countries, The aviation market is down or even non existent, so to speak. And also, for instance, certain lockdowns and curfews in a number of countries in which we operate as well because we do not only operate in Poland, but also in the neighboring countries. In terms of our investments, let me stress again that we have not put any hold on our investments, especially growth investments.
We spent nearly CHF2 billion on growth investments, specifically CHF1.8 billion. This all fits well within our strategy and as well as the question of the dividend payout for 2020 at JPY 3 point EUR5 billion PLN. So in summary, in a nutshell, I can say that quarter 1. So also a lot of cash flows. We have controlled our we controlled our debt and also certainties went up.
The CO2 cost was relatively low. I will develop on it later on. We have secured CO2 emission costs by 2023. These have been rapidly going up, but we have them secured at 23 to 24 tons per tonne, while they are skyrocketing right now at to almost €50 per tonne and we can expect that they will continue to grow. But we have taken or we had taken a very courageous decision, both the management board and also the supervisory board and also the President of the management board, Anilobitec to have forward looking contracts for the purchase of CO2 emission rights.
And it bears fruit right now and translates into measurable savings at around NOK 600,000,000 on savings in that account. We also have continued to declare a solid dividend at 3.5 PLN per share. And what is important in a very difficult lockdown quarter, our financial performance is comparable to our record breaking performance from the period 2015, 2017. So all in all, it gives me confidence to recap that the challenging or despite the challenging macro situation and the lower demand on fuel for fuels and also maintenance shutdowns, which translated into lower throughput, down 90%, as I have mentioned, at around 6,200,000 tonnes of crude oil and the utilization stood at more than 70%, 72%. I said that also our sales went down, which is absolutely normal.
This is obvious because it went down, but it went down not as much as in our neighboring countries and in other markets, not only in other countries that we operate, but also in the countries end markets which are richer in terms of the citizens' buying power and also which have stronger economies. So despite all these challenging conditions, we generated a LIFO based EBITDA at a very solid level at nearly 2 point PLN 5,000,000,000, specifically PLN 2,400,000,000, translating into a growth year on year by 0 point 8,000,000,000 PLN, which I believe is a very solid performance considering that we had to operate in a very difficult and challenging quarter. And yet, we were able to reach a LIFO based EBITDA of nearly PLN 2 point €5,000,000,000 PLN. This shows that we are not afraid of challenges. We can take challenges in stride.
We are a very well managed group and we have diversified sources of both revenue and also our business opportunities as well as the sources that we use to finance our investments. We as I said, we have not put any break on also M and A activity and M and A projects. These are all in progress and progressing as planned. I will develop on it later on. This is, as I said, a proof that our foundations as a group are solid.
Our footing is strong despite the fact that the petrochem petrochemical, not only petrochemical business, but also in general, oil, gas and oil business went through an unprecedented situation and problems, especially last year, especially the end of last year in terms of the prices of feedstocks. The price of fixed stocks keeps developing and changing rapidly. They are absolutely fluctuating. Right now, we see that they are going up. This obviously has an effect on the performance.
Still, we managed to defend our position in the context of these very difficult challenging macro conditions. In terms of our cash flows from operations, this is another important information. They came and at newly for building PLN. In terms of investments, as I mentioned before, we have not put any break on our investment projects, standing at around SEK 2,000,000,000. In terms of our net debt at the end of the quarter, it stood at PLN 13,100,000,000 going up year on year by PLN 400,000,000, so relatively so by a relatively slight amount or a small amount.
Although we know that our debt continues to be our debt and financing continues to be the main source of financing, not only for our investments, borrowing business as well, not only for the Petrochem business, but in general. Other highlights included the fact that we saw the second emission of ESG based green bonds at PLN 1,000,000,000 PLN. Although, I do believe that if we decided to push a little bit more, we could increase that amount for the ESG bond submission because we saw a lot of interest from the investors. Other highlights included the fact that we signed contracts for purchase of crude oil, both with Rosneft, but also with ExxonMobil. And secondly, We found a very professional, a very checked and proven company to work for work with in terms of our wind farm project on the Baltic Sea.
I'm talking about Northland Power of Canada, and we expect this cooperation and its partnership to flourish. And we also saw a decision by the European Commission in terms of our acquisition of the Paginigga, decision to move the process, the future of this year making process to the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Authority. We also have a new project. We started to launch the new project called Odland in Motion. This is a new format of retail sales project and also parcel pickup points.
We are working on this as well and as well as on courier services. We have own parcel pickup lockers being put up currently. I do believe that it will allow us to generate 100 of 1,000,000 of PLM in revenue, if not 1,000,000,000. Other highlights of the Q1 2021 included events related to ESG. We came first among certified employers in Poland and the top employer 2020 ranking for the 8th year running, at 8 time running as the only oil and gas company in Europe.
We also received a distinction of the world's most ethical company in 2021, a very prestigious ranking. We also acquired 3 onshore farms, wind farms. And this is an apple in our eye and will continue to be an apple in our eye, ahead of a number of decisions in this area. Energa Group started working on the planned construction of a photovoltaic farm of 100 megawatts. In terms of our innovations, At Orland Asphalt, we started a special type of asphalt project, which will be characterized by the fact that it will leave a smaller carbon footprint And this type of a production project will have a positive effect on both our image and also on the environment and the climate.
We are continuing works to include EV, Energas EV charging stations to our PIKEN outlets network. As a result of which, we will soon become a leader in this area and we estimate that we will have soon have 400 EV chargers because we see that the demand is growing and the customers are and clients are asking for it because their demand is going up. And we want to be a pioneer on the Vanguard of this market and I do believe this is doable and feasible. Before I move on to discuss more our financial performance in more detail, I'd like to on behalf of Daniela Bajtek and the management board in general, I'd like to thank all our employees traditionally for their involvement, for their hard work, for the effort they're putting in this very difficult challenging period during which we personally were at risk of in contract COVID-nineteen virus and COVID, especially in the last months, in a couple of months, last months. And despite those challenges and threats, we can say that we have performed very well and we are very proud to say that our performance in this weird, as I say, year in the very challenging year of 2020.
And I do believe that I hope that this year, will not repeat and this period will not repeat. It will go down to history. As I said before, our model downstream margin went up by US3.9 dollars per barrel versus the Q1 of 2020 due to a major drop in the refining margin due to a lower consumption and lower demand for fuel due to COVID-nineteen, but also an affected sentiment in the business in general and a number of restrictions and limitations in terms demand, but also in behavior in terms of consumption around the world as well as a lower differential for Brent and Uroll Crude. Increases in crude oil prices translated into higher costs of on utilization. The margins on diesel oil went down by 65%.
This shows a sheer scale of the effect on the economy and the freezing effect on the economy. And the same applies for catalines and also heavy fuel oil going down by around 20% by, respectively, 11% 21%. Also the PLM to euro exchange rate was weakened and this had a negative effect on on the performance as well. In terms of the consumption data for fuels versus and also GDP, And this is presented on Slide number 6. In the Q1, we expected that our fuel consumption year on year will be lower across all our markets, which is obviously due to limitations on transparent consumption as the pandemic was evolving and also closed borders and not only between countries, but also between regions because we had certain regions such as Varmya and Masurian region was absolutely locked down and the same for Europe as well.
A lot of curfews were introduced in Europe. This all obviously translated into GDP and production and consumption. In the Q2, year on year, I do believe we will see a positive signal a positive trend and we have already been seeing it in April. And when you look at those tables in the charts on that slide, you will see that Poland was not in a very difficult situation compared to other countries such as the Czech Republic and Germany, especially in the Czech Republic, in the country in which a lot of instructions and limitations we introduced. Slide number 8 shows our financial performance.
And you can see that in the Q1 of 2021, we saw an increase in revenue year on year by 11% due to higher quotations of both refining and petrochemical products 2 to higher crude oil prices combined with lower sales volumes. This is obviously a natural trend to see the lower the sales, the lower obviously, the more affected obviously the margins. We reported, as I said, SEK 2,400,000,000 in EBITDA LIFO and going up nearly EUR 800,000,000 versus the Q1 last year, mainly due to foundation of the Energa Group and the positive impact of it, the reversal of write downs on inventories, NRV, usage of historical layers of inventories related to maintenance shutdowns on our installations, both at Pekka and Orlin and also at Orlin Littoval and as well the impact of CL contract valuation as well changes in consolidation methods applied to Baltic Power. Now all the above positive effects were unfortunately partially offset by negative macro impacts, lower sales volumes, lower margins in terms of both wholesale and retail as well as higher labor costs and revaluation of CO2 provisions. In terms of the impact of crude prices on our environment The Enviro inventories valuation was LIFO effect was at SEK1.1 billion, which obviously affected our results.
Our financial result was down at minus PLN0.1 billion net result of the surplus of negative foreign exchange differences and interest costs and positive impact of settlement and valuation of derivative financial instrument. The net result we reported in the Q1 of the year was at 1,900,000,000 or nearly 1,900,000,000 PLN. Now we are seeing a number of positive aspects in terms of our debt position to position. We also saw a decline of a very important ratio, net debt to EBITDA going down, which is very important to us. And we will keep looking at it.
We'll keep a watch full eye on this very indicator. It is very important to us in terms in the context of our new projects and the financing sources. Slide number 9 shows segment results, EBITDA based LIFO by segment LIFO based EBITDA by segment. And I will give the floor over now to Mr. Spignik Vyshinsky to discuss the following slides.
Again, a very warm welcome to all of you. As Mr. Sefcak has said, we have just concluded a very difficult quarter in terms of our macro situation. But we managed to prove yet again that despite such difficult conditions, we are able to operate efficiently and report solid performance. We are able to manage our company in such a way as to generate positive effects, and we are able to look optimistically into the future.
Mr. Janos Shevcak put, in a nutshell, the main parameters in terms of our financial performance and our economic indicators. I will now present and discuss our situation by segment in more detail. Let me start with Refining segment, which reported an increase of PLN 162,000,000 year on year. However, In the end, we saw a decline in the refining segment down PLN 1190000000, which was mainly due to the reversal of write offs of inventories, NRV and also the usage of historical layers of inventories combined with negative macro effect and lower sales volume.
So in a nutshell, this shows that this has been a very difficult time for the finery business, not only for PK and Orland, but across Europe and the world as well. And in terms of petrochemical business, we So a result at PL65 1,000,000 down, going down year on year, mainly due to negative impact of lower sales volumes, combined with positive macro effects and reversal of write offs of NRE. Power Generation segment, which is another important segment For us, we saw a 1.1% performance going up year on year by 600,000,000 PLN mainly on the back of positive impact of consolidation of the Energa Group and also changes in consolidation methods applied to Baltic Power as well as a negative macro impact as discussed before as well as lower sales volumes and also the acquisitions of provisions and provisions for TiO2. In terms of the retail business, we saw end performance at nearly PLN 550,000,000 going down year on year, mainly due to a negative impact of lower sales volumes on the back mainly of the pandemic as well as lower fuel margins combined with positive impact of higher nonfuel margins. In terms of Upstream, we reported PLN 14,000,000 going down mainly due to negative impact of hedging transactions additions and lower sales volumes combined with positive effects of higher crude oil and NGLs and gas prices.
Corporate functions, the last segment discussed on the slide, saw an increase in EBITDA LIFO and the decrease, I'm sorry, in EBITDA LIFO, mainly due to the positive impact of CO2 contract valuation in the amount of 5 PLN68 1,000,000 combined with a negative impact of higher labor costs. Let me now move over In the more details on our performance by segment, let me start with the refining segment. Again, In the Q1 of the year, the refining segment reported a loss at LIFO based EBITDA at PLN 191,000,000 PLN, which is still a solid level because it was higher year on year compared with the Q1 of 2020. And as I said, because we said before, this has been a very difficult and challenging period for the refining business around the world. As you can see on Slide 10, The main negative impact the main negative indicator is the negative macro impact, mainly due to a drop in middle distillates, the lower Brent euro differential going down by US0.9 dollars per barrel, strengthening of PLN against U.
S. Dollar and the negative impact of hedging transactions on crude oil purchases as well as product sales and higher costs of internal usage due to prices of crude oil going up by USD 11 per barrel. Those negative effects, however, were partially limited and offset by the positive effects on higher cracks and light distillates as well as heavy refining fractions. The sales volume stood at the FX, sales volume effect stood at around CHF 400,000,000. And all in all, we reported a decline by 11% due to lower sales of gasoline going down by 90%, diesel 8% and LPG as well as jet aviation, fuel as well as heavy fuel oils as well.
These results are mainly due to the historical usage of historical layers of inventories and reversals of write offs write offs, as we said before. On the next slide, we continue discussing the operational data for our refining business. The throughput was at 6,200,000 tonnes of crude going down year on year, mainly due to the fact that we had to adjust the capacities, production capacities across all our refineries. We also had unplanned maintenance shutdowns in the Q1 of the year. At Kotk, We saw lower utilization ratio year on year, mainly due to maintenance shutdowns of hydrocracking, BRV and other CDU and other units.
In addition, We also had certain technical problems on the olefin unit. And also, we continue we carried out works related to preparation of our petrochemical installations for the planned shutdown in the Q2 of the year. At Unipetro, The throughput was comparable year on year. On the one hand, we reduced our crude throughput due to lower demand for fuels as well as unstable performance of the PEC unit and this was combined by a close down and maintenance shutdown of the Kralupe Refinery At Oulu and Lettva, we saw a decrease by 21 percentage point in terms of our throughput year on year, mainly due to the fact that we had to adjust our throughput to macro situation and to the demand for products. Let me now go through the analysis by of sales by country.
In Poland, we saw a decline in sales by 8% year on year, mainly due to lower sales of gasolines, aviation fuel, diesel as well as LPG, all going down year on year. The same applies for 2 asphalt. At Orden Detova, the declines were by the decline was at 14%, mainly on the back of the decline of gasolines, LPG, asphalt and jet aviation fuel. In the Czech Republic, our sales went down by 17% year on year on the back of lower sales of diesel oil, gasolines are going down as well as aviation fuel. The next segment, which is our key segment that keeps us stable in those difficult times in the petrochemicals business.
In the Q1 of the year, the petrochemical performance was at nearly PLN 670,000,000 going up by 14% despite the fact that the margin went up. But this was offset by the volume effect. The positive macro impact year on year, which we have mentioned before in terms of petrochemicals, was mainly due to an increase on the margins on polyolefins, fertilizers and PVC as well as the weakening exchange rates of PLN versus the euro. But these positive effects were partially offset by negative impact of lower margins on olefins as well as the negative impact of hedging transactions on our product sales. In the Q1 of 2021, We saw a decline in sales by volume in terms of Petrochemical is going down by 2% year on year, especially in terms of lower olefins sales going down by 12%, PVC down by 28%, PTA going down by 10%.
This, however, was combined with higher sales of polyolefins going up by 49% and fertilizers going up by 8% In the Q1 of the year, our one of our subgroup companies, Anvil, reported APLN life of risk EBITDA of PLN 93,000,000 PLN going up and the same applies to PTA. Slide number 13 is devoted to more operational data of the petrochemicals business. We saw the utilization ratio going down in the Q1 combined with higher production of fertilizers and higher utilization ratio for polypropylene in Lithuania. This translated into, in general, sales volumes decreased by 2% year on year. In Poland, we saw a decline of 12% year on year due to lower sales of PVC, PDA and olefins.
However, this was combined with an increase in the Czech Republic by 1% year on year due to higher sales of polyolefins and fertilizers going up in general in terms of polyolefins going up in general in the Q2 of 2020. In Lithuania, we saw A higher sales at 20% combined with The fact that we had no maintenance shutdowns in the market was favorable for Apogeochemical Products. The next segment we'd like to focus on is our Energy or Power Generation segment. On Slide number 14, We present you those details and these are very strong results and very strong performance mainly generated on EUR 1,100,000,000 PLN of LIFO based EBITDA going up. And I'd like to mention again, and this has been mentioned time and again by Daniel Obaytek.
As Mr. Janus Shevchenko mentioned before, this is yet Again, I'll prove that the acquisition of Energa Group was a very good decision, which reinforced our financial strength and our stability. And this is the direction we will keep focusing on and we'll keep following, strengthening our power generation muscle. And the results that we are showing right now prove that our decision was 8 courageous but well grounded and it was efficient and corroborates our assumptions from the decision making period as we prepared to this transaction. This I for life of this EBITDA was up by it was twofold, and it was mainly due to the acquisition of Energa and the consolidation of Energa.
It was generated in combination with lower power generation figures reported by PKAN Orlin alone due to the shutdown of the CCGT unit at Porsk as well as the change in the Baltic Power consolidation method. You will see how the volume effect and macro effect impacted our LIFO based EBITDA. But these do not affect the Energa Group's performance as it was only consolidated in the 2nd part of the year. The lower sales at PIKEN Orland was mainly due to a maintenance shutdown for the CGT unit at Pusk, which should be brought back on stream in the beginning of June this year. Others include mainly the PLN SEK 0.2 billion decrease or impact of the Energa Group results consolidation, a PLN €200,000,000 year on year change in the Baltic Power consolidation method.
And as I mentioned before, the CO2 reserves revaluation at minus EUR0.2 billion year on year. Let me now move on to the selected data, operational data for our energy business. And the slides, as I said, is a proof that we have taking a good decision and that our strategy is solid and our forward looking statements are well on that. We are betting on 0 and low emission sources because right now, We have nearly 60% or more than 60% of our electricity production from such sources. In the Q1, We generated 2.7 terawatt of electricity terawatt hour of electricity and also 1.32 and terajoules of heat.
Our production went down in terms of electricity, especially at Beacon Orlin at 23% down, 22% mainly to the CCGT2 shutdown at Borsk. But we saw also a demand for conventional electricity. Our renewable sources of energy went up because we saw another project brought on stream and we are expecting that our 0 emission energy generation, we'll be developing strongly not only based on our existing sources, but also based on our acquisitions because we are planning more acquisitions in the future. Our electricity sales went down by 9% year on year, mainly due to lower sales in wholesales because we had to optimize our portfolio as well as lower consumption of business customers due to the COVID 19 pandemic. The electricity distribution went up, and it is fully realized by Energa operator.
It went up by 10% 2% year on year, mainly due to increasing remote work during the pandemic. We also saw a noticeable trend of increasing capacity of renewable energy sources connected to Energa operators' grid. CO2 emissions in the Q1 of the year stood at 2,400,000 tons. And other highlights of the Q1 included the fact that PIKEN Orland signed a contract with Northland Power for the construction of the wind farm on the Baltic Sea. The investment is expected to start in 2023 and brought on stream in 2026.
It is a very important, a key investment from the perspective of our group. We also secured the approval for the acquisition of 3 onshore wind farms in the Pomeranian region at nearly 90 megawatts in terms of capacity. And all in all, we will have 353 megawatts of energy installed in wind power and will become the 4th biggest player in this market. The next segment I'd like to discuss is retail. In the Q1 of the year, the LIFO based EBITDA stood at PLN 548,000,000 going down by 22%, mainly due to the volume effect on the back of this situation in the market, the pandemic.
Sales volumes in retail stood at minus 13% went down by 13% year on year, of which gasoline down by 15%, diesel by 11% and LPG by 17%. The effect on margins, was negative mainly in Poland and the Czech Republic, going down in these two markets. However, this was offset partially by higher margins in Germany, but it was also comparable year on year in Lithuania. In terms of nonfuel margins, it went up. They went up in Poland year on year, especially in terms of hot beverages and drinks and drinks and food, same for Germany.
And in Lithuania, they stayed flat. In the Q1, we also developed our network in terms of the alternative fuel points. We currently have 225 alternative fuel points, double the figure from last year. And we consistently support the growth of Polish economy because we keep our partnership with Polish producers. Right now, more than 85% of products sold at our service stations were produced in Poland.
This is Obviously, good news for our entrepreneurs in the Polish market. Slide number 17 continues to discuss our operational data for retail. At the end of the Q1, we had 2 1,856 fuel stations, of which 65% has the Stop Cafe concept. The number of fuel stations went up by 20% year on year across all our markets, with the exception of Germany. Due to lower consumption of fuels and demand for fuels, the retail section our retail segment went down in terms of sales volumes by 13% across all our markets.
And the same applies to our market shares, which went down across all our markets except for Slovakia, in which we consistently are expanding our position. The dynamic increase in nonfuel offering is worth stressing is all stressing. We had 2,229 coffee corners going up year on year. We are also increasing our and expanding our alternative fuel portfolio. As I said, at the end of the first quarter of the year, we had 225 alternative fuel points going up year on year, especially in Poland, going up by 202, 102 and in Czech Republic and by 72 and in Germany as well.
We had 144 EV charging stations and the rest in the Czech Republic and in Germany. We also have 2 hydrogen stations in Poland N30 2 CNG stations in the Czech Republic. The next slide presents The next segment, our Upstream segment. In the Q1, the Upstream segment reported LIFO based EBITDA at EUR14 million going down by 94% year on year, which was obviously due to the negative macro impact, due to cash flow hedging transactions going down by PLN 70,000,000 PLN. In the Q1 of the year, we also saw a positive impact of hedging transactions going up by PLN 100,000,000 PLN.
But this year, the effect was different, was the opposite. We also saw an impact of gas itself and condensate as well as crude oil. In the upstream segment, we saw a decline in sales due to a decrease in average production by 400,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day in Canada, combined with a higher production in Poland. Others. The position others mainly includes the lack of provision reversal for tax liabilities related to the purchase of FX Energy and Upstream.
The companies acquired in the segment. The next slide discusses some more operational data. So we now have 100 64, 2p total reserves of crude oil and gas and the average production in the first quarter stood at SEK 106,000,000 and the CapEx was broken down into 80% for Canada and 20% for Poland. In terms of our operations in the Q1, I'd like to highlight the main milestones in Poland. After we commenced the production in the Bistrawica project, We started the startup of surface installation in the Edge project.
We continue development of the Tuhola and Baieja fields based on the generation of electricity from nitrogen rich natural gas. In partnership with Pega, we continued works, both project and legal works for development of the Pozky project at Falenchin. And we also continued administrative works for gas field. We also continued drilling on the Bistrik 1 well, But we discovered no gas deposits there and we decided to abandon the well. Our seismic activity, the seismic acquisition, data acquisition at Kochawa where it continues.
And in the Carpathic project, we had the interpretation of 2 d seismic profiles and we start also the cartographic works. In Canada, we continued the works in the Ferrier, Lohete and CAGPHA area. Thank you for your attention. This will be all in terms of my detailed discussion of our performance by segment. And we'll now go back to the financing muscle.
And I will now give the floor over to Mr. Janus Sefcak. On Slide number 21 gets us back to the cash flow and the financial data. In terms of our cash flows from operations. This stood at nearly PLN 4,000,000,000, specifically PLN 3,900,000,000 with the demand for working capital going up by SEK 300,000,000.
You will see the breakdown in terms of our cash flow from operations, you will see the CapEx figure, but the CapEx at minus 1.8, But you will also see the SEK 3,700,000 in terms of the net outflows from investments. In the Q1, we saw a SEK 2 point €4,000,000,000 in LIFO based EBITDA, the figure that makes us very proud. And the LIFO effect was at €1,100,000,000 PLN and working capital at €300,000,000 and CapEx at €1,800,000,000 PLN. And we spent CO2 emission spending on CO2 emission allowances and certificates at PLN 1,200,000,000. So you could only imagine what the figure would be like if we had bought them at market prices.
We acquired them at 24 and net at 48, the figure that stands today. You can imagine how what the burden for Polish companies is right now in terms of the energy restructuring process? Slide 22 concerns our financial strength. We can recapitulate this slide by saying that despite a relatively slight increase in our net debt going up by PL400 1,000,000. We are still on the safe side and the indices in terms of our debt are stable and well controlled not only by PKN Orland itself, but also by our auditor.
Our net debt stood at the end of the first quarter, stood at PLN13.1 billion. And what is important for us in the context of our relations with our financing institutions in the bank, The net debt to EBITDA covenant went up, reaching 0.9 1% compared to 1.27% before. Of course, this is a relatively Of course, we had a relatively small increase in debt, mainly on the back on our high spending on investments at CHF3.7 billion, as I mentioned before. And we also remember the fact that we had to pay for our leases and interest. As you can see, however, and you will see on this slide, these are negligible not negligible, but they're not very high, those figures.
So we are safe to say that our financing sources are well diversified We'll diversify it and we are keep diversifying them. We're still looking for new sources of financing. You will see that in the bottom of this slide. We also extending our maturities and the average maturity is currently at 2023 and currency structure of the debt also reflects our currency exposure in terms of our operations. But it also creates a natural hedge.
You will obviously see certain fluctuations in terms of the foreign exchange rates of PLN versus the main currencies. In the Q1, As part of our issue net bond issue project, we had the next issue of our ESG based bonds and to PLN 1,000,000,000 with a 10 year repurchase period redemption period. This, I believe, is very important to us in terms of the security of our growth projects. We keep looking for new sources or investments. And we want for instance, we want to introduce the cash flow into the structure.
In Poland, it is not as used as it is around the world. Slide number 23 presents our CapEx and spending for the in the year, broken down by into Orland and Energa, of course. We are planning to spend €5,000,000,000 on growth and €4,500,000,000 on maintenance. And it's very important because for decades, for a long time, it was not watched over. The condition, the technological condition of our process lines were not very watched over.
Only in recent years, we have been focusing on maintaining the technological condition, good technological condition of our process lines or so as to avoid unexpected and unplanned maintenance shutdowns, which can obviously affect our performance. The CapEx realized in the Q1 of the year was at PLN 1,800,000,000 broken down into The refining segment, €400,000,000 and the petrochemical segment, €500,000,000 nearly €400,000,000 in the power generation segment, 300,000,000 for retail and 100,000,000 for Upstream. The main growth project realized in the Q1 of the year. In the refining business, we had the construction of the visbreaking unit at Podk and we also had the construction of the polypropylene glycol in Odenpaulnia, in Trebina. The extension of the Olefins unit at Wotsk in terms of Petrochemical business was the key project.
We're also extending the fertilizers production capacities at Anvil. And we're also in construction the DC PD unit used for the production of specialized fertilizers at Unipertal. In terms of energy, the apple in our eye and for the future, as I said before, we will have for the we had the offshore wind farm project on the Baltic Sea, which was launched and also the monetization of current assets and connection of new clients in Energa Group as well as development of EV chargers network. As I said before, we launched 13 new stations. In retail, we opened 8 new stations in the Nordic world.
We closed new stations and we 3 modernized 3 stations. And we also opened new Stop Cafe, Star Cafe and Star Connect locations, 11 of them were opened. And the last section of the presentation will focus on our macro environment. And I will now give the floor over and back to Mr. Zbigniew Vazshensky to discuss the macro environment.
We have summarized the results of the Q1 of 2021 And we also discussed partially the macroeconomic environment that PKAN Orland operates in. Well, I will now focus on the short discussion of our macro environment in the Q2 of the year, which has already started. I will present our perspectives and outlook for the Q2 in the context of the data We keep collecting for our business in general. This data make us optimistic. It makes us optimistic and we can say that quarter 2 will be a good quarter, a solid quarter for us as well despite, as we know, the very challenging situation the whole world is coping with right now.
I do believe we can still fare well and generate solid results. The main parameters I'd like to discuss at this point in terms bar macro environment is the model downstream margin in the Q2 of 2021. I it has already been up by USD 3.6 per barrel year on quarter to quarter to 10.9 euros per barrel, mainly on the back of the higher differential Brent Thirol differential and also higher petrochemical margin. Moving on to crude oil price. It went up by $3 per barrel quarter to quarter at $64 to $64 barrel mainly on the back of lower sales of fuel oil of crude oil in the U.
S. In terms of the price and in terms of inventory going down as well as forecast for higher demand for crude oil around the world. In terms of our crack margin for diesel, it is stable quarter on quarter at €32,000,000 on average of dollars per barrel per tonne, mainly on the back of lower inventories in the Ara business and combined with imports from Asia and continuing low demand in Europe due to the COVID-nineteen pandemic. The crack margin on fuel on gasolines went up by 2% quarter on quarter, now standing on average at $150 per tonne, mainly due to an increase in sale in experts in USA. In terms of heavy fuel oil, the margin went down to $133 per tonne mainly due to high availability of HSV in Europe and the inflows from Russia.
The differential, Brent Yield differential went up by USD 1 per barrel to reach the average of $2.5 per barrel, mainly on the back of higher availability of competitive fuels. However, the petrochemical margin is record breaking, going up by EUR 4.27 euro per tonne quarter on quarter. And the figure we are seeing is an effect of higher price of polymers due to low inflows and low supply of the products. The next slide present more some more macro parameters. Slide number 26, spending with Starting with Brent Crue Oil, we expect the Crue Oil price to increase in comparison with the average from 2020, mainly due to the forecast strong demand growth on fuels in the second half of twenty twenty one.
In the period from March to mid August, we saw a high record high growth in the global demand for crude oil going up by going up solidly to $69 per barrel In the end of around the end of February, we saw certain forecasts for the global for the increase in global demand for crude going up by over 5,000,000 of barrel per day. It is impossible to offset debt effect without reduction of production by Saudi Arabia, which is expected going to go down by 2,000,000 barrels per day. We also expect that Brent Yule will stand at €65 per day of barrels per day. Therefore, Saudi Arabia's decision to maintain the neutral reduction in production was a surprise for the market, combined with the increased benchmark level of US70 dollars The 3rd wave of the pandemic and restriction on the economy and economic activity sustained the growth and we saw an effect in terms of the Brent crude oil price. The refining margin.
In terms of the refining margin, we expect an increase in the refining margin versus 2020 as a result of economic recovery after COVID-nineteen. And we are mainly expecting in the second half of the year, and we have already we've seen certain signals from the Polish market. The refining margin still remains under pressures in terms of the production surplus, currently estimated at the level of $4,200,000 per day in 2020, 2025. By the end of the Q1 2021, we saw production capacities being reduced announced to be reduced mainly in the U. S.
Compared to the end of the world the rest of the world. In Europe, the actual and announced reduction applies only to 5 refineries with the capacity of around €400,000,000 per day. We still are looking for the reductions more reductions need to be introduced. In terms of Brentwood differential, we are also expecting increases versus the previous year due to higher availability of euro oil. We will also see production surpluses.
We'll be looking at exports of crude instead of exporting fuels. In terms of petrochemical margins, we Expect those margins to remain at the average level of 2020 at around €800 per ton. And petrochemical business is obviously strictly correlated with the country's GDP, which obviously went down sharply due to the pandemic. However, We are now observing very high margins on Palaelefins as a result of limitations on supply, including poor macro environment in the refining business. Therefore, we can count on the petrochemical segment to generate solid results in the future.
In the short term, the petrochemical margins and refining margins will be affected by fluctuations in terms of weather prices in terms of demand and supply. We are expecting We are expecting an economic revival in the second half of the year, especially in Poland. In terms of regulation, we need to remember about the national index target, which went up from 8.5% to 8.7%. However, PIKEN Orlin will be able to take advantage of it possible to reduce that ratio of the NIT to CHF5.7 billion. Therefore, the costs will remain flat compared to our last year's costs.
This is very good news and this very good forecast for the future. So we can optimistically look into and modestly can look into the future. And we know that We can say that we'll remain generating solid results also in the 2nd part of the year. I believe we can now move on to the 2nd part of the conference and the Q and A session. And I'm looking at the questions received In the meantime, and let's say that 2 subjects have dominated the pool of questions that we have received.
The first question concerns wind farm projects, both onshore and offshore. And the second part of the question is Polska Press, Obviously, those are 2 business related questions. So we can start with the first one. A couple of weeks ago, We had a meeting with a number of companies who would like to participate in the value chain in the supply chain. How many Polish companies you are expecting to join this project or these projects?
And What will be the spending that you are expecting to have related to the offshore wind project? One. This is one of the questions concerning the wind power project. We received a number of questions, including the cleaner energy portal? Thank you very much for those questions.
I'm not surprised that you are so interested in especially offshore wind power project. At PKAN AULEN, it is very important This is a flagship project for us and we attach a great weight to it. As Mr. Shevzak has mentioned before, we keep heavily investing. We are growing dynamically in this area and we are investing into our future in this way, because This is an investment of the future for us as well.
And we can bet that even in the short term, it will increase and improve our financial performance. And it obviously fits well within the strategy of building a multi utility group and also a 0 and low emission group. Therefore, we are focusing on this project. It is progressing as planned. It is progression dynamically.
And in December of 2020, we had a series of meetings with over 200 companies interested in cooperating in this area with PKAN Orland. This is a large scale investment. This is proof that a number of companies wanted to cooperate with us in the supply chain. However, this is not the end of our efforts in this area. We keep planning on more meetings for every for each segment of the supply chain.
We work dynamically and As part of the first part of our efforts in this area, We continue to maintain a dialogue with all suppliers. Right now, we're not yet able to give you any precise data in terms of the cost of the projects of the project. However, we can give you an estimate. The entire project, Spartic Power project, should cost us around PLN 10,000,000,000. And the Baltic Power project, as I said before, is an advanced stage of preparations, both in terms of formal questions, administrative questions and strategic and business decisions.
As I said before, we launched the construction of we plan to launch the construction of wind farm project in 2023 and to finish it in 2026. To date, we have had 2 major milestones. First of all, we signed a connection contract, a good connection contract with PSC and we signed an important for us, and important contract with our business partner, Nulfran Power of Canada, which after having received an approval from the anti monopoly office was finalized at the end of last year. At the end of March of this year. We started in Kosovo geological land examinations and studies in order to review the area for the route of the connection, the future connection in order to lay an underground piping from the sea leading from the sea into onshore stations.
We also closed, the preliminary studies in terms of the seabed, and we are awaiting environmental decisions. After we have received and secured environmental decisions and permits, we will apply to have a building permit. I can add at this point that we are also carrying out, we're also conducting wind force measurements on the windiness measurements on the Baltic Sea. And this will this data will be transferred on provided to our business partner, Northern Power. As Baltic Power, we applied to the Energy Regulatory Office as part of the first phase of this project.
So all in all, this is a major project for us, a flagship project. It is progressing as planned. We are on the right track. We have had already received approvals. And we have already had 2 major milestones, and we are expecting this project to progress as planned.
A couple of questions now on Polska Press, starting with the question on the status of the current status of the acquisition of Polska Press in the context of the recent decision by the court and the recent statements by the ombudsman and also the President of the Competition and Consumer Protection Office. And also a question from Mr. Dravik. What are the investments that you are planning in the Polska Press projects in the months to come. Why did you have changes in terms of the composition of the personal of certain newspapers and magazines despite the fact that Mr.
Abaytek had promised that there will be no changes. Right now, we have secured legal opinions of renowned advisers and law offices. And the conclusion is as follows. And it is in line with our conclusions in terms of our legal officers and also the management board. The conclusion is as follows.
It was in line the transaction was in line with the law of Poland with the loss of Poland with all the regulations upon receiving the approval and the concentration clearance. And we belief and we are deeply convinced that the fact that the acquisition took place on the first of March of 2020. That was before the court issued a decision we have talked about before and to suspend the progress of the project. We believe that this decision by the court is ungrounded, And it will it does not affect our work and it does not affect the legality of the acquisition. And both in our opinion and our legal experts' opinion, the decision of the court We'll put no limitation on PIKEN Orland in terms of our ownership rights in terms of Perka Postka press.
And despite the fact that the ombudsman applies to the court, because of the court to issue that decision. However, we are not under any obligations to follow that decision. We had a number of surprising media coverages by a number of journalists In terms of also the valuation of Polska Press project, they forgot, for instance, to add certain cash values that we had to take into consideration. And this is why we had to pay those companies, including their cash at hand. In terms of our growth, we have a number of concepts to look at.
We're we keep looking at it. We're working on it. In terms of how to include and incorporate Polska Press within our marketing and growth and communication strategies. We had a meeting between Daniel Bajc with the representatives of employees and trade unions. It was a good meeting, and I do believe that We have to be patient, but we feel to be an owner of Post CapEx and you will see that we will manage Post CapEx effectively.
And you will see for yourselves that the decision will have a great impact on our performance. Just as Energa, you might remember and you surely remember the reservations that a lot of complainers had. And right now, we can say that the power generation segment, is a very important segment for us in terms of its contribution to our performance in terms of net profit and how future oriented it is and forward looking it is for a huge company as ours, for a huge multi utility group as ours. And I do believe that the same will apply to Polska Press to the acquisition that we decided to make. I do believe that the sentiment is It should not be as heated as it is.
And with time, you will see that the decision was a good one and a very well founded one. A question to Mr. Loshzczynski. Let me recap a question by Bartolome Savitsky, representing business, Aled, with other questions concerning wind farms offshore wind farms. And Sasavitski refers to the plan to develop those areas, the plan adopted by the Council of Ministers.
Will you apply to more approvals and permits for offshore wind farm projects. Mrs. Sklodowska representing the Visokina Piente portal also refers to wind farm projects, but onshore projects. A question is as follows. Will you acquire or plan to acquire or build any more onshore wind farms.
Thank you very much for those questions. We have discuss some of it in the presentation, but let me recap that information for you again and presented to you again. Indeed, starting with offshore wind projects, The Council of Ministers adopted the plan for development of offshore wind project. This is a good decision for this business in Poland. As we said, offshore is one of main pillars of the strategy adopted PKAN Orland until 2023 and also one of the main elements of the plan formation of PIKEN Orland into a multi utility zero and low emission corporation.
We are gaining experience and we want to use it in more investments to come. The investor experience we will gain at the Baltic Power project. Based on that, we will be able to apply for more licenses for the Polish part of the Baltic Sea. So All in all, yes, we will keep developing our footprint on the Baltic, expanding our footprint on the Baltic base on the decision and the plan adopted by the Council of Ministers. We are now experienced based on our Baltic Power project, and this will be still one of the pillars of our strategy and we'll keep developing on it.
In terms of onshore projects, As we have discussed in the presentation, we have recently acquired 1 onshore wind farm, But we are also planning to acquire 3 more wind farms in the Pomeranian region at the total with a total capacity of around 89 Megawatts Energy. And after the transaction, PIKEN OLEN, we will have the total of 353 Megawatts of energy in the wind power business in Poland. This will expand our footprint, both offshore and offshore, onshore and we will keep doing it. Obviously, we will take a watchful look or keep taking a watchful eye on keeping a watchful eye on the opportunities in terms of more M and As acquisitions and we will also expanding our capacities. Of.
The one example is Canyon, the project that we have taken over, but this will obviously not be our only investment in this area. We're very much ready to have more investments in terms of wind power. So Savitsky, representing business, Allard also asks about our assets in Canada. And the question is very simple, But very straightforward, are you planning to sell any assets in Canada? So the question is simple, but the answer might not be.
Well, it's not that simple as it seems because there is many big corporations around the world right now who are looking at this issue. Companies are thinking and on this difficult decision. Of course, this will all depend on the stabilization of the market and defreezing of the economy, the rebound of the demand, obviously, especially in terms of tourism, especially on aviation business, which was practically frozen around the world. But obviously, we want to we want our assets to be the self supporting assets, especially in the context of the mergers we are planning with LOTOS and Pekingiger. So we need to make sure that our assets are sustainable and they're developing on a sustainable in a sustainable manner.
So I believe that only after the mergers we could take a conclusive decision. This is the this question is premature at this point. But let me trust again. We are analyzing it. We are looking on our assets, upstream assets closely and also in the context of the evolving situation around the world.
And the question of Pekingiga is also a question that should be asked because in the public opinion because the public asks about it as well. So I guess that we should develop on it as well. This is a very important issue press because this is a question of building a major multi energy group in Poland, irrespective of Lotos, obviously, which is taking place in parallel. I do believe that the European Commission's decision to move this application to the President of the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Office or authority. The fact that the competency in terms of decision making was moved to the Polish authority as a proof that this is a professional approach, first of all.
And also, it comes from the fact that the plant concentration will not in any way affect the competition in outside of Poland. In Poland, I believe that the most competent the best authority to take those decision is the office that we have mentioned, the Consumer and Competition Protection Office. And I do believe that This will be the most efficient decision making in terms of the assessment of this merger. I do believe that the European Commission's decision is a major milestone for us towards the clearance competition clearance to merge with Lattice in Bergeniegen. And I do believe that there will be no there can be no strong multi loyalty group with a European or even global impact and footprint without the merger.
We are competent enough to manage that project and continue that project. We are currently working on the formal application to be submitted to the Polish Competition Consumer Protection Office, to the President of the office to clear the concentration. This, I believe, will be yet another milestone for us after the acquisition of Enaga and after the merger with Lotus. I believe and I'm deeply convinced that this will be of major importance for the strength of the Polish economy and for Poland. I am watching the time here, and this is why I would like 2.
Thank you very much for your participation. I do hope that we will shortly go back to normal, and we will also go back to our traditional format of conferences. But still, thank you very much for you to watch us online, to listen to us online. I'd like to thank to Mr. Zbigniew Velyczynski and Mr.
Janus Szefjak, members of the management board. Thank you very much, and see you next time.