Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call of PKN Orlen. At our customer's request, this conference will be recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. I will now hand over to Mr. Konrad Wlodarczyk, IR Director. Sir, you may begin.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the conference call regarding PKN Orlen consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter 2020. The presentation that was mailed to you and is available on our webpage will be delivered by me and Michał Perlik, Executive Director for Finance Management. After the presentation, as usual, there will be a Q&A session, during which several directors from PKN Orlen will be ready to take your questions. As usual, I may say so, our Q4 result is always a good moment to summarize the whole year. Let's move quickly to slide number three to see how last year looked like. We may say that 2020 was definitely tough and challenging. COVID had a significant negative impact on the downstream margin, which decreased by, roughly speaking, 32% year-on-year to the level of $7.3 per barrel.
Lower demand for fuels had a direct impact on the crude oil throughput, which decreased by 4.4 million tons compared to the last year to the level of 29.5 million tons, which means that we utilized our facilities at the level of 84%. Sales amounted to 38.3 million tons, decreased by, roughly speaking, 12% year-on-year. Despite this, EBITDA for the whole year amounted to the level of 12.1 billion PLN. Of course, this is the result before impairment of assets, and this result includes also profit on a bargain purchase of Energa shares in the amount of 4.1 billion PLN. It means that all in all, it's a quite good result, which shows that only integrated and diversified concept is strong and resistant to macro fluctuations. Retail and energy generated record-high results, and PetChem significantly reduced the loss recorded in the refining segment.
We maintained our financial strength, which was confirmed by Moody's, raising its rating outlook from negative to positive and maintaining the rating at Baa2. We generated PLN 7.6 billion cash flow from operations. We realized CapEx at the planned level of PLN 9 billion. Our net debt at the end of Q4 was PLN 13.1 billion, which means that gearing was slightly above 30%, and the covenant net debt to EBITDA is 1.3. We also secured financing by signing a revolving credit facility agreement up to EUR 1.75 billion and issuing five-year corporate bonds in the amount of PLN 1 billion. Additionally, as usually every year, we pay the dividends to our shareholders. In these difficult times, we continued M&A processes that we have already started. In terms of LOTOS, we are involved in talks with potential partners to meet remedies negotiated with European Commission.
In terms of Energa Group, we took over almost 91% of capital. We are working on concentration application to the European Commission, and we are simultaneously carrying out due diligence process in PGNiG. We also acquired 65% of Ruch shares and initiated the acquisition of Polska Press. We have completed 100% of planned level of CapEx. We have started construction of visbreaking unit. We started modernization of HDS and hydrocracking installation in Płock. We continued works related to expansion of fertilizers production capacity in ANWIL, and we also selected a designer for an offshore wind farm on the Baltic Sea and at the beginning of this year, also industry partner. Start of this investment is planned as in 2023, and commissioning is scheduled for 2026.
We signed a letter of intent with PGNiG regarding potential cooperation in the construction of a CCGT plant in Ostrołęka and development of biogas plants. We also started process of selecting a contractor for hydrogen hub in Wrocław. In retail, as you remember, we introduced Orlen brands at foreign stations of the concerns, increased the availability of alternative fuels on our stations, and we are further developing the network of fuel stations in all our markets. 2020, market definitely appreciated our actions, so the chosen direction regarding the reduction of carbon dioxide emission by 2030, as well as our aspiration to achieve emission neutrality in 2050. PKN Orlen was appreciated by the Sustainalytics Agency, which raised the ESG rating for PKN Orlen. We took fifth place out of 86 companies from oil and gas refining and marketing sector. PKN Orlen won the first place among certified employees in Poland.
The company has been at the forefront of this prestigious ranking for 10 years. This year, we also received the Top Employers Polska 2021 from the experts and independent Top Employers Institute for meeting the highest global standard in the field of personal policy. For the next time in a row, we also awarded the best integrated report, and we received Polityka Golden CSR Leaf. I will go into the details of Q4 results starting from the macro environment. Let's move to slide number five. Macro environment remained demanding, I may say so, in Q4, similarly as it was in Q3. downstream margin was at the level of $5.4 per barrel, lower by $3.7 per barrel comparing to the previous year.
This was mainly the effect of a significant decline in the refining margin due to lower fuel demand, COVID impact, and lower BU differential. As a result of crude oil price decrease by $19 per barrel year-on-year, we recorded lower cost of our own consumption. Diesel and gasoline crack decreased by 71% and 44%, respectively, at increasing cracks on heavy fuel oil by 68% year-on-year. Operating results were supported by weaker PLN versus EUR. Next slide number six, shows GDP and fuel consumption. We may say that in Q4, we expect lower fuel consumption year-on-year, definitely, and it will be visible in all domestic markets, which is a consequence of restrictions in movement related to the ongoing pandemic in Europe. Lower fuel consumption is reflected in lower GDP dynamics, which is clearly visible on the graph. Next slide number eight. Financial results.
In Q4, we recorded a decrease in revenues by 16%, mainly due to lower quotation of refining and petchem products resulting from crude oil price decrease and also lower sales volumes. We achieved over PLN 2.4 billion EBITDA LIFO, which means increase by PLN 1.2 billion year-on-year, mainly as a result of positive impact of higher retail margins, reversal of write-offs on inventories net realizable value, consolidation of Energa Group results, and one-off effect of settlement of CO2 contract. Above effects were partially limited by negative macro impact, lower sales volumes, and higher fixed and labor costs. Positive impact of net realizable value in Q4 amounted to the level of PLN 358 million.
The impact of changes in crude oil prices on the valuation of inventories in Q4, LIFO effect amounted to -PLN 0.1 billion, which caused a decrease in reported EBITDA to the level of PLN 2.3 billion. Net financials amounted to the level of -PLN 0.3 billion due to negative impact of net effects differences, net settlements, and valuation of derivative financial instruments in interest costs. Taking all into account, in Q4, we achieved almost PLN 600 million net results, comparable results year-on-year. Next slide number nine, presents split of EBITDA LIFO by segment. Refining generated -PLN 145 million, decreased by PLN 0.4 billion year-on-year due to negative effect of macro deterioration and lower sales volumes, limited by positive impact of inventory revaluation and lack of provisions for inventory shortages created in Q4 2019.
Petchem, PLN 0.5 billion, increased by PLN 331 million year-on-year, mainly due to positive impact of macro and higher sales volumes. Energy, PLN 1.1 billion, increased by PLN 730 million year-on-year, mainly due to positive impact of the consolidation of Energa Group results and penalty from GE and positive impact of macro and sales volumes. Retail, almost PLN 830, increased by PLN 242 million year-on-year due to positive effect of higher fuel margins limited by lower sales volumes and lower non-fuel margins.
Upstream, PLN 50 million, increased by PLN 17 million year-on-year as a result of lack of provision for tax liabilities created in Q4 2019 and savings in overheads and negative macro effect and lower sales volumes. Corporate functions higher by PLN 267 million year-on-year, mainly due to one-off effect of settlement of CO2 contracts in the amount of PLN 382 million at higher labor costs and expenses to reduce effects of COVID. Let's go deeper into the details. Slide number 10, refining. Refining in Q4 was in reds, - PLN 145 EBITDA LIFO, which is lower by PLN 412 million year-on-year.
As you can see at the bottom of the slide, the main reason for this was negative macro effect of PLN 930 million due to decrease in cracks on light and medium distillates, lower BU differential by $1.4 per barrel, strengthening of PLN against USD, and negative impact of hedging transactions made on crude oil purchases and sales of products. The above-mentioned effects were partially limited by the positive impact of higher cracks on heavy refining fractions and lower cost of own consumption as a result of a decrease in crude oil price by $19 per barrel. Volume effect was circa PLN 90 million. We recorded a decrease in sales in the refining segment by 12% year-on-year due to lower sales of gasoline, diesel, LPG, jet, and heavy fuel oil.
Others include mainly PLN 0.4 billion effect of inventory revaluation and PLN 0.2 billion lack of provision for inventory shortages created in Q4 2019. Slide number 11 shows operating data of refining segment. In Q4, PKN Orlen processed 7.4 million tons of crude oil, which is 1 million tons less than in comparable result last year, mainly due to the fact that we had more maintenance shutdowns and we had also lower utilization of all refineries due to challenging macro and also lower demand for fuels due to restrictions against COVID. In Płock, lower capacity utilization by 7 percentage points year-on-year, mainly as a result of maintenance shutdown of CDU unit, hydrocracking, hydrogen plant and H-Oil, and reduction of capacity utilization of some other installations.
In Unipetrol, lower capacity utilization by 11 percentage points, as a result of lower demand for middle distillates and maintenance shutdown of CDU unit, visbreaking, FCC and PE3 installation. In ORLEN Lietuva, lower by 13 percentage points due to unfavorable macro situation. Going into sales split market by market. In Poland, lower sales by 7% year-on-year, including lower diesel sales by 2%, gasoline -6%, jet fuel -68%, and LPG -30%, bitumen -6% year-on-year. In the Czech Republic, sales decreased by 18% year-on-year as a result of lower sales of LPG -25%, diesel -16%, gasoline -24%, and jet -90%. In ORLEN Lietuva, volumes decreased by 15% as a result of lower sales of gasoline by 18%, jet -64%, diesel -10%, and bitumen -32%. Next slide number 12, Petchem.
In Q4, Petchem segment delivered over PLN 500 million EBITDA LIFO, which is almost three times higher comparing to the previous year. Positive impact of macro is circa PLN 190 million. The effect of higher margins on polyolefins and propylene, as well as weakening of PLN against EUR, partially limited by lower margins on ethylene and negative impact of hedging transactions. Positive effect of volumes, PLN 160 million due to higher sales volumes by 17% year-on-year, including increase in sales of polyolefins by 47%, fertilizers 12%, PVC more than 100%, at comparable sales of olefins. 30% of Petchem results was made by ANWIL, PLN 85 million EBITDA, and the result on the sale of PTA in the amount of almost PLN 100 million. Slide number 13 shows operational data in petrochemical segment.
In Q4, there was a higher utilization of PVC and PTA units in Włocławek and higher olefin production. In Płock by six percentage points and in Unipetrol by 15 percentage points. This translated into increase in sales. In Poland, we had higher sales by 13% as a result of higher sales of ethylene, PTA, fertilizers, and PVC. In the Czech Republic by 22%, mainly as a result of higher sales of polyethylene, launch of PE3, propylene, and PVC. Lithuania by 200% as a result of higher external sales of polypropylene. Slide number 14, energy. In Q4, energy generated over PLN 1.1 billion of EBITDA LIFO, which is nearly three times higher than in the previous year, mainly due to consolidation of Energa Group results in the amount of PLN 511 million and faster growth in electricity prices compared to gas prices.
In addition, despite the pandemic, we recorded increase in electricity sales volumes in Orlen Group. Others include above-mentioned impact of consolidation of Energa results, which are described in the supporting section, slide number 37, and PLN 0.2 billion of penalty from GE for not fulfilled contract obligations according CCGT in Włocławek and lower variable costs, so cheaper natural gas. Let's move to selected energy segments data, so slide number 15. This slide confirms that we are focused on developing low and zero-emission energy sources. In Q4, Orlen Group, including acquired Energa Group, produced more electricity by 10% due to favorable macro conditions for gas-fired units, hydropower and wind power. Total production amounted to 3.3 TW hours, of which 70% comes from renewables and gas fire plants. Sales amounted to 7.5 and distribution to 5.7 TW hours.
As a result of consolidation, current groups' installed capacity is circa 3.2 GWs electrical, of which 1.8 GWs in Orlen Group and 1.4 GWs in Energa. CO2 emission from energy segment in Orlen Group amounted to 1.9 million tons. Data does not include Energa figures. Slide number 16, retail. Retail generated over PLN 800 million, which is higher by 41% year-on-year. In Q4, we recorded increase in fuel margins, especially in Polish and German markets, with comparable margins in the Czech and Lithuanian markets. Retail sales volumes decreased by 14% year-on-year, of which gasoline - 13%, diesel - 14%, and LPG - 21%. Non-fuel margin in Q4 was lower year-on-year on Polish market, especially in sales of hot snacks and beverages and Czech market, at higher margins in German and comparable margins in Lithuanian market. We expand our fuel stations network to increase availability of alternative fuels.
Currently, we have 212 points with alternative fuels, which means nearly two times more than last year. It's also worth to remind you that we are constantly support Polish economy through cooperation with Polish producers. Currently, around 85% of products available at Orlen fuel stations were produced in Poland domestically. Next slide number 17, shows operating data of retail segment. At the end of Q4, we were running 2,855 fuel stations, of which over 80% were equipped with non-fuel concept Stop Cafe. Number of fuel stations increased by 19 year-on-year. We opened new stations on all markets we operate in, except Germany. Due to drop in fuel consumption as a result of COVID, retail recorded sales volumes decreased by roughly speaking 14% year-on-year. Lower sales was observed on all our markets.
Market share increase in Czech and Slovak markets at comparable level in Germany and drop in Poland and Lithuania. It's also worth to highlight future dynamic growth on non-fuel sales. In Q4, another 109 locations were opened. At the end of Q4, we were running 2,290 coffee corners, which means increase by 145 year-on-year, and this includes 662 convenience stores. We do not forget definitely about the future trends. We have just connected 29 new fast chargers to the network, and launching next few is planned for the near future. At the end of Q4, our clients could use 167 chargers, almost 140 in Poland, 23 in Czech Republic, and seven in Germany, which means higher by 72 chargers year-on-year.
We have also two hydrogen storage stations located in Germany and 43 CNG stations in the Czech Republic, which gives us in total 212 locations that I've mentioned previously. Slide number 18. Upstream. In Q4, upstream delivered PLN 50 million EBITDA LIFO, which is higher by 52% year-on-year. This is mainly due to positive hedging transactions and negative macro impact resulting from the decrease of crude oil price, NGLs and higher natural gas prices year-on-year. We recorded -12% sales volume decrease as a result of drop in average production by 2,500 Boe per day year-on-year, of which -0.2 in Poland and -2.3k Boe per day in Canada. Slide number 19, some details regarding upstream segment. We have circa 190 million Boe 2P reserves of crude oil and gas. Average production in Q4 was slightly above 16,000 Boe per day.
CapEx in upstream spent in Q4 amounted to PLN 135 million and were split one-third in Poland, two-thirds in Canada. When it comes to operating activities realized in Q4, in Poland, among others, we continued works related to Miocen, Edge and Płock projects. At the end of December, a first fully operated by ORLEN Upstream, Bystrowice natural gas field commenced the production. Projects and legal works for development of Chwalęcin, so Płock projects are continued. In Canada, in Q4, there were resumed further development of the core production assets and related investment activities, including drilling of three wells in Ferrier and one well in Kakwa area. Technical consolidation of Strachan productive assets with Ferrier transportation and processing infrastructure created a consolidated area and resulted in significant reduction of operating costs through using our own infrastructure.
Pro-environmental activities conducted to reduce the greenhouse emission and meet all environmental requirements introduced by the federal and provincial governments of Canada, including, for example, limiting flooding and counteracting methane emissions. Now I hand over to Michal to describe cash flow and financial. Michal, floor is yours.
Thank you very much. Let's go to slide number 21. The group has generated PLN 1.6 billion of operating cash flow in the fourth quarter. EBITDA excluding LIFO effect was contributing PLN 2.3. We recorded increase of working capital over this quarter by PLN 0.9 billion. It was mainly related to decrease of payables, which was driven mainly by lower purchase of crude oil at the end of the year. Partially, it was offset by decrease of receivables, mainly driven by prepayments from our business partners as of the end of the year. Net outflow from investment was PLN 2.4 billion, out of which CapEx for fourth quarter was PLN 3.5 billion. It was offset by PLN 1.1 billion of total amount, including of acquisition of Energa shares, PLN 0.4 billion, net flows from loans, PLN 0.2 billion, recognition of rights to use of PLN 0.5 billion.
This is mainly related to leasing agreements for transportation means and perpetual usufruct related to new gas stations. Change in investment liabilities, PLN 0.6 billion. The net debt has increased over the last 12 months by PLN 10.7 billion. We have two big negative elements influencing this increase. The first one was acquisition of Energa. This transaction brought altogether -PLN 9.3 to net debt, out of which PLN 3.1 was related to payment for the shares. We also consolidating PLN 6.2 net debt related to consolidation of Energa Group on our consolidated balance sheet. We spent PLN 9 billion on CapEx in 2020. In a moment, Konrad will give you more details on this position.
We generated PLN 5.6 billion of EBITDA, excluding LIFO effects and profit on bargain purchase of Energa shares. Due to lower prices of crude oil and the products, we decreased working capital by PLN 2.2 billion over the 12 months compared to the end of December 2019. On the next slide, we are showing more details about our debt structure. We slightly changed this presentation. Net debt to EBITDA. This is exactly how we are calculating this for the banks, for the covenants. End of last quarter, this ratio was at the level of 1.32. As you might remember, the maximum bank covenant we have in our RCF facility is 3.3, and the maximum level set in our strategy is 2.5. We still have sufficient space in terms of indebtedness.
We also slightly changed the chart showing total net debt due to the fact that for the calculation of the covenant, we are not taking into account product limited recourse, product finance, and hybrid bonds. We are showing here the split for hybrid bonds and the rest of net financial liabilities. As you can see, end of 2020, we have altogether PLN 13.1 billion of net debt, out of which PLN 1.1 billion was related to hybrid bonds. In fourth quarter, we issue ESG rating-linked bonds domestically on the Polish market and denominated in PLN for PLN 1 billion value with five-year tenor. This transaction was very positively met by the market. We have over 2x subscription, and we achieved the lowest margin since 2008, 90 basis points over six-month WIBOR. No substantial change in terms of debt structure and maturity.
We are still working on our EMTN program establishment, and we expect, according to what we have announced in our strategy, to finish this process by the end of first quarter. That's all from my side. Thank you very much. I'll give voice back to Konrad.
Thank you, Michał. Now we are going to slide number 23. CapEx. In 2020, we realized CapEx at the level of 9 billion PLN, according to the plan, of which Energa Group spent PLN 1.3 billion. Over 30% of CapEx was dedicated to the refining segment and 20% for Petchem and Energy each, 50% for retail and 5% for upstream. Main growth projects realized in Q4 are in the refining, construction of visbreaking unit in Płock, construction of propylene glycol in ORLEN Południe. In Petchem segment, construction of units under petrochemical development program and extension of fertilizers production in ANWIL. In energy, preparation for construction of offshore wind farm on the Baltic Sea, modernization of TG1 turbine set in CHP in Płock, and projects in Energa Group focused on production and distribution. In retail, we opened 26 new stations, 11 closed, and six modernized.
We also opened 109 Stop Cafe or Star Connect locations, including convenience stores. The last section describe market environment. Slide number 25. Downstream margin in Q1 increased by $4.5 per barrel to the level of $5.9 as a result of B differential increase and higher petrochemical margin. Crude oil price increased by $5 per barrel quarter-on-quarter, with an average $55 per barrel, mainly as a result of worldwide vaccination program against COVID. OPEC's last decision to extend the current reduction in crude oil production to February and March, so 7.1 million barrels per day, and additional reduction in crude oil supplies by Saudi Arabia in February and March by 400,000 barrels per day. Drop in U.S. crude oil inventories to 480 million barrels and also high enthusiasm of investors for 2 trillion U.S. stimulus package.
All in all, this increased the crude oil prices I've mentioned the beginning by $5 per barrel. Diesel cracks increased by 3% quarter on quarter with an average $34 per ton, mainly as a result of reduced imports to Europe from U.S., Asia, and the Middle East. Gasoline cracks increased by roughly speaking 20% quarter on quarter average $85 per ton, mainly as a result of increase in export shipments to U.S. and West Africa and the decline in inventories in ARA region. HSFO cracks decreased by roughly speaking 30% quarter on quarter average, - $106 per ton, mainly as a result of lower demand for HSFO from Europe and the U.S., and increasing inventories in ARA region due to product inflow from Russia and Finland.
B differential increased by $0.5 per barrel quarter-on-quarter, with an average $0.6 per barrel, mainly due to higher supply of Urals crude oil imports in January and low demand on the European market. Petchem margin increased by EUR 44 per ton, average EUR 889 per ton, mainly as a result of the increase in polymer prices. Slide number 26, CapEx for this year. We're gonna spend slightly more than last year, roughly speaking, PLN 9.5 billion, of which PLN 7.7 billion in Orlen Group and PLN 1.8 billion of Energa Group. The largest CapEx we plan to spend in Petchem, circa PLN 2.9 billion. In the refining, PLN 2.6 billion. In energy, PLN 2.3 billion. In retail, PLN 1 billion. Tiny CapEx in upstream due to our cautious approach, PLN 0.3 billion this year.
The main growth projects this year are in the refining segment. Construction of visbreaking unit in Płock and construction of propylene glycol in ORLEN Płock. We are continuing the projects that we started in 2020. In Petchem segment, extension of fertilizers production in ANWIL, and also project of extension of olefins production in Płock and construction of DCPD unit in Unipetrol. This is the dicyclopentadiene which is a feedstock for the production of specialized plastics such as resins, rubbers, copolymers that are used in the paint, automotive, and shipbuilding industries. In energy, we're gonna develop a project for construction of offshore wind farm on the Baltic Sea, construction of PV farms in Energa Group, modernization of existing assets, and connection of new customers in Energa Group, and development of EV chargers network. We're gonna increase this network by additional 70 new chargers.
In retail, we plan to open 50 fuel stations, of which 30 own stations, and further develop non-fuel sales via 140 new Stop Cafe and Star Connect locations, as well as launching new products and services like, for example, parcel lockers. Slide number 27. Last slide. This shows our expectation about the macro in 2021. In terms of crude oil, we expect that Brent crude oil to increase in comparison to average from 2020, mainly due to effect of forecasted strong demand growth on fuels in the second half of this year as a result of vaccination program. From the beginning of the year, Saudi Arabia reduced significantly production of crude oil by 1 million barrels per day, limiting also crude oil excess on the market. Above-mentioned factors translated into increase in price expectation by roughly speaking $10 per barrel.
We expect that crude oil price in Q1 will be roughly speaking $55 per barrel, increasing till the end up to the level of $60 per barrel. As for margins in the refining, there definitely must be some adjustment to significantly lower demand, similarly to those that we saw on the crude oil market. We expect increase of the refining margin comparing to the average from 2020. This increase will be slow until global production potential will be reduced by roughly speaking 3.7 million barrels per day out of which half reduction in Europe, which may take, from our point of view, several quarters. We expect petrochemical margin to remain at circa EUR 800 per ton. Petrochemicals, of course, depend on economic situation, which is under the pressure.
However, in Europe, which is an an importer of many base petrochemicals, opportunities for local production have opened due to slump in the import. On the demand side, we expect increase in fuel demand that I've mentioned at the beginning as a result of economic recovery after COVID. In terms of regulations, national index target is set for this year at the level of 8.7%. However, PKN Orlen will be able to take advantage of a reduction of this ratio to the level of 5.7%. Moreover, it's worth to underline that since 1st January 2020, retail tax was implemented. That's all from my side. Thank you very much for the attention and we are ready to take the questions.
Thank you. We will now begin our question and answer session.if you have a question to our speaker please dial one and zero your telephone One moment please for the first question. We have the first question from Henri Patricot from UBS. The floor is yours.
Yes. Hello everyone. Thank you for the presentation. I have three questions, please. Two on investments and one on retail. The first one, I want to clarify on the CapEx outlook for 2021 and the PLN 9.5 billion. How much would we expect that to be in terms of cash CapEx for 2021? Because I know this was quite a bit lower in 2020, and I don't know to what extent some of the cash CapEx is slipping into 2021. Secondly, on projects. I was wondering if you could give us an update on the latest expectation for the startup of some of these projects such as the visbreaking unit, the increase in fertilizers production, and perhaps a sense of the increase in power generation capacity in 2021. Finally, just on retail, another very strong performance this quarter, primarily thanks to the higher fuel margins.
Is that something that is sustainable in your view? What should we expect for 2021 and the first quarter in particular? Thank you.
Thank you, Henri, for the questions. Mainly in terms of trading margins. Maybe just for your information, from the beginning of 2021, we changed the pricing formula for our fuel sales. Currently, we base the wholesale of fuels on the spot transaction. Currently, what we observe right now, trading margins are on the slightly higher levels comparing to the last year. In terms of gasoline, it's 8%. In terms of diesel, it's 2%. How it will develop during the whole year, it's hard to answer this question because we just finished January. However, this is definitely our intention to maximize the trading margins. In terms of CapEx, I confirm PLN 9.5 billion for this year. I don't know if I catch your question, if this let's say referred also to the CapEx that we provided in our strategy.
If yes, we said that on the yearly basis we're gonna spread an average PLN 14 billion. However, please bear in mind that the calculations is a little bit different because in strategy we also including this CapEx spendings, let's say investments on M&A. This, let's say, potential M&As are not included in the CapEx, let's say calculated here in the presentation. In terms of projects on the petchem side, you asked about the extension of fertilizers production. Everything is going according to the schedule. The project is advanced at the level of 30%. This year we're gonna spend, roughly speaking, PLN 0.3 billion. Also in terms of petchem projects, we gonna, let's say, kick off the project of extension of olefins production in Płock. This is one of element of this big petrochemical program development.
Up to PLN 0.6 billion is gonna be spent to this project.
Okay. A quick follow-up here on the CapEx question. I was actually asking to compare with the cash outflow for CapEx, because in 2020, I think it was PLN 7.6 billion to be compared to the number you mentioned of PLN 9 billion. I am wondering what we should expect with regards to 2021 cash outflow for CapEx.
Michal, probably speaking in 2010 to 2021, we expect that the cash outflow from related CapEx can be even more than today it is presented on the chart due to some advanced payments related to newly started investments that we are planning this year.
Okay. more than 9.5, if I hear you correctly?
Yes.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
The next question is from Michał Kozak from Trigon. The floor is yours.
Thank you. Morning. I have two questions. The first one, could you refer to your recent move to change wholesale formula in refining? How should it affect your results in the segment? The next question, do you plan other M&A transactions within media segment? What is your ambition? Thank you.
We changed the pricing formula due to the fact that, let's say the previous formula, which was based on plus quotation, plus premia, due to high fluctuations on the crude oil market, well, hard to predict. On the spot prices, we have better control on the sales prices. In terms of media-.
We're not planning such acquisitions in the nearest months.
Michal, are you online?
Yes. I asked, do you plan other M&A transactions within media? What is your ambition?
No, we just confirmed that we are not planning such acquisitions.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Ilda Khaziev, HSBC. The floor is yours.
Thank you. Hi, everyone. Just a quick question on the gain which you booked on the CO2 allowances in the fourth quarter. Could you please explain a bit in more detail why did you decide to postpone the purchases of the allowances, and basically also remind us how does it affect the financials? Is it part of the trading cash flows or it's also affecting CapEx management? Thank you.
Hello, Ilda. Michal speaking. Let me try to answer these questions. Generally, we are using forward contracts for CO2 emission allowance for our own use to secure the CO2 allowance, which we used to build a provision, which is further remission in April every year. Last year, we had around 15 million CO2 allowances in forward contracts with the delivery date end of 2022. In order to manage our liquidity position, our debt position, we decided to postpone the delivery of this contract partially till end of March 2021. It was related to around 10 million CO2 allowances, which we need to remission in April this year. The remaining 5 million we decided to postpone till December 2021. It will be dedicated to redeem in April 2022.
Far, because we were using these forward contracts for CO2 emission allowance for our own use, we were able to use let's call it IFRS 9 release or exemption, allowing us not to value the contracts on every reporting period. Due to the fact that this time we decided not to purchase the allowances on the settlement date, we had to treat this particular forward contract as a regular derivative and settlement it and present the result in our P&L. We recognized it as a one-off, let's call it one-off transaction. It doesn't have any influence on our cash flows because anyway, we recognize the same cash flow on this instrument. Doesn't matter whether we use this IFRS 9 exemptions or not. The main difference is that we didn't spend cash on purchase of this CO2 emission allowance end of 2020.
Instead of this, we will purchase them partially end of March 2021 and partially end of December 2021. We simply postpone spending of cash for this 15 million allowances. Due to the fact that postponing this purchase with closing this contract and opening new positions, opening new contract, was cheaper than the interest rate that we would pay when taking additional debt for purchasing this contract, we simply make this decision. It will also have one more effect in the first quarter in terms of our P&L. Because we did not purchase the contracts in December, we did not have a trigger to recalculate our CO2 provision with new weighted average cost of CO2 emission allowances. We will do it in March this year, and we estimate that this recalculation will be around PLN 350 million. From the accounting perspective, we should offset both elements.
I mean, the profit recognized this quarter and the increase of CO2 provision next quarter. We are not planning to, in the future, to further postpone the contract that we have currently open. We are in the discussion with our auditor whether we can still continue to use this exemption, a method of exemption. If yes, then we will not recognize such results related to forward settlement, CO2 forward settlements in the future.
Thank you very much for the explanation. Just one brief question. When you purchase the allowances, is that going to be part of the operating cash flow?
Yes, because this is the moment where we are paying for the allowances, of course, based on the price which was set at the opening of the contract.
I see. Thank you.
Thank you.
Before we start with the next question, here's a small reminder. If you a question please press zero and one on your telephone. if you ask a question please make sure you state your name and company. If you find your question answered please press zero and two The next question comes from Alexandra from VanEck Capital. The floor is yours.
Yes. Good morning, thank you very much for the presentation. I have two questions. First on CapEx. I was wondering if you could put next year's guidance somewhat in the context of your 2030 strategy that was recently presented. You had an average CapEx spend of around PLN 14 billion in that strategy presentation. Your current guidance for the next year is substantially below that average estimate. Can you perhaps talk a little bit about the profile of that 2030 strategy? Did you always expect to have a low start to CapEx and sort of increase that CapEx spend over the years? Is this a change? Did you reduce your estimate in the last few months maybe because of the effects of the pandemic or any other reason? If you could just talk a little bit about that, please.
Also maybe mention what your current plans are for the hydrocracking units at Lithuania Refinery. We haven't heard about that for a while. Another question that I had is on the market performance in January. Obviously in the fourth quarter, there was a slowdown in the market demand due to reduced mobility, as you said in your presentation. I was wondering if you could explain to us what trends you saw in January and whether the markets improved somewhat or whether the trends continued. Thank you very much.
Okay. Maybe I will start from the market and how it looks like and how much crude oil we're gonna spend. As I said during the conf call, the macro is still challenging. Definitely we will adjust the throughput to the demand and the macro. In Q1, we're gonna process, roughly speaking, 6.7 million tons of crude oil, which is equivalent of 78% of utilization ratio, including 87% in PKN Orlen, slightly above 60% in Lithuania and almost 80% in Unipetrol. Besides that, we've got some plant maintenance shutdowns of refining facilities, especially in PKN Orlen, like hydrocracking maintenance shutdown in February. In terms of volume, definitely a high number of COVID cases in Poland, and which means, let's say, reintroduction of some of restrictions makes a still huge pressure on sales volumes of fuels.
We may say that sales drop in Q1 year-on-year is comparable in terms of dynamics that we observed in Q4. In January, sales of fuels in Poland is lower by roughly speaking, 15% year-on-year, including wholesale drop by 13%, where we observe drop on the gasoline - 9%, diesel - 5%, and the jet fuel - 80%. In retail, we have got dynamics - 18% year-on-year, lower sales of gasoline - 15%, and the diesel - 20%. In terms of petrochemicals, we may say that sales is on the comparable level. Now, first question. CapEx spendings that we presented today, PLN 9.5 billion comparing to average that you calculated from the strategy at the level of PLN 14 billion. We confirm our strategic targets at this level.
However, as I've mentioned during the cons call, the calculation is a little bit different, yes? The CapEx in strategy includes M&As, yes? Potential M&As. However, the CapEx that we present in strategy is based on the memory also, it does not include any investment in terms of potential M&As. Therefore, there could be mismatch in the numbers. Of course, also we were preparing the strategy from the mid of last year. Currently, we've got a better knowledge, and we postponed a little bit some of the projects. However, everything still is going according to the schedule, so we do not change, let's say, our ambitious target of spending PLN 140 billion of CapEx during next 10 years.
If I may add something, please also bear in mind that two big investments which will substantially contribute to the CapEx in the nearest future, I mean, offshore wind farms and petrochemical development plan, including olefins, are in the preparation phase still in 2021. They will for sure contribute substantial amounts, but probably starting 2022, 2023.
The biggest projects we've mentioned on the slide. As you see on the slide number 26, you've got the main growth projects in 2021. You see that we're gonna spend PLN 9.5 billion, out of which PLN 5 billion is gonna be spent for growth projects. In the refining, we selected two projects. All the projects that you see on the slides has a value above PLN 100 million, or they are strategic from, let's say, our point of view, like, let's say, project for construction of offshore wind farms or development of EV chargers. This is a very, let's say, initial stage. However, they are very important from the strategic view. In the refining, if you look, you may say that both construction of visbreaking unit and propylene glycol. Roughly speaking, PLN 500 million.
Petchem projects, so extension of olefins, extension of fertilizers, and this new project, DCPD in Unipetrol, roughly speaking, PLN 1 billion. Energy, the biggest chunk, of course, is for the modernization of existing assets and connection of new customers in Energa Group. Roughly speaking, PLN 1.4 billion. Retail, PLN 0.5 billion, and Upstream, PLN 0.3 billion. If you sum it up, you've got PLN 2.28 billion out of, let's say, PLN 5 billion growth CapEx for this year. Roughly speaking, 60% is clearly explained.
Thank you very much. The question on the Lithuania hydrocracker, when do you plan to take a final investment decision on that one?
We are still analyzing this project. No final investment decision has been made so far. This is still under the national assessment.
Thank you very much.
I have our next question from Igor Kuzmin, Morgan Stanley. The floor is yours.
Hi, Said. First question is in regards to the timing of the potential completion of the LOTOS and PGNiG transactions. Are we still sort of potentially looking into the end of 2021, or has that sort of expectation around this timing evolved or changed? That's question number one. Second question is, apologies if I missed it, what sort of utilization rates in the refining petrochemical segments do you expect this year? Finally, I think it would be good to sort of understand whether your thinking evolved in regards to the upstream assets in Canada. Now that the commodities prices are higher, maybe it's a favorable moment to think about maybe disposing this as just sort of given your change in the strategy, maybe not. Just wanted to check to test the waters here. Thank you.
Hello, this is Jarosław Mol, M&A department. Thank you for the question regarding the LOTOS Group and the PGNiG.
Maybe let me remind you that in July 2020, we obtained the positive but still conditional decision of the European Commission on taking control over Grupa Lotos. During the next 20 months, we would like to fulfill the requirements regarding the remedies approved by the Commission. During the next six months, we should be ready to finalize the takeover. We still believe that it will be possible to finalize the transaction on Grupa Lotos by the end of this year. With regard to PGNiG, the first step we have to do with this process is to obtain the similar decision. We assume that we will be able to deliver the notification to the European Commission in the first quarter of 2021, and it is likely that the Commission will pass this decision to Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
In such a case, we believe that we will be able to complete also this transition by the end of this year.
In terms of utilization, it is hard to answer this question precisely. We may say that in terms of refining assets, it depends on the market situation. How the situation will develop, it means demand for fuels, margins, et cetera. As I said, in Q1, when we have got such a harsh environment, the throughput is even below seven million tons of crude oil, which is roughly speaking, below 80% of utilization. Last year, we processed 29.5 million tons, which was 84% of the utilization. If there will be, let's say, expected rebound in the fuel demand from the, let's say, second half of this year, definitely we will adjust accordingly the utilization of refining facilities.
In terms of petrochemicals utilization, we may expect that the utilization of petchem assets will be slightly lower year-on-year because in the second quarter, we are planning a big maintenance shutdown of PKN Orlen petrochemical assets, including olefins, metathesis, polyethylene units and polypropylene in BOP PVC. All this will last almost the whole quarter and definitely significantly decrease the utilization of petchem units. Of course, we also have some plant maintenance shutdown of PX PTA units in the middle of Q3 and Q4. From this point of view, you should expect that utilization of petchem units should be lower than in 2020.
Regarding your question on upstream, your strategy. Regarding our strategy, one of our goals in upstream is maximizing value from upstream assets and upstream production, and especially regarding Canada, we assume that production in line with the self-financing logic. In this area, we face a significant change of our portfolio after the merger with LOTOS and potentially with PGNiG. Our strategic logic behind any moves in upstream portfolio are gathered after acquisition of LOTOS and PGNiG. We first want to merge upstream portfolios of our three companies and then decide whether to divest something or not.
Thank you very much. Very helpful.
We have the next question from Piotr from Citi.
The first one would be on offshore. When do you expect to find out the price you will be getting for these assets? What is the condition of your partner? If he doesn't like the price that you negotiate with the government, how does this look like from the perspective of the partner? Second, on the pricing, I would like to go back a little bit to this changing of a formula that you apply for the kind of a pricing based on the spot market. If you were to backtrack it, what would be the impact on the segmental results for the last year? Basically, which way it will shift the result? I still don't get it based on the answers you provided. Third question, I wanted to ask you about the parcel package program.
We've just seen the IPO of InPost valuing the simple parcel at a very significant amount of money. What is your ambition to make in this space? How many points you already have? Can you provide any financials as to how much this shipping parcels business can provide to you? As the last question, on this acquisition of a media, can you provide any numbers? How much you paid for it, how much it makes, how many people it employs? Anything on this, whether it is really business or politics, would be helpful. Thank you.
Hi, Piotr. Konrad Wlodarczyk speaking. In terms of trading margins, as I said at the beginning, all the yearly contracts with our key customers are currently based on the spot formula instead of, let's say, quotations plus premium that we've got in the previous years. Of course, as I said, this definitely mitigates the risk of big fluctuation in crude oil prices. Of course, our main goal is to maximize the margin as usual. Definitely it should be better reflected in the results of refining segment.
Okay. Can we talk about this offshore project?
This is Krystyna Urbanska speaking from Energa. Could you please repeat the question regarding offshore?
Yes. What is the price do you expect to get, and when we will find out what is the conditions and, we can then try to get the view on what is the IRR you achieve, and what is your partner view on the potential IRR? Is he just a side party or he has something to say, so at certain level of return, he will not participate in the project?
Okay. Right now the discussions regarding the price, the CfD price, are being taken in the government. We are, of course, part of the discussion, but we cannot reveal any information regarding that. We are waiting for the public information from the government. With respect to the IRR expected by our partner, this is confidential information. However, you should note that we are going to develop the project and implement the project, the Baltic Power project, together with the partners. Their expectations also count in the project. Yes. The operating decisions will be taken together with the partners. We cannot reveal the expectations of the IRR for that.
Okay.
Anything else?
I wanted to ask you about this parcel package business. How big is it at the moment for you? I know you can pick up a parcel in any of your locations, but are you including Ruch in it as well? Will you combine it? How many parcel boxes you will put in, and what kind of traffic can you generate on the back of it? Any details would be helpful.
Yeah, of course. As you already said, we offer parcel pickup possibilities at our stations already, at all of CODO station retail network in Poland. As well, Ruch offers the same possibility at Ruch outlet. The missing element of this offer is the parcel machines network, which we plan in our strategy and we plan to develop in next quarter. As we announced, we plan to put about 2,000 parcel machines in the network at the locations either at our petrol stations or close to Ruch outlet or in other third-party stations. We already negotiate cooperations with e-commerce platforms or e-commerce specialists, but at the same time, we work on developing our own e-commerce platform connected with our offers and with offer of retail program. I think that's it. We can share today. We will update you about the progress of the project live.
Okay. Hello? We have no further questions.
We now received another question. It is from Robert Maj of IPOPEMA Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes. I would like to follow up on the offshore program. What kind of CapEx do you expect for this 1.2 GWs, which you plan to build? Recently, I guess one of the representatives was saying that this will be above PLN 10 billion. I just wonder whether this would be closer to PLN 10 billion, PLN 15 billion, or even higher. Coming back to the price per MW hour, what kind of price is it justified to cover all your costs and cost of capital, et cetera, to make the project economically viable? Would you consider abandoning the project in case the maximum price announced by the regulator, URE, is not sufficient? Thank you.
Mr. Włodarczyk, we can't hear you at the moment. Maybe you're still on mute.
Hello? Can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Okay. I just asked the question. Was it hearable for all of you guys?
It was, maybe we have a problem in the line of Michał Włodarczyk. Just a second, please. The conference will continue shortly.
Okay, cool. No problem.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, the conference will now continue. Please go ahead.
Piotr, we are not sure if you heard all our answers, because we went silent from some time. If you could just confirm what.
Yes, I did not hear the answer. I heard the answer about the parcel, and then you didn't answer the question about this Polska Press acquisition, whether you can provide any details on the amount of money you paid for this business, how many people it employs, and what is the financial position of this company.
Okay. Basically, the transaction hasn't been settled yet, so we're still in the process, so we cannot provide such information at this moment. If you ask about the conditions of this company, well, we also can't share with you the results for 2020, but their results for 2019 are available in KRS, so you could probably, or you already did, check it out. For example, the revenues of this company for the 2019 were almost PLN 400 million. From our perspective, it is a very healthy company. It fits perfectly with PKN Orlen plans regarding the e-commerce market and the improvement of retail customer satisfaction and development of non-fuel new formats and sales, just what actually Strategy Director, Karol Wolff, told you about a question ago. This group portfolio includes somewhere around 500 online sites. It will perfectly fit our needs.
If we're trying to build it from the scratch, it would take a lot of time and money. This was quite a bargain for us. We also identified many synergies regarding this transaction. For example, we can cut the cost of our Sigma BIS marketing activities. We can increase the attractiveness of this acquisition by using their printers and storage houses for our internal needs. Also, their client base is approximately 17.4 million internet users, and this perfectly fits our needs regarding the e-commerce business that we are going to present in the future.
We also plan to use this potential to promote the development of e-commerce services asset, but also increase the effectiveness of the marketing budget, which means cost savings for PKN Orlen by, for example, being able to redirect some of the local advertising expenditures or reduce the printing by external entities, which generate some additional margin for us. All in all, we have identified over 30 synergies. I just gave you a few main synergies, as long as this transaction hasn't been settled
Which we cannot actually provide with any more information.
Next quarter, I can ask you about the price.
I'm not sure if you will be able to ask us about the price, because the transaction may be confidential.
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome.
Thank you. We now go to the next question, Robert Maj of Provera Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Yes. Thank you. I'd like to come back to this offshore topic. What kind of price in MW per hour do you see justified to cover all your costs and the cost of capital to make it economically viable? In case the price published by the government is not sufficient, do you consider the possibility of abandoning the project? This is number one. Number two, one of your representatives were speaking over the media, a few days ago about the CapEx, and this was above PLN 10 billion. Can you confirm the number, whether this is closer to 10 or PLN 15 billion? What kind of number can we expect here? Are you going to pay also for the grid connectivity to PSE or are they going to buy it back from you? How does it look like? Thank you.
Okay. Justyna, you're online.
Okay. To start, the price, the CfD price for offshore, I believe that EUR 80 per MW hour is the number which is going around the market, and we think that this is a reasonable price. However, it doesn't mean that if the price would be below EUR 80, we won't continue the project. We will have to optimize the project such that it has a reasonable IRR. This is the first question. The second question, was about CapEx. Is that right? Could you repeat the second question?
Yes. What kind of CapEx do you expect to spend on your offshore wind farm? This is one spot, 2 GWs. What kind of numbers are we speaking about?
Okay. The CapEx will depend on the final capacity of the wind farm. Because as you know, as far as we know, the 1.2 GW is the maximum capacity for the wind farm. We are analyzing what should be the optimum capacity. This will also depend on the CFD price. We are waiting for the CFD price to finally decide what will be the capacity. Another information still needed for deciding about the capacity are the ongoing research that we are doing for the wind farm. If the capacity is actually close to 1.2 GW, then we expect the CapEx above PLN 10 billion, but it can be a little lower than that, if the capacity is somewhat reduced. It all depends on the final capacity of the wind farm.
Sure. Understood. Just wonder if the capacity is really 1.2, you mentioned it's above PLN 10 billion. Is it rather PLN 15 billion or is it just above PLN 10 billion? Just what kind of range are we speaking about?
Just above PLN 10 billion.
Just above PLN 10 billion. Okay. What kind of way of financing of this project do you expect, in terms of debt ratio, debt-to-equity ratio and PFR? You mentioned over media recently that PFR may support this project. What kind of support could you really expect from, I don't know, PFR in this case?
This subject will be discussed with our partner, as soon as the partner is on board, because we have signed an agreement with the partner last week. However, we still need to get the antitrust clearance. We expect that the partner will be on board probably in April or something like that. All the discussions regarding financing the offshore wind farm will be done with the partner.
Our partner has considerable experience in non-recourse project finance. We think this is a good start for our discussions regarding the financing of the wind farm. It is too early to provide you with the details.
Maybe Justyna Bizun-Maja will let me help a bit, speaking that also on our side, limited project finance is probably a preferred way of financing this transaction. It's quite common way of financing such investments, and usually around 70% can be financed via debt, if we compare other offshore investments financed with limited recourse project finance.
Sure. Thank you. One last question. When the majority of the CapEx would sort this project, you mentioned recently that PLN 290 million would be spent in 2021. What are the next step? Ultimately, the wind farm is going to be ready closer to 2030, right?
We expect to start the construction in 2023. The biggest capacity is expected in 2024, 2025. Yes. This is the timeline. We expect to start operation in 2026.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Sarah Neil, for the questions. I would like to hand back to you.
Thank you, operator. Thank you for your kind assistance. If there are no more questions, I think that we can conclude and, let's say, end our call. Thank you very much for being with us. All the best, and goodbye.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your attendance. This call has been concluded. You may disconnect.