Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the press conference, which will be devoted to the consolidated financial results of PKN Orlen and the ORLEN Group after the first quarter of 2021. I would like to particularly welcome members of the management board, Mr. Jan Szewczak, Member of the Management Board for Finance, as well as Mr. Zbigniew Leszczyński, Member of the Management Board for Development. Good afternoon. In the first part of the presentation, we'll discuss details on the financial performance of PKN Orlen, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. We received and will receive and keep receiving your questions.
Apologies for the mic being off. Let me repeat, welcome to the next conference, yet another conference, the summarizing PKN Orlen's results after the first quarter. A weird, very difficult and challenging year of 2020, which was the pandemic year, the coronavirus year. The first half of this past year of 2020 did not bode very bad, and it was normal compared to this first quarter of 2021, which was fully COVID-19 quarter, both for the economy at large and for the society, and very difficult and very challenging period for us as well. This quarter one 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. We can say, after this experience, that our performance was very solid. We have not put any brakes on our investments, neither did we see our solid financial performance being affected in any way. I'll obviously discuss the main indices later on, and we'll discuss it in more detail on the following slides.
PKN Orlen closed the first quarter of the year with an operating LIFO EBITDA profit at PLN 2.4 billion, nearly PLN 2.5 billion 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 any previous periods. In terms of our net profit, we almost reached PLN 2 billion, specifically PLN 1.9 billion, which was a very positive and solid result versus the first quarter of 2020.
In terms of the consolidation effect, a solid EBITDA was also reported for the Energa Group at PLN 800 million or PLN 0.8 billion, 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 Obajtek, 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, the power generation sector's input is very, very solid, and this proves that our decision was well-based.
In terms of revenue, the revenue was close to PLN 25 billion, specifically PLN 24.6 billion, despite a significantly lower consumption and also limitations on tourism and communication in general, and also despite a lower throughput of crude oil because we process 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 nonexistent, so to speak. 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 PLN 2 billion on growth investments, specifically PLN 1.8 billion. This all fits well within our strategy and as well as the question of the dividend payout for 2020 at PLN 3.5 billion. In summary, in a nutshell, I can say that quarter one saw also a lot of cash flows. We controlled our debt, and also certainties went up. The CO2 cost was relatively low. I'll 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 EUR 23-EUR 24 per ton, while they're skyrocketing right now to almost EUR 50 per ton, and we can expect that they will continue to grow.
We had taken a very courageous decision, both the management board and also the supervisory board, and also the President of the Management Board, Daniel Obajtek, to have forward-looking contracts for the purchase of CO2 emission rights. It bears fruit right now and translates into measurable savings at around PLN 600 million on savings in that account. We also have continued to declare a solid dividend at PLN 3.5 per share. What is important, in a very difficult lockdown quarter, our financial performance is comparable to our record-breaking performance from the period 2015 to 2017. All in all, it gives me confidence to recap that despite the challenging macro situation and lower demand for fuels, and also maintenance shutdowns, which translated into lower throughput, down 19%, as I have mentioned, at around 6.2 million tons of crude oil, and the utilization stood at more than 70%, 72%.
I said that, also our sales went down, which is absolutely normal, and 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 and markets which are richer in terms of the citizens' buying power and also which have stronger economies. Despite all these challenging conditions, we generated a LIFO-based EBITDA at a very solid level at nearly PLN 2.5 billion, specifically PLN 2.4 billion, translating into a growth year-on-year by PLN 0.8 billion, which I believe is a very solid performance considering that we had to operate in a very difficult and challenging quarter. Yet we were able to reach a LIFO-based EBITDA of nearly PLN 2.5 billion. This shows that we are not afraid of challenges.
We can take challenges in stride, that 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. As I said, we have not put any brake on also M&A activity and M&A projects. These are all in progress and progressing as planned. I will develop on it later on. This is, as I said, proof that our foundations as a group are solid. Our footing is strong despite the fact that the petrochemical, not only petrochemical business, but also in general, gas and oil business, went through an unprecedented situation and problems, especially last year, especially the end of last year, in terms of the price of feedstocks. The price of feedstocks 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 in at nearly PLN 4 billion. In terms of investments, as I mentioned before, we have not put any brake on our investment projects, standing at around PLN 2 billion. In terms of our net debt at the end of the quarter, it stood at PLN 13.1 billion, going up year-on-year by PLN 400 million, so by a relatively slight amount or a small amount. We know that our debt financing continues to be the main source of financing, not only for our investments, but in 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 billion . I do believe that if we decided to push a little bit more, we could increase that amount for the ESG bond emission 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. Secondly, we found a very professional, very checked, and proven company to work with in terms of our wind farm project on the Baltic Sea. I'm talking about Northland Power, in Canada. We expect this cooperation and partnership to flourish. We also saw a decision by the European Commission in terms of our acquisition of PGNiG, a decision to move the process, the future decision-making process to the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Authority.
We also have a new project. We started to launch the new project called Orlen 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 hundreds of millions of PLN in revenue, if not billions. Other highlights of the first quarter 2021 included events related to ESG. We came first among certified employers in Poland in the Top Employer 2020 ranking for the eighth time running, as the only oil and gas company in Europe. We also received a distinction of the World's Most Ethical Company 2021, a very prestigious ranking. We also acquired three onshore wind farms.
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 MW. In terms of our innovations, at ORLEN Asfalt, we started a special type of asphalt project, which will be characterized by the fact that it will leave a smaller carbon footprint. 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 Energa's EV charging stations to our PKN Orlen network, as a result of which we will soon become a leader in this area, and we estimate that we will soon have 400 EV chargers.
We see that the demand is growing, and the customers and clients are asking for it because their demand is going up, and we want to be a pioneer at the vanguard of this market, and I do believe this is doable and feasible. Before I move on to discuss our financial performance in more detail, on behalf of Daniel Obajtek 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 contracting coronavirus and COVID, especially in the last months. 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 said, year, in the very challenging year of 2020.
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 $3.9 per barrel versus the first quarter of 2020 due to a major drop in the refining margin due to lower consumption and lower demand for fuel due to COVID-19, but also an affected sentiment in the business in general and a number of restrictions and limitations in terms of demand, but also in behavior in terms of consumption around the world, as well as a lower differential for Brent and Ural crude. Increases in crude oil prices translated into higher costs 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.
The same applies for gasoline and also heavy fuel oil going down by respectively 11% and 21%. The PLN to EUR exchange rate was weakened, and this had a negative effect on the performance as well. In terms of the consumption data for fuels and also GDP, this is presented on slide number six. In the first quarter, we expected that our fuel consumption year-on-year will be lower across all our markets, which is obviously due to limitations on transport and consumption as the pandemic was evolving, and also closed borders. Not only between countries but also between regions, because we had certain regions, such as Warmia 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 second quarter, year-on-year, I do believe we will see a positive trend. We have already been seeing it in April. When you look at those tables and 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 restrictions and limitations were introduced. Slide number eight shows our financial performance. You can see that in the first quarter of 2021, we saw an increase in revenue year-on-year by 11%, due to higher quotations of both refining and petrochemical products due to higher crude oil prices, combined with lower sales volumes. This is obviously a natural trend to see. The lower the sales, the more affected, obviously, the margins.
We reported, as I said, PLN 2.4 billion in EBITDA LIFO. Going up nearly PLN 800 million versus the first quarter last year. Mainly due to consolidation of the Energa Group and the positive impact of it, the reversal of write-downs on inventories, NRV, the usage of historical layers of inventories related to maintenance shutdowns on our installations, both at PKN Orlen and also at ORLEN Lietuva. As well, the impact of CO2 contract valuation as well as changes in consolidation methods applied to Baltic Power. 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 inventories valuation, LIFO effect was at PLN 1.1 billion, which obviously affected our results.
Our financial result was down at minus PLN 0.1 billion as a 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 first quarter of the year was at nearly PLN 1.9 billion. Now we are seeing a number of positive aspects in terms of our debt 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 watchful eye at this very indicator. It is very important to us in the context of our new projects and financing sources. Slide number nine shows segment results, LIFO EBITDA by segment, and I will give the floor over now to Mr. Zbigniew Leszczyński to discuss the following slides.
Again, a very warm welcome to all of you. As Mr. Szewczak has said, we have just concluded a very difficult quarter in terms of our macro situation, 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, we are able to look optimistically into the future. Mr. Jan Szewczak 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 million year-on-year.
However, in the end, we saw a decline in the refining segment down PLN 190 million, 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. In a nutshell, this shows that this has been a very difficult time for the refinery business, not only for PKN Orlen, but across Europe and the world as well. In terms of petrochemical business, we saw a result at PLN 65 million, going down year on year, mainly due to negative impact of lower sales volumes, combined with positive macro effects and a reversal of write-offs of NRV. Power generation segment, which is another important segment for us.
We saw a 1.1 performance going up year-on-year by PLN 600 million, 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 the negative macro impact as discussed before, as well as lower sales volumes and also the acquisitions of provisions and provisions for CO2. In terms of the retail business, we saw a performance at nearly PLN 550 million 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 non-fuel margins. In terms of upstream, we reported PLN 14 million going down, mainly due to negative impact of hedging transactions 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 a decrease in EBITDA LIFO, mainly due to the positive impact of CO2 contract valuation in the amount of PLN 568 million, combined with a negative impact of higher labor costs. Let me now move over into more details on our performance by segment. Let me start with the refining segment again. In the first quarter of the year, the refining segment reported a loss at LIFO-based EBITDA at PLN 191 million, which is still a solid level because it was higher year-on-year compared with the first quarter of 2020. As 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 number 10, the main negative indicator is the negative macro impact, mainly due to a drop in middle distillates, the lower Brent/Ural differential going down by $0.9 per barrel, the strengthening of PLN against U.S . Dollar, and a 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 $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 effect stood at around PLN 400 million.
All in all, we reported a decline by 11% due to lower sales of gasoline, going down by 90%, diesel, 8% in 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, as we said before. On the next slide, we continue discussing the operational data for our refining business. The throughput was at 6.2 million tons of crude going down year-on-year, mainly due to the fact that we had to adjust the production capacities across all our refineries. We also had unplanned maintenance shutdowns in the first quarter of the year. At Płock, we saw lower utilization ratio year-on-year, mainly due to maintenance shutdowns of hydrocracking, VDU, CDU, and other units.
In addition, we also had certain technical problems on the olefin unit, and also we carried out works related to preparation of our petrochemical installations for the planned shutdown in the second quarter of the year. At Unipetrol, 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 PE3 unit. This was combined by a close down in the maintenance shutdown of the Kralupy refinery. At ORLEN Lietuva, 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 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 to asphalts. At ORLEN Lietuva, the decline was at 14%, mainly on the back of the decline of gasolines, LPG, asphalts, 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, all 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 first quarter of the year, the petrochemical performance was at nearly PLN 670 million, going up by 14%, despite the fact that the margin went up. 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 in margins on polyolefins, fertilizers, and PVC, as well as the weakening exchange rates of PLN versus the euro. 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 first quarter of 2021, we saw a decline in sales by volume in terms of petrochemicals, going down by 2% year-on-year, especially in terms of lower olefin 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 first quarter of the year, one of our group companies, Anwil, reported a LIFO-based EBITDA of PLN 93 million, 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 first quarter, combined with higher production of fertilizers and higher utilization ratio for polypropylene in Lithuania. This translated into a general sales volumes decrease by 2% year-on-year. In Poland, we saw a decline of 12% year-on-year due to lower sales of PVC, PTA, and olefins. This was combined with an increase in the Czech Republic by 12% 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 second quarter of 2020.
In Lithuania, we saw higher sales, at 20%, combined with the fact that we had no maintenance shutdowns, and the market was favorable for our petrochemical products. The next segment I would 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 PLN 1.1 billion of LIFO-based EBITDA, going up. I'd like to mention again, and this has been mentioned time and again by Daniel Obajtek, as Mr. Jan Szewczak mentioned before, this is yet again a proof that the acquisition of Energa Group was a very good decision, which reinforced our financial strength and our stability. This is the direction we will keep focusing on, and we'll keep following, strengthening our power generation muscle.
The results that we are showing right now prove that our decision was a courageous but well-grounded, and it was efficient and corroborates our assumptions from the decision-making period as we prepared to this transaction. This LIFO-based EBITDA was up by two-fold, 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 PKN Orlen alone due to the shutdown of the CCGT unit at Płock, 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 second part of the year.
The lower sales at PKN Orlen was mainly due to a maintenance shutdown for the CCGT unit at Płock, which should be brought back on stream in the beginning of June this year. Others include mainly the PLN 0.2 billion decrease or impact of the Energa Group results consolidation, a PLN 0.2 billion year-on-year change in the Baltic Power consolidation method, and, as I mentioned before, the CO2 reserves revaluation at -PLN 0.2 billion year-on-year. Let me now move on to the selected data, operational data for our energy business. The slides, as I said, is a proof that we have taken a good decision and that our strategy is solid and our forward-looking statements are well-founded. We are betting on zero low emission sources because right now we have nearly 60% or more than 60% of our electricity production from such sources.
In the first quarter, we generated 2.7 TWh of electricity, and also 1.32 terajoules of heat. Our production went down in terms of electricity, especially at PKN Orlen, down 20% mainly to the CCGT shutdown at Płock. 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 zero emission energy generation will 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 2% year-on-year, mainly due to increase in remote work during the pandemic. We also saw a noticeable trend of increasing capacity of renewable energy sources connected to Energa-Operator's grid. CO2 emissions in the first quarter of the year stood at 2.4 million tons. Other highlights of the first quarter included the fact that PKN Orlen 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 three onshore wind farms in the Pomeranian region at nearly 90 MW in terms of capacity, and all in all, we will have 353 MW of energy installed in wind power, and we will become the fourth biggest player in this market. The next segment I'd like to discuss is retail. In the first quarter of the year, the LIFO-based EBITDA stood at PLN 548 million, going down by 22%, mainly due to the volume effect on the back of the situation in the market, the pandemic. Sales volumes in retail stood at -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 non-fuel margins, they went up in Poland year-on-year, especially in terms of hot beverages and drinks and food. Same for Germany, and in Lithuania, they stayed flat. In the first quarter, 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 first quarter, we had 2,856 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 or 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 non-fuel offering is worth stressing. We had 2,229 coffee corners going up year-on-year. We are also increasing 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 102, and in Czech Republic 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 two hydrogen stations in Poland and 32 CNG stations in the Czech Republic. The next slide presents the next segment, our upstream segment. In the first quarter, the upstream segment reported LIFO-based EBITDA at PLN 14 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 17 million. In the first quarter of the year, we also saw a positive impact of hedging transactions going up by PLN 100 million.
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 boe 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. We now have 164 million 2P total reserves of crude oil and gas, and the average production in the first quarter stood at PLN 16 million. The CapEx was broken down into 80% for Canada and 20% for Poland.
In terms of our operations in the first quarter, I'd like to highlight the main milestones in Poland. After we commenced the production in the Bystrowice Miocene project, we started the startup of surface installation in the Edge project. We continue the development of the Tuchola and Bajerze fields based on the generation of electricity from nitrogen-rich natural gas. In partnership with PGNiG, we continued works, project and legal works for the development of the Płotki project at Chwalęcin, and we also continued administrative works for the gas field. We also continued drilling on the Bystrzyk-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 Koczała were continued. The Carpathian project, we had the interpretation of 2D seismic profiles, and we started also the cartographic works.
In Canada, we continued the works in the Ferrier, Lochend, and Kakwa area. Thank you for your attention. This will be all in terms of my detailed discussion of our performance by segment, and we will now go back to the financing muscle, and I'll now give the floor over to Mr. Jan Szewczak.
On slide number 21, gets us back to the cash flow and the financial data. In terms of our cash flows from operations, they stood at nearly PLN 4 billion, specifically PLN 3.9 billion, with the demand for working capital going up by PLN 300 million. You will see the breakdown in terms of our cash flow from operations. You will see the CapEx figure, but the CapEx at -PLN 1.8 billion. You will also see the PLN 3.7 million in terms of the net outflows from investments.
In the first quarter, we saw PLN 2.4 billion in LIFO-based EBITDA, the figure that makes us very proud. The LIFO effect was at PLN 1.1 billion and working capital at PLN 300 million and CapEx at PLN 1.8 billion. The spending on CO2 emission allowances and certificates at PLN 1.2 billion. You could only imagine what the figure would be like if we had bought them at market prices. We acquired them at EUR 24 and not at EUR 48, the figure that stands today. You can imagine what the burden for Polish companies is right now in terms of the energy restructuring process. Slide number 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 PLN 400 million, we are still on the safe side, and the indices in terms of our debt are stable and well-controlled, not only by PKN Orlen itself, but also by our auditor. Our net debt, at the end of the first quarter, stood at PLN 13.1 billion. 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 0.91 compared to 1.27 before. Of course, we had a relatively small increase in debt, mainly on the back on our high spending on investments at PLN 3.7 billion, as I mentioned before, and we have to also remember the fact that we had to pay for our leases and interests.
As you can see, however, and you will see on this slide, these are negligible. Not negligible, but that they're not very high, those figures. We're safe to say that our financing four sources are well-diversified, and we 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 the currency structure of the debt also reflects our currency exposure in terms of our operations. 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 first quarter, as part of our bond issue project, we had the next issue of our ESG-based bonds at PLN 1 billion, 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. 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 spending in the year, broken down into ORLEN and Energa, of course. We are planning to spend PLN 5 billion on growth and PLN 4.5 billion on maintenance. It is very important because for decades, for a long time, it was not watched over. 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, so as to avoid unexpected and unplanned maintenance shutdowns, which can obviously affect our performance.
The CapEx realized in the first quarter of the year was at PLN 1.8 billion, broken down into the refining segment, PLN 0.4 billion, and the petrochemical segment, PLN 0.5 billion, nearly PLN 0.4 billion in the power generation segment, PLN 0.3 billion for retail, and PLN 0.1 billion for upstream. The main growth projects realized in the first quarter of the year, in the refining business, we had the construction of the visbreaking unit at Płock, and we also had the construction of the propylene glycol at ORLEN Południe, in Trzebinia. The extension of the olefins unit at Płock in terms of petrochemical business was the key project. We're also extending the fertilizers production capacities at Anwil, and we're also constructing the DCPD unit used for the production of specialized fertilizers at Unipetrol.
In terms of energy, the apple in our eye, and for the future, as I said before, we have the offshore wind farm project on the Baltic Sea, which was launched, and also the modernization 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 eight new stations in the network. We closed new stations, and we modernized three stations, and we also opened new Stop Cafe, Star Connect locations, 11 of them were opened. The last section of the presentation will focus on our macro environment. I'll now give the floor over and back to Mr. Zbigniew Leszczyński to discuss the macro environment.
We have summarized the results of the first quarter of 2021, and we also discussed partially the macroeconomic environment that PKN Orlen operates in. I will now focus on the short discussion of our macro environment in the second quarter of the year, which has already started. I will present our perspectives and outlook for the second quarter in the context of the data we keep collecting for our business in general. This data make us optimistic. It makes us optimistic, we can say that quarter two 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 of our macro environment is the model downstream margin in the second quarter of 2021.
It has already been up by $3.6 per barrel quarter-to-quarter to $10.9 per barrel, mainly on the back of the higher differential, Brent crude oil differential, and also higher petrochemical margin. Moving on to crude oil price. It went up by $3 per barrel quarter-to-quarter to $ 64 per barrel, mainly on the back of lower sales of crude oil in the U.S. in terms of the price and in terms of inventory going down, as well as the 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 on average per ton, mainly on the back of lower inventories in the ARA business, and combined with imports from Asia, and continuing a low demand in Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crack margin on fuel, on gasolines, went up by 2% quarter-on-quarter, standing on average at $150 per ton, mainly due to an increase in exports to U.S.A. In terms of heavy fuel oil, the margin went down to $133 per ton, mainly due to high availability of HSFO in Europe and the inflows from Russia. The differential, Brent crude oil differential, went up by $1 per barrel to reach the average of $2.5 per barrel, mainly on the back of higher availability of competitive fuels. The petrochemical margin is record-breaking, going up by EUR 427 per ton quarter-on-quarter. 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 some more macro parameters, slide number 26.
Starting with Brent crude oil, we expect the crude oil price to increase in comparison with the average from 2020, mainly due to the forecast strong demand growth of fuels in the second half of 2021. In the period from March to mid August, we saw a record high growth in the global demand for crude oil, going up solidly to $69 per barrel. Around the end of February, we saw certain forecasts for the increase in global demand for crude going up by over 5 million of barrel per day. It is impossible to offset that effect without reduction of production with Saudi Arabia, which is expected to go down by 2 million barrels per day. We also expect that Brent crude oil will stand at $65 barrels per day.
Saudi Arabia's decision to maintain the unilateral reduction of production was a surprise for the market, combined with the increased benchmark, the level of $70. The third wave of the pandemic and restriction on economy and economic activity sustained the growth, we saw an effect in terms of the Brent crude oil price. In terms of the refining margin, we expect an increase in the refining margin versus 2020 as a result of economic recovery after COVID-19. We are mainly expecting in the second half of the year, and we have already seen certain signals from the Polish market. The refining margin still remains under pressure in terms of the production surplus, currently estimated at a level of 4.2 million barrels per day in 2020, 2025.
By end of the first quarter 2021, we saw production capacities being reduced and announced to be reduced, mainly in the U.S. compared to the rest of the world. In Europe, the actual and announced reduction applies only to five refineries with the capacity of around 400 day. We still are looking for the more reductions to be introduced. In terms of Brent crude differential, we are also expecting increases versus the previous year due to higher availability of Ural 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 EUR 800 per ton. Petrochemical business is obviously strictly correlated with the country's GDP, which obviously went down sharply due to the pandemic.
We are now observing very high margins on polyolefins as a result of limitations on supply, including poor macro environment in the refining business. 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 the prices, in terms of demand and supply. 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%- 8.7%. PKN Orlen will be able to take advantage of the possibility to reduce that ratio of the NIT to 5.7%. The costs will remain flat compared to our last year's costs. This is very good news and this is very good forecast for the future. We optimistically can look into the future, and we know that we can say that we'll remain generating solid results also in the second part of the year.
I believe we can now move on to the second part of the conference and the Q&A session. I'm looking at the questions received in the meantime, let's say that two 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 two 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 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 projects? This is one of the questions concerning the wind power projects. 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 PKN Orlen, it is very important. This is a flagship project for us, and we attach a great weight to it. As Mr. Szewczak 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.
We can bet that, even in the short term, it will increase and improve our financial performance. It obviously fits well within the strategy of building a multi-utility group and also a zero and low emission group. Therefore, we are focusing on this project. It is progressing as planned. It is progressing dynamically, and in December of 2020, we had a series of meetings with over 200 companies interested in cooperating in this area with PKN Orlen. This is a large-scale investment. This is a proof that 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 each segment of the supply chain.
We work dynamically, 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 project. However, we can give you an estimate. The entire project, Baltic Power project, should cost us at around PLN 10 billion. 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 plan to launch the construction of a wind farm project in 2023 and to finish it in 2026. To date, we have had two major milestones.
First of all, we signed a connection contract, a grid connection contract with PSE, we signed an important contract with our business partner, Northland Power of Canada, which, after having received an approval from the anti-monopoly office, was finalized at the end of March of this year. We started in Choczewo, geological land examinations and studies in order to review the area for the road of the connection, the future connection, in order to lay an underground piping leading from the sea into onshore stations. We also closed the preliminary studies in terms of the seabed, we're awaiting the environmental decisions. After we have received and secured the environmental decisions and permits, we will apply to have a building permit. I can add at this point that we're also conducting wind force measurements and windiness measurements on the Baltic Sea.
This data will be transferred and provided to our business partner, Northland Power. As Baltic Power, we applied to the energy regulatory office as part of the first phase of this project. 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 already received approvals, and we have already had two 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 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 Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, and also a question from Mr. Drabik.
What are the investments that you're 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. Daniel Obajtek had promised that there will be no changes?
Right now, we have secured legal opinions of renowned advisors 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: the transaction was in line with the laws of Poland, with all the regulations, upon receiving the approval and the concentration clearance.
We believe, and we are deeply convinced that the fact that the acquisition took place on the 1st of March of 2020, that was before the court issued a decision we have talked about before to suspend the progress of the project. We believe that this decision by the court is ungrounded, it does not affect our work, it does not affect the legality of the acquisition. Both in our opinion and our legal expert's opinion, the decision of the court will put no limitation on PKN Orlen in terms of our ownership rights in terms of Polska Press. Despite the fact that the ombudsman applied 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. 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 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 Obajtek, with the representatives of employees and trade unions.
It was a good meeting. I do believe that we have to be patient, but we feel to be an owner of Polska Press. You will see that we will manage Polska Press effectively. You will see for yourselves that the decision will have a great impact on our performance, just as Energa. You might remember, you surely remember, the reservations that a lot of complainers had. 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. 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 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. Zbigniew Leszczyński. Let me recap a question by Bartłomiej Sawicki, representing BiznesAlert.pl, with other questions concerning wind farms, offshore wind farms. Mr. Sawicki 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. Magdalena Skłodowska, representing the WysokieNapiecie.pl 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 discussed some of it in the presentation. Let me recap that information for you again and present it to you again. 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 PKN Orlen until 2023, and also one of the main elements of the plan for transformation of PKN Orlen 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 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.
All in all, yes, we will keep developing our footprint on the Baltic, expanding our footprint on the Baltic based 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 will keep developing on it. In terms of onshore projects, as we have discussed in the presentation, we have recently acquired one onshore wind farm, but we are also planning to acquire three more wind farms in the Pomeranian region with a total capacity of around 89 MW energy . After the transaction, PKN Orlen will have the total of 353 MW of energy in the wind power business in Poland. This will expand our footprint, both offshore and onshore, and we will keep doing it.
Obviously, we will take a watchful look. We'll keep taking a watchful eye on the opportunities in terms of more M&As, acquisitions, but we're also expanding our capacities. The one example is Kanin, 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.
Sawicki, representing BiznesAlert.pl, also asks about our assets in Canada. The question is very simple but very straightforward. Are you planning to sell any assets in Canada?
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 on this difficult decision. 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. Obviously, we want our assets to be the self-supporting assets, especially in the context of the mergers we are planning with Lotos and PGNiG. We need to make sure that our assets are sustainable and they're developing in a sustainable manner. I believe that only after the mergers, we could take a conclusive decision. This question is premature at this point. Let me stress again, we are analyzing it. We are looking on our upstream assets closely, and also in the context of the evolving situation around the world.
The question of PGNiG is also a question that should be asked because the public asks about it as well. I guess that we should develop on it as well. This is a very important issue for us 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, is a proof that this is a professional approach, first of all, and also it comes from the fact that the planned concentration will not in any way affect the competition outside of Poland.
In Poland, I believe that the best authority to take this decision is the office that we've mentioned, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, 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 competition clearance to merge with Lotos and PGNiG. I do believe that there can be no strong multi-utility 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 Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, to the president of the office, to clear the concentration.
This, I believe, will be yet another milestone for us after the acquisition of Energa and after the merger with Lotos. 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'm watching the time here, and this is why I would like to 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. Still, thank you very much for you to watch us online, to listen to us online. I'd like to thank to Mr. Zbigniew Leszczyński and Mr. Jan Szewczak, Members of the Management Board. Thank you very much and see you next time.