Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR Stock price
Compare with Peer Group
📊 Peer Group
📈 What is it?
The peer group consists of the companies with the most similar business model. They serve as a benchmark for putting a stock into context.
🧮 How is it selected?
Based on similarity of business model, meaning companies from the same industry with comparable products and a similar customer base. That's the only way to compare apples to apples.
🏛️ Why does it matter?
Whether a stock is cheap or expensive is best judged by comparison. A P/E of 18 or an EV/FCF of 20 can look cheap or expensive depending on the yardstick. The peer group gives you the most accurate one: companies with a similar business model that operate under the same conditions.
🎯 What does it mean for investors?
When a metric sits below the peer average, the stock is valued more cheaply relative to its competitors, and above the average more expensively. A discount to the peer group can be an opportunity, but it can also have a reason (for example lower growth). The comparison is a starting point, not a verdict.
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $133.26b | Revenue (TTM) = $96.71b
Market Cap = $133.26b | Estimated Revenue = $118.86b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $196.19b | Revenue (TTM) = $96.71b
Enterprise Value = $196.19b | Forward Revenue = $118.86b
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF)
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF shows how many years it would take for a company to "pay back" its enterprise value using its free cash flow.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It focuses on real cash generation, ignoring accounting noise — ideal for assessing profitability and value based on liquidity, not earnings.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF may signal undervaluation and strong cash generation.
- A high EV/FCF might reflect weak recent cash flow or aggressive growth expectations.
- Best suited for stable, mature businesses with predictable free cash flows.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Dividend per Share (DPS)
📈 What is it?
Dividend per Share shows how much cash a company pays out to shareholders for each share they own – usually on an annual or quarterly basis.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
DPS is the absolute value of the payout per share – crucial for income-focused investors and dividend strategies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable or growing DPS often signals a strong, shareholder-friendly business.
- DPS alone doesn’t tell you how attractive the payout is – the stock price also matters (→ see Dividend Yield).
- Long-term dividend growth is often a hallmark of high-quality companies – like the dividend aristocrats.
📘 Dividend Yield
📈 What is it?
Dividend yield shows how large a company’s dividend is in relation to its current share price.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It allows investors to compare dividend payouts across stocks, regardless of price or payout size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A stable yield can reflect reliable distributions.
- Comparing 1Y and 5Y yield shows whether dividend growth keeps pace with stock price appreciation.
- A low yield isn’t always negative – it can signal strong past performance or growth focus.
📘 Dividend Growth
📈 What is it?
Dividend growth shows how much a company has increased its dividend per share over time.
🧮 How is it calculated?
5Y: Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)
🏛️ Why is it important?
Consistently rising dividends are often a sign of financial strength and shareholder orientation – especially relevant for long-term investors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stable dividend growth is a sign of sustainable earning power.
- High dividend growth can significantly boost your total return:
- If a company pays $1 in dividends and increases it by 15% annually over 5 years, you’ll receive $2 per share in year 5 – twice as much as at the start!
📘 Payout Ratio
📈 What is it?
The payout ratio shows what percentage of a company’s earnings (per share) is distributed to shareholders as dividends.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess whether the dividend is sustainable – especially in relation to the company’s profitability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low payout ratio means the company retains more earnings for reinvestment – typical for growth companies.
- A moderate payout (e.g. 25–50%) indicates a healthy balance between returns and reinvestment.
- High payout ratios may seem attractive but can carry risk if earnings decline.
📘 Consecutive Dividend Increases
📈 What is it?
This metric shows how many consecutive years a company has raised its dividend per share – without any cuts or pauses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(Special dividends are not considered.)
🏛️ Why is it important?
A long track record of increases reflects financial strength, consistency, and shareholder commitment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A long dividend increase streak builds confidence – especially in volatile markets.
- Such companies are seen as reliable and income-friendly investments.
- The longer the streak, the stronger the company’s dividend discipline.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow shows how much actual cash remains after a company covers its operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s real financial strength – regardless of accounting profits. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow means the company generates real, usable cash – independent of reported net income.
- It’s often the most reliable base for sustainable dividends and buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be an early warning sign – even when profits appear stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free cash flow margin
📈 What is it?
The free cash flow (FCF) margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as actual free cash after covering all operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This margin reflects the true liquidity generated by the business – independent of accounting rules or depreciation. It’s especially relevant for dividends, buybacks, and reinvestment decisions.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high FCF margin means a company consistently generates strong cash flow.
- It’s a positive signal for financial stability and shareholder returns.
- The long-term trend is key – a declining margin may indicate rising investments or weakening operating efficiency.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Turnover per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
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Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
18 Analysts have issued a Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR forecast:
Analyst Opinions
18 Analysts have issued a Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR forecast:
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR Events
Past Events
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AUG
7
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about one month ago
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MAY
12
Q1 2026 Earnings Call
4 months ago
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MAR
6
2025 Earnings Call
7 months ago
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NOV
28
Petrobras - Special Call - Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras
10 months ago
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NOV
7
Q3 2025 Earnings Call
10 months ago
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Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good afternoon, and welcome to Petrobras' webcast with analysts and investors about our second quarter 2026 results. It's a pleasure to have you with us today. This event will be presented in Portuguese with simultaneous interpretation into English. Links for both languages are available on our Investor Relations website.[Operator Instructions]
Joining us today are Magda de Chambriard, the President of Petrobras; Angelica Laureano, Executive Officer for Logistics, Commercialization and Market; Clarice Coppetti, Executive Officer for Corporate Affairs; Fernando Melgarejo, Chief Financial and Investor Relations Officer; Renata Baruzzi, Executive Officer for Engineering, Technology and Innovation; Ricardo Wagner, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer; Sylvia Anjos, Chief Exploration and Production Officer; William Franca, Chief Industrial Processes and Products Officer; and William Nozaki, Acting Executive Officer for Energy Transition and Sustainability.
To begin with, I will hand it over to our President, Magda de Chambriard, for her remarks. President, please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you today to demonstrate once again Petrobras' capacity to surpass its goals and deliver impressive results to our investors, be they from the public or private sectors. We have the full Board of Petrobras with us, and I'd like to take the opportunity to greet all investors, all of the representatives of our investors, all of the executives that are in this session with us and our partners and everybody that joined us remotely for the disclosure of our second quarter 2026 results. Also, I'd like to greet everybody from the press joining us.
We become increasingly prouder of our results. It's a pleasure to be here once again joined by you to once again present another result that surpassed the previous ones, a result of our intensive work with our diverse teams working in a partnership to deliver an increasing amount of oil, gas and byproducts with security, quality, efficiency and capital discipline.
In the first quarter of 2026, we reached several records. And in the second quarter, we surpassed them with important milestones once again. We reached -- and I must highlight this, we reached the highest net profit on a recurring basis for the quarter in dollars in the history of Petrobras. This recurring profit excludes exclusive events. And it's also the highest gross profit in the history of Petrobras. And we're proud to say that we achieved those results with no sales of assets. Of course, Brent above USD 100 per barrel strengthened our results, but the highest results achieved are the ones that we will go over now.
The recurring only events was not with history's highest Brent. We had over 10 quarters with oil prices above that one in the past. And nonetheless, we achieved the highest recurring results in terms of net profits in the history of Petrobras. Our key differentiator, which we're proud of is operational administration, which is shared with the company's several different departments. Operational records in terms of the production of oil, gas, refining and selling of products. That's been our commitment. In the quarter, we produced 2.7 million barrels of oil per day in addition to gas. If we consider in equivalent barrels of oil, it was more than 3 million barrels per day. We can't promise that we will surpass our goal, but I guarantee that we've always worked towards that, surpassing our goals.
In the second quarter of 2026, our goal was to produce 2.5 million barrels per day. We surpassed the goal of the second quarter by 200,000 barrels of oil per day. That's due, among other factors, to increased efficiency in the production of platforms and also by pushing forward the delivery of projects. You probably remember that we pushed forward the delivery and the ramp-up of P-78 as well as the delivery and the ramp-up of P-79. Other platforms will come. Some of them are already arriving this year. And once again, I'm going to repeat that. We will move forward the delivery of big projects.
With greater volumes, we also increased our oil export levels with an additional 12% in this quarter. And these sales become greater revenue and cash generation. And here, I must make a side note, the highlight in addition to the work involved in production and the engineering work involved in these projects, the participation of refining by refining and teaching our buyers to further and further refine our oil and to further value our product and also with the participation of logistics at Petrobras with the intent of broadening the market for our end product, which is oil was impressive. And once again, it was these events and the joint work of all departments of Petrobras dedicated to the same purpose and the same goal that allowed us to achieve these great results.
Our bigger generation of revenue and cash flow will be used to fund our investments and safely prepare us for the future of the company. The cash flow that's being generated today will be used to fund Petrobras' growth. And I'd like to say that just like the company was successful in its first 72 years, we are preparing the company to successfully take on the following 72 years.
The refining teams, in addition to production and engineering did a great job. The utilization factor of our refineries surpassed 100% in the second quarter of 2026. And here at the company, we got into the habit of saying that goals are for the weak of heart. Petrobras is proud to always surpass its goals. We've increased the processing, maintaining the same diesel yield and gasoline, which is equivalent to greater revenue for Petrobras and a greater value to our shareholders, be they public or private without losing sight of capital discipline. The production of byproducts grew 6% vis-a-vis the previous quarter. And with that, we were able to reduce imports by 40%, especially those of diesel. We do what we have to do. We are doing it. We've elevated operating efficiency, and we've produced way beyond the original capacity in 7 platforms. We've also increased the utilization factor of refineries as a whole, of course, with safety first.
The Brent price and the exchange rate is not something we can control. We don't know where they'll go. And that's why we invest with capital discipline, prioritizing projects of high returns. All of our investments involve rigorous governance for approval to verify the attractiveness and the return for our shareholders, be they from the public or private sector and at the same time, to deliver value to society. Once again, be they comprised by our public or private shareholders and respect the governance, and we need to reiterate that every day is a pillar of our administration. We will continue focusing on our business plan, which is well known to all of you, with the commitment to deliver to society a Petrobras that's profitable and absolutely relevant to our country.
I will now give the floor to our CFO, Fernando Melgarejo, who will dive into the details of the second quarter of 2026. And I want to thank you for listening to us. Thank you all for your presence.
Thank you, President. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for this webcast for the results of the second quarter of 2026. I also want to greet everybody that's here at the headquarters of the company. As we said, we had a quarter of record operating performance, which drove Petrobras to one of its best financial results in history, which are deeply anchored in the good operating performance. And once again, I have to highlight that, that was a major step forward where we were able to manage and also at the same time, we are able to evolve in the best possible manner, which is one of the highlights of this administration, the search for increased oil production, production efficiency, accelerated ramp-ups that are also part of the records that we've been bringing to the company. If it were not for that, we wouldn't have achieved the financial records. Financial records are firmly anchored in the operating records of the company.
Now let's move forward to Slide 3. Our oil production, as the President already said, was 2.7 million barrels per day, a 15% increase over 12 months, which is equivalent to 350,000 additional barrels. If we compare this period to the same previous period, approximately three platforms producing additionals in only 1 year. And as a reminder, last year, we also had records in the third quarter, it was an additional 4%. And that's quite relevant. And we were always wondering where we would get to, and now we can demonstrate with our production we are reaching our goals, surpassing some indicators as well.
Alexandre de Gusmao, for instance, at the Mero field is producing 100,000 barrels and P-78 at Buzios, 120,000 and both have the capacity to produce 180,000 barrels per day. That is to say that we have a greater capacity to achieve in addition to the record-breaking capacity, we still have some room to cover. When they're at the nominal capacity, we'll add another 90,000 barrels per day. And we also have the ramp-up of P-79, as I said, which started operations in May this year and has a capacity of 180,000 barrels. In summary, even with the record production of 2.7 million barrels of oil per day, we still have 270,000 barrels per day of capacity to ramp up in the second half.
Another highlight has been the increase in production of certain platforms beyond their nameplate capacities. The Almirante Tamandare FPSO in Buzios has an original capacity of 225,000 barrels, which makes it a large-scale platform. And the unit has reached a peak production of 270,000 barrels per day and is currently the highest producing platform in Brazil. It's a huge platform in a huge field with a very positive potential for the next years. In addition to Almirante Tamandare, we have another 6 platforms adapted to operate above their original capacity. Today, this additional capacity already totals more than 100,000 barrels per day, practically a new platform, a midsized or a large-sized platform, and we're working to continue to expand this potential.
The important thing is that we are increasing production safely, and we're doing that without the need for additional construction work, which allows us to increase revenue and cash flow immediately without the need for any additional investment. So it's only revenue without any investment, which is quite positive.
Now before moving over to the next slide, I'd like to highlight important news from this week. We announced a new gas discovery of gas in Colombia, which confirms the region's gas potential. Now this is a project which is aligned with our long-term strategy, which seeks to replenish reserves through exploration across new frontiers. So this doesn't mean that the Brazilian land is not our priority. Brazil still is our focus, but we are an international company, so we need to look across our borders as well.
So let's finally move on to Slide 4, talking about CapEx. In the second quarter of this year, as we can see on the slide, we invested $5.3 billion, up 4% over the first quarter when we had invested $5.1 billion. So overall, we have $10.4 billion over 2 quarters here at Petrobras. More than 80% of that investment, in fact, 82% is focused on E&P projects, focusing on increasing production with high returns for the company. We have a few examples here on the slide versus the previous quarter. We increased well drilling by 40% and 45% in well completions. Interconnections also increased by 43%, driven by the ramp-up of Buzios 6 and Buzios 8 as well as complementary wells, which helped to maximize the production for each production unit.
Part of the investment was also allocated to advancing the construction of new platforms in Buzios, such as P-78, P-82 and P-83. These are all huge platforms, each with nameplate capacity of 225,000 barrels. These are projects which offer high returns and rapid cash generation. And with P-78, we also expect -- rather P-80, we expect to hear positive news with regards to moving ahead of schedule, much like what happened to P-79.
So now over to Slide 5, talking a little about our products. In refining, we hit a record refinery utilization with a 101% FUT, increasing production by 68% of the yield mix and higher value-added products. In April and May, we came to about 102% FUT, a record for the company. We've been working with very low FUT rates. And another important point, usually when FUT increases, that's because we're focusing on lower value-added products. But in this case, we continue to see the same shares for higher value-added products with diesel, jet fuel and gasoline, which makes these even more effective refineries. As a result, we expanded the supply of our own products and reduced the need for imports, especially diesel, which we still need to import. We're essentially self-sufficient in terms of gasoline, and that's all because we have produced more. We also increased oil product output by 6% and reduced our imports by 40% versus the previous quarter. Again, this increases even more the company's efficiency and cash flow.
Another factor with a positive impact for us were our imports. Even though we were processing more oil, production was so much higher that refining has increased and our exports of Brazilian products also increased. We were already seeing high exports in the first or in the second quarter, but increased even more in Q3. -- My apologies. We just heard something from our civil defense, so we had to interrupt. But just jumping in now. We saw an increase by 12% in exports for the company. and reached very significant increase in our exports of oil, which improved our cash flow even more.
Moving over to the following slide, Slide 6, a little bit about our financial results. We can see our EBITDA and net profit. All of these operating records led us to one of the best results in Petrobras' history in terms of finances in terms of recurring net income and gross profit. As our President has already said, these were record-breaking figures. Brent prices were some of the highest, excluding, obviously, all the one-off events, Brent prices were above $104. But as the President has already said, was not the highest Brent price we've ever seen, not even among the 10 highest, which also shows that our operating efficiency was very positive. Even so, we achieved adjusted EBITDA, excluding one-off events of $20 billion this quarter, which was 70% higher than in the previous quarter and nearly double the figure from 12 months ago. Gross profit is not shown on this slide, but it was $19.5 billion for the quarter, the highest in the company's history. So another record-breaking figure.
All of that, as we keep repeating, anchored in our stupendous operating performance, which is what making the difference. The higher volume of oil and oil product production and sales combined with higher Brent prices has strengthened our cash generation with operating cash flow of $12.3 billion for the quarter, growth of nearly 50% when compared with the previous quarter. So these are very strong results. And I therefore, emphasize we did not have record Brent prices, but we did have record production, which drove our financial results this quarter.
Now moving over to Slide 7, a little bit about our debt. This year, we carried out a very important initiative to renegotiate contracts for recharters and well services. constantly monitoring the market to identify opportunities such as this one. The result is expected to generate an estimated cash flow savings of over $1 billion over 2026-2030, 5-year period, reducing our debt by over $400 million by 2030. This will lead to a significantly lower cash flow for the company, which will allow us to reach our goals.
Now because the amendments extending the contract terms were signed in the second quarter, we had to reorganize the value of these contracts and lease liabilities immediately. So these increase in the short term, but we reduced our future disbursements and cash flow creating value, and that's the key benefit. And that's how it has to work. Now on this slide, we can also see the increase in lease liabilities, but the reduction in financial debt offset the increase, as you can see in the third column. So this was possible due to our prepayments during the quarter. We repaid loans and financing totaling $2.9 billion, close to $3 billion, notably the prepayment of $1.4 billion in bank market transactions and the repurchase and redemption of $700 million in bonds issued in the international capital markets. Also during this quarter, we opportunistically raised about $600 million.
We, therefore, ended the quarter with gross debt of $70.8 billion and a net debt of $60.4 billion. Without the recognition of the lease contract amendments, our debt would have been at the same level as in 2025, which is what you see in the first column on the slide. Even so the trend is still downward. We maintain our expectation of converging to $65 billion over the horizon of this plan, a level that optimizes our capital structure.
Moving over to the following slide. Now looking at our forecast for the year. Here, we have a snapshot of how we're progressing this semester versus our projections, which were laid out in 2025 and presented in our strategic plan. Production has remained above the top of the range, and we're working hard to exceed the target. We'll deliver as much as possible, but obviously, there are challenges. Production is already at a very high level, but we're still committed to delivering as much as we can, especially this year when we have a very interesting price window.
With regard to cash investments, we expect to end the year at the top of the range. The projection is $16.9 billion with a 5% margin, give or take. And if we have to bring any investment forward, that will be because it will create more added value. And bring more value ahead of schedule for the company. Of course, we pursued bringing projects forward, but not bringing cost forward. We pursue delivery, but we do not want higher project costs. We are making the most to accelerate delivery without increasing them. Operating expenses are slightly above plan for this half of the year, pressured by higher freight and logistics, which lead to increased production as well as exchange rate effects.
So we totaled $11.7 billion in this half of the year versus a full year plan of $20.2 billion. We're monitoring the situation and expenses may exceed the projection if global market logistics costs and exchange rates remain at the same levels in the next few 6 months period. We believe that there will be less uncertainty in the next quarter. And if need be, we will revise the figures, obviously, with full transparency to all our stakeholders.
So moving over to the next slide about our collections. Here, we see an example of the positive effects that our improved operating results have on society at large. When we produce more, we pay more taxes. So we paid BRL 88.6 billion in taxes and government take in the second quarter alone, BRL 500 million to municipalities, BRL 31.5 billion to state governments, BRL 34.2 billion to the federal government and BRL 22.4 billion in government participation. Petrobras paid about BRL 22 billion more in taxes and government take versus the second quarter of last year. On an annualized basis, we're talking about an increase in government take in taxes of close to BRL 90 billion, additional BRL 90 billion for the government per year.
So now I conclude my presentation with the message that we're reaffirming our commitment to growing the company with profitability and responsibility when it comes to capital. Petrobras' success does not remain within the company. It is shared with society as a whole. Once again, thank you all for your attention. And alongside all our other executive officers and the President, we're available to answer all of your questions.
I will now hand it back to Eduardo, who will begin our question-and-answer session.
Thank you, Magda and Fernando. We'll now start our Q&A session. I kindly ask the participants to only ask one question, so that we are able to make better use of our time.
The first question comes from Bruno Montanari from Morgan Stanley.
2. Question Answer
Congratulations on the results, especially for the execution and production growth. And focusing on production, the President and Fernando already gave us an idea of by how much of the production could grow this year. But I'd like to see if it's fair to say that the plan curve in the medium and long term does not look very conservative, especially if you look at the highest peak of the curve, and it's at 2.6 million or 2.7 million barrels that you surpassed already. And in terms of CapEx and in terms of bringing Buzios' deliveries forward and the sequence of P-80 for the quarters and if there will be a ramp-up for the P-80 this year or not? I'd like to know that.
Thank you for your question, Bruno. We have to remember that we work with nonrenewable resources, producing 2.7 million barrels every day per day is a challenge. Especially because we have to face production declines. Nevertheless, these declines have been reduced. Just to give you an idea, when we took office, we were looking at a decline of 12% a year. Currently, this decline is in the range of 4% per year due to the better administration of reservoirs and the better water injection, adequate production methods, better deposit management and so on and so forth. And of course, with the new platforms arriving and the platforms that went into production recently and with the ramp-up achieving its peak, we will achieve the planned results and likely surpass them. However, surpassing results is something that we like delivering without promising anything previously.
With that, I'll give the floor to Sylvia and Renata. Renata will talk about the new platforms that will go into production. They're arriving soon in Brazil, they're leaving Asia and coming to Brazil. But I'd like to mention an important aspect. The first huge platform that's different from the previous ones that we had at Petrobras was Almirante Tamandare with a capacity of 225,000 barrels per day. That platform, as Fernando mentioned, produced 270,000 barrels per day. Its capacity has been expanded to 270,000 barrels per day, and it has produced that many barrels, which is to say that with the pre-salt production capacity with the production capacity of Petrobras by interconnecting wells and doing a better job of managing the deposits and drilling high productivity wells and connecting the platforms with all of that, all of these efforts led us to transform a platform and move it from a capacity of 225,000 barrels per day to a production capacity of 270,000 barrels per day, but that alone is not enough.
I should also say that in addition to those platforms, we have another three that will be arriving between this year and the next year. All of them of 225,000 barrels per day and all of them seeking to achieve 270,000 barrels per day in terms of capacity. So at the end of the day, that means 45,000 barrels per day times 4 or 180,000 barrels per day that are on top of the original ones as a result of Petrobras' efforts around surpassing its goals. So that's what we do. We do a better management of deposits. We do a better job of managing platforms with better efficiency, better platform design, leading to debottlenecking in giant platforms, and that's what we've been delivering and which combined leads to this increased production.
Well, we're talking about production, but we're doing the same thing in the refineries. I mentioned this and Fernando did it, too. The utilization factor of our refineries, which in the past would achieve 65% or 70% currently surpasses 100% with Petrobras' capacity or purpose to every day surpass its best results and deliver them to its shareholders from the public or private market.
Renato will talk about the stage delivery of the new platforms, and Sylvia will talk about the ramp-up of P-78 and P-79. Over to you, Renata.
Hi, Bruno. Good afternoon. So we'll talk about P-80, P-82 and P-83. P-80 and P-82, the sailaway is scheduled for the third quarter of 2026 and production will start in the second quarter of 2027. What we're doing now is we're working strongly towards bringing forward the production of P-80 to the first quarter of 2027. For P-83, the sailaway is scheduled to occur in the beginning of the first quarter of 2027 with production starting on the second half of 2027. As the President said, we are constantly working towards bringing production forward. We've been doing pre-lays, prelaunching of lines and anchoring. But the thing is the second quarter -- the second half, historically speaking, has worse sea conditions than the first half. So we cannot safely say that we will be able to bring it forward due to weather issues. So we're working on bringing it forward, P-80 for the first quarter and the other ones are already scheduled to start operations.
Thank you, Bruno, for your questions. I'm sorry.
Thank you, Bruno, for your questions. Just picking up on what the President said and also what Renata said, the forecast for production is based on a risk analysis of everything that's scheduled. We have scheduled the ramp-up for P-78 for P-79. All of that's been included in our risk analysis, and we always like to work with a leeway of more or less 4%, and we'll certainly reach the top of guidance, always seeking to surpass the past results as the President likes to say. But right now, we are considering it reasonable to maintain the maximum at 4%, reaching 2.6%. We know that there is the downtimes. And one thing that we always like to highlight is that we're receiving these super huge platforms, 220,000 barrels per day.
And our concern is how are we going to work with the downtimes of a super huge platform like this one. We've been strongly investing in 3 things, which is to do a better job of planning downtimes, also working on the time lines and the headcount capacity like we do in F1. And that's what we want to do with the platforms and with these scheduled downtimes. You can imagine that with the downtime of 1 month, if you reduce it by a week or even 3 days, that's a lot of additional oil. So we've been focusing heavily on scheduled downtimes. And another thing is to guarantee production, we're working on the integrity of platforms. We're reaching a record number of reducing the technical inspection recommendations. And we do that because by doing proper maintenance and by taking care of integrity so that we can have less downtime and make sure that with the scheduled downtimes, we can maintain our stability.
Just to give an idea of the scheduled downtimes for the year, we expect 290,000 barrels per day during the downtime. Also, about production, we'll try to reach maximum production, but the guidance includes all possible variations, equipment inspections and any other occurrences.
The next question comes from Monique Greco from Itau BBA.
I'd like to approach the subject of the diesel import strategy. How is the company assessing the decision to import diesel given the current price scenario vis-a-vis its pricing strategy and its commercial strategy, especially now that with the -- there is a huge volatility? But with the recent increase, we saw, again, local prices below the import parity. So I'd like to hear from you. How does that all fit in to the commercial strategy?
Hi, Monique. This is Angelica. Let's go over our production planning process again. It takes into account the commitments we enter into with our customers and the seasonal variations in demand. Also our refining activities and how much of it is available, the refining margins and the logistics structures. We consider all of that. Given that context, our policy is maintained. Our commercial strategy is maintained. Our importing decisions are still based on the criteria of competitiveness and profitability. And we have to say that we have a public policy in force that gives us support for the internal market and that leads the customer perceived prices to be lower.
Next question comes from Jorge Gabrich from Scotiabank.
Congratulations on the results, especially in terms of the volumes. I'd like to go back to one issue that was already approached before from the perspective of decline, the Petrobras' decline is quite low at 4% more or less in the pre-salt. And I'd like to understand how sustainable that is moving forward. If you think about the forecast for the next few years, how do you see this decline behaving in the next few years?
Well, George, thank you for your question. This decline, as I said, is the result of a strategy that is followed strictly along with the monitoring of the deposits. We should not forget that we have huge deposits. Just to give you an idea, the Tupi field is a field that has a contractual limit of 1,200 square kilometers. If we compare that to a giant post-salt field, which was the reality that was preceded the pre-salt, you take a line of more than 200 square kilometers in areas. So these huge fields produce a lot with high productivity, but it's huge deposits. And if we compare Tupi to Marlim, you see that it's a field that's 6x larger in area. So that is the type of administration that we're working on. We're managing the deposits as a whole, but also relying on assets that surpass by far the world-class, the so-called world-class assets. I'll give the floor to Sylvia.
There is a natural decline, Jorge, and we attempt to fight against it, we work more strongly on four areas. First, 4D seismics, which better understands us -- which better allows us to better understand the reservoirs. We also do intelligent completion. Our biggest production comes from pre-salt and it's huge reservoirs at the height of the Sugarloaf. And the intelligent completion allows us to separate zones that produce water or gas, and we do an intelligent management of these areas. Another important thing is water injection. On my day one at Petrobras, the President said, we have to inject water. So Magda kept demanding that. And the biggest water injection happened. We're reaching record-breaking numbers in terms of water injection, guaranteeing a better pressurization of reservoirs. And that's another factor that reduces decline.
And obviously, the supplemental projects, once we know the deposit, the seismic data allows us to better drill the wells. We have the supplemental wells well positioned, thus guaranteeing this replacement. In Tupi, we've been able to maintain a very significant production level. And not only for us, for our results, but it's been significantly contributing to the results of our partners as well. And we've been considering the Petrobras results something positive for the results achieved. And Brazil is one of the most important production areas for our partners as well.
Our next question comes from Yuri Pereira with Santander.
With the very favorable cash generation environment, both because of market circumstances and the company itself. I wanted to understand how that works versus your plan for 2026-2030, for example, thinking about the allocation of this incremental capital that's coming over throughout this year with regards to refining or maybe another ambition Petrobras has in mind?
Well, this is an ongoing discussion for us. wherever we go, any meeting we have, the question always comes up, what will we do with the additional cash flow that's coming up purely with production, unlike our usual strategic planning. So we do have a slightly larger cash flow. But it's important to remember the dividend formula where any additional cash that comes in will be distributed over the ordinary cash distribution, which is 14%. And with regards to debt, that's the priority we've been discussing. So we have also the projects we're bringing forward such as P-80 and so on and so forth. So any investment that generates returns to our stakeholders, we are bringing forward. So that's our priority #1.
Priority #2 is to converge the debt as quickly as possible to $16.5 billion. That's the ambition we had in our strategic planning, which was supposed to take place in the end of this 5-year period ending in 2030. So the idea is to bring that slightly forward. We're already in August, and we're already looking into the new strategic planning for the company. And we'll be discussing questions that escape the current strategic planning. So it is within that realm that those discussions will take place.
With regards to extraordinary dividend sharing, we find it very unlikely to look into that possibility even though that is something we would love to do. If we have no investment in sight and our debt is well adjusted, we see no problem with that. The same logic remains since we arrived here, according to which any surplus should be allocated somewhere. If we have no investment to make and our debt is well adjusted, the natural path is to share more dividends. That's very unlikely now because first Brent is expected to stay at the same level for quite a while. And that's also a challenge for next year because it is expected to move back to the levels we expected it to be when we built and designed our 2025 to 2030 strategic plan.
Our next question comes from Gabriel Barra with Citi.
I wanted to touch on something we haven't talked about yet, which is Braskem. We have been getting a lot of questions. We're seeing the company is at a very tricky time. We're seeing news about a potential legal reorganization. And Petrobras has some active input in these conversations. My question is, how do you see that from Petrobras' side? I understand there's a number of rules with governance and there's great concern about capital allocation. So maybe more discussions about a potential capital injection into Braskem. So I wanted to hear from you what is your stance on Braskem's future? It seems the company is moving toward court order reorganization. And what we're hearing now is that's where they're headed. So what I'd like to hear from you to help our discussion is how have you been approaching that issue? What's the conversation with bondholders like? And what should be the outcome in your opinion?
Well, I'll start with my five cents, but then I'll turn it over to Fernando. As you know, we had very little input in terms of Braskem's bylaws. This latest change gave Petrobras more political power. So we're now -- only now moving closer to the company to look into what's going on with Braskem with a new set of eyes and to understand what the future of Braskem might be. I would like to not say a lot more about Braskem right now because they will be sharing their earnings next week.
But I'd like to turn over to our Director, Fernando, to talk about this within the realm of possibility at this point.
Yes. I think we have to take a step back when it comes to Braskem to remember that we have a new shareholders' agreement as the President mentioned, where our economic capital within the company is compared to the political power and influences in the company's decisions. Now that's happened over 2 months ago. And since then, we are looking into all our options within the agreement we have with shareholders. We are in touch with their Board of Directors. So there is an injunction in place, which is in the public domain, as you mentioned. It ends on October 24. And as the President mentioned as well, on August 13, that company will be sharing their earnings with the market. So this is a very sensitive time. We have a lot of decisions to make. So obviously, we can't say a lot more in terms of any other information we have, which may affect the negotiations.
So let's move forward with the next question, Lilyanna Yang with HSBC.
Congratulations on your results. I have a more generic question in terms of energy policy. One has to do with gas. The Brazilian government would like to lower gas prices for Brazilian consumers. And I'd like to hear from you about the role of Petrobras. Will Petrobras be able to be a part or to contribute with this process? Where, for example, will you sell the gas coming from Sergipe?
And another question is in terms of new frontiers, we have the Equatorial Margin, also initiatives in Africa. Could you give us an update about your investments in Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe and other areas outside of Brazil?
Let me start and then maybe Angelica, William and Sylvia may add to my few words. Starting with gas, we have a few oil and gas projects. Our projects are usually focused on oil with an associated part touching on gas and any regulatory changes will affect our projects. Sometimes they'll be beneficial. Other times, they'll be negative. Other times, they'll be neutral. But regulatory changes everywhere in the world will have consequences when it comes to the way we structure our projects. With regards to the discussion around gas, we don't know yet how things will end up. The fact is regardless of what happens, we'll have to look at our projects in light of any regulatory change. That's true everywhere in the world. It would not be different for Petrobras. So any project has to be lucrative for the company as our Director, Fernando has already said.
We're not an NGO. We are a company, and we have to be profitable. That being the case, any change that takes place in the realm of regulations or taxes or anything of that sort will have to require a reassessment of the premises underlying those projects, whether we're talking about oil and gas, refining, petrochemical, the logic is the same. Regulatory changes will require us to look back at those projects and reassess them. We have to make sure that wherever we invest brings the necessary returns. That's the logic.
Thank you so much. Just adding to President Magda's comments, Petrobras' assessment of these regulatory changes have been outlined over the past few weeks. This is the Board's position, which is the mere transference of the gas molecules ownership is not going to ensure any increase in supply, which is what the market needs. And the Brazilian market is already seeing a significant opening and pulverization. And the Board members themselves have already spoken out in the last few weeks, pointing out that there are over 30 companies competing with Petrobras and over 100 free consumers. And if we add all 5 terminals privately operated, they're already bigger than Petrobras.
So our assessment is that regulatory stability and legal certainty are critical to maintain price stability discipline when it comes to capital investments. As the President said, everyone in Petrobras has robust governance within our discipline in investments and capital. Every project assessment will consider the regulatory scenario. So any change will inevitably require a reassessment. But a draft has been made available today. Petrobras will speak up in the next 45 days via a public hearing, and that's our position.
Yes. I just wanted to add that, as William Nozaki has already said, we are only 15.6% of the market. So the market is already open. There's nothing to say about the need for a gas release in a market where you already have 31 companies operating at this point. Over and above that, with the intention even of not passing through the volatility in Brent prices to the market, we have extended the profile of our contracts and offered alternatives to prevent price increases, which is to say Petrobras is always looking to reduce the impact of gas price volatilities in the industry, especially in Brazil. And as William has said, with regards to the gas release issue, we're still waiting to see what the regulatory agency's position will be. And we're at a time where CNPE can still look into alternatives. And within that context, we're still looking into alternatives when it comes to supply.
All right. From the E&P standpoint, what we're doing is over the last few years, we have significantly increased gas exports, which were coming closer to 50 million cubic meters. So we are making more gas available, and we believe that it is only by offering more gas that we can reduce prices, also increasing gas productions in land in Urucu. And on the issue of gas, we've also discovered more gas in Colombia. And Combined, all those three discoveries exceed Colombia's needs. So it's another opportunity to export gas and supply more gas to the country.
Going back to Africa, to your other question, we also have been investing and exploring about $7 billion, $2.5 billion in the Equatorial margin, $2.4 billion in the Southeast margin and about $2.2 billion invested in other areas, including overseas, which includes Africa. We have hired areas in South Africa in partnership with Total. We have partnerships with Shell. We have partnerships in Namibia. We're looking into other opportunities as well. So internationally speaking, the Ivory Coast in Mexico are also places we're looking into, always with the purpose of replenishing and increase our reservoirs considering that our production is on the rise.
Our next question comes from Tasso Vasconcellos with UBS.
Picking up on the last discussion, Petrobras team has been quite emphatic about the subject. The replacement of reserves with new discoveries. But moving away from this domestic scenario, in your opinion, what are the main priorities for international expansion if it really occurs? So we discussed that in the previous question, but I'd like to further understand where you see more of an upside and where the Petrobras team is interested in dedicating more time to the analysis?
Now we talked about Mexico, Venezuela, Bolivia also appears to be back on the radar. So I'd like to hear your take on that. If you look at the scenario outside of Brazil, where would you focus if these expansions truly occur?
Thank you, Tasso, for the question. We've been saying repeatedly that there is no future for an oil company without exploration and without the replacement of reserves. And along those lines, what we do is to try to reinforce our expertise, which is -- well in South America, we've been working for more than 30 years. We import and produce gas in Bolivia for more than 30 years now. We've been importing gas from Argentina for at least 2 years, reverting the route of the Bolivian gas, which in the past used to go to Argentina. And now we have Argentinian gas coming to Brazil through the same pipeline. We're also working in Colombia. So yes, South America has been a big action field for Petrobras for at least 3 decades, which reinforces our knowledge of the area and our search for new opportunities in these places.
The same thing occurs with Mexico. If you take Mexico in the past more or less 10 years ago, we used to focus on the exploration of deepwaters that we used to call the Golden Triangle, which was comprised of Brazil, Africa and the Gulf of Mexico with similarities in terms of exploration and design approaches and all of that. So in that regard, Africa due to geological similarities and also similarities in terms of its approach to production and engineering, it's also one of our targets, especially the Atlantic margin of Africa. And if you look at everything at all of that, we see things similar to the ones that we faced in Brazil, where, for instance, we drilled pre-salt in the south of Espirito Santo in the Campos Basin in 2002 and we didn't see it. We overlooked it. And once again, we paid attention to it only 6 years after that, after we discovered a deposit of 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.
So our learnings at Petrobras in terms of geology, production and the selling of products, all of that from the perspective of a geopolitical partnership that seems to be quite profitable to us. That's the direction we're headed. Now I'll give the floor to Sylvia since she's been monitoring these aspects from up close. She's the Exploration and Production Director.
As Magda put very well, we have a competency in terms of the geology and the exploration of deep and ultra-deep waters. So when we go to these African opportunities, we are actually talking about very similar areas that we have a high amount of knowledge about. So in the African coast, in Mexico, the Equatorial margin, we are looking for turbidite reservoirs that are similar to the ones that we have at Campos Basin. So the pre-salt is quite unique and exclusive to the Santos Basin. And in Mexico, we have the salt diapirs and reservoirs and the Pemex expertise is not that high in deep and ultra-deep waters. They concentrate mostly on shallow waters. So we have this nonbinding MOU. We are now surveying seismic data so that we are able to analyze what areas could add value and be interesting to Petrobras and Pemex. So so far, we are collecting seismic data and further ahead, we will have an opinion on what areas could be interesting to us.
The next question comes from Milene Clifford from JPMorgan.
I like a quick follow-up about downstream. You talked about the import strategy considering seasonality, but I'd like to hear from you how the company sees the scenario of crack spreads for the second half and the maintenance strategy for refineries in that scope. You've been running the refining farm at above 102%. And we heard about downtimes as well in the second half. So talking about the refining farm and what can we expect in terms of timing and duration of these downtimes for the second half?
Thank you for the question. The third quarter is, from a seasonal perspective, a quarter of higher diesel demand. So given that context, our operating planning takes that into account. And obviously, in this quarter, we're going to have to import and the cracking of diesel has led us to attempt to produce as much diesel as we can internally. So given that context, we have an operating planning that's done in close conjunction with refining so as to maximize the use of our refineries so as to minimize imports. In any case, imports are happening naturally with no problems whatsoever. There is no shortage of diesel in the market right now.
Thank you for the question. That's a very important question because it will allow me to clarify certain things. When we postponed the downtimes of REGAP and REPLAN, well, we have not postponed downtimes for the second half. The downtimes that are going to occur are the catalytic cracking FCC downtimes and the REGAP downtime. And the Cubatao diesel downtime was already scheduled on our there was no postponing. The only big downtime that's scheduled is the Cubatao downtime that's scheduled for August and the other ones are minor downtimes. In the specific case of the postponement of REGAP and REPLAN downtimes, we were having ongoing expansion projects. But since they were not yet mature, we decided to postpone them to the beginning of 2027 after reliability analysis, inspections and so on and so forth. We saw that we were able to guarantee the reliability if we did postpone the downtimes to next year and still expand it. So we would reduce the loss of profit by 45 days.
We have two important expansions at REVAP and REPLAN and REGAP that will lead us to an additional load of almost 10,000 cubic meters per day of additional load. So we have almost 300,000 of diesel, of which 100,000 come from the expansions and optimizations of refineries with a very low CapEx and the remaining 200,000 come from the new diesel plant, the Boaventura HCC and RNEST. Renata with engineering will be delivering that at the end of the year. We're going to up the load that's at 140,000 at RNEST, and that's a result of a very important work done by our president, we're going to increase it to 180,000 or 200,000.
So back to your point, we are going to have just the regular downtimes. There were no postponements from the first half to the second half. We simply postponed the REGAP and REPLAN downtimes for next year to guarantee the new investments. But even with the postponement of these downtimes for REGAP and REPLAN, they were scheduled for March. And in April, May, June and July, we had very important results in terms of FUT. In July, we were able to reach a record-breaking production level for diesel. We reached 101.2% versus 101.1% million in the third quarter of 2014. So that was a historical record with 70% of average yield, 5% above the yield of that previous record. So it gives us more revenue with aviation kerosene and it's a greater result than that of that previous record with a greater FUT, not to mention that.
So I talked about the FUT. And in July, we reached a historical diesel production record, reaching 3,904,000 cubic meters of total diesel production in July. So that shows us that our decision was a very positive decision in terms of the scheduled downtimes. And Jonathan has always been asking us, is it close to 100%? Is it close to 100%? So we shouldn't go any lower than that. So we intend to keep on doing above 95%, 98% and those levels of 65%, 67% up to 90%, they're all in the past, always with reliability and with guaranteed safety and security. So we have 0.3 in terms of the rate of recordable incidents, which is a very good result, way below the best average of our global benchmarks, showing that it is all about the load, the FUT and the reliability of the units. Thank you for your question.
Yes. I just wanted to reinforce or to stress what William said, remembering you of two things that we're doing. First one, we are exceeding our targets. And number two, we are replacing Petrobras' refining capacity so that we are able to produce increasingly more value-added products and less regular products. Diesel has been our flagship and the results that you're seeing with regards to diesel are a result of that effort.
Our next question comes from Rodrigo Almeida with BTG.
Well, we talked a little bit about opportunities outside of Brazil. So I wanted to go back a little bit to that and maybe talk a little bit about opportunities in Brazil and mention maybe three projects that I think would be interesting for us to discuss a little bit further. First of all, I wanted to hear from you an update on your thoughts about Tupi. There's the issue of the extension of your concession or maybe a change. So I wonder if you have any updates on that sense and what you see moving forward?
And also another project that saw a lot of success in exploration and it ends next year. So I wanted to hear from you about the project and whether you see the need for any adjustments? And how do you see the economics of that asset? And then I also wanted to hear about the equatorial margin. I'd like to hear an update maybe should we expect any news from you over the next few weeks? And I just wanted to hear a little bit about that Tupi, Alto de Cabo Frio Central, and the Equatorial margins, if you could please touch on them.
Well, let me tell you that Tupi is now under negotiation. any result that we would tell you from that side would be getting ahead of ourselves. But we have been talking to government institutions in terms of moving forward there. As for Equatorial margin, we have said that before, but we continue to drill the block in FCA 49. And in addition to that well, we are also waiting for the permit for other three wells in that block. And if you remember, the license we received last year was for one firm well plus three contingent wells. Nobody looks into an area of that size to drill only one well. So whether we find oil or not, our conclusion is the same. We need to continue to explore this area, which is enormous.
And in this block alone, BMFCA-49 alone, just to give you an example, our ask for the kickoff is for one firm well plus three contingent wells. So we are now awaiting since that time when we made the request for the permit and authorization to drill in addition to this initial well, three more contingent wells. I will now turn over to Sylvia, who will talk more about Equatorial margin and the Alto de Cabo for you.
Yes. As Magda said, we're moving forward with negotiations with Tupi. So we have to wait for the assessment of all the stakeholders. As for Equatorial margin, we are anxiously waiting for the drilling of this well. All our challenges have been surpassed with technology and time. We are moving fast through the learning curve so that we can come to the next wells with a lot more speed and results, but there are still 500 meters to go to reach the reservoir. And this is one that we expect will provide a lot of oil. But if not, we will have to look into the contingent wells so that we can understand what the area looks like.
As I said earlier, we have 32 blocks in the Equatorial margin and huge potential to explore this new frontier. That's what happened with the Campos Basin and the Equatorial margin definitely need wells to be drilled so that we can accurately assess its potential. The existing potential that we've assessed, thinking about the Suriname and Guyana and Ghana wells have been very positive. So we're now anxiously waiting for the end of the month when we expect to have that well. As I said, this is the eighth and last phase of the well drilling to ensure safety.
And Alto de Cabo Frio Central, this is an area that we're still assessing alongside our partners. This is an area where we have a few challenges because of the high content of oil that we have to return to the federal government. So we need a very, very deep assessment, which is what we're doing right now with Alto de Cabo Frio Central.
Our next question comes from Vicente Falanga with Bradesco BBI.
The company has been very vocal on the media with regards to investments that obviously have been discussed already. But in addition to Africa, the Mexican Gulf and Latin America, recently, we've also read about rare metals and assessment of the Jupiter basin with the potential offshore exploration, how much do you plan to invest in that segment? I understand the rare metals sort of escape the company's main focus. So I just wanted to understand a little bit about that side.
I think I can start. Indeed, the company has been growing and improving production. We've been focusing on the company's operational side. But we've also looked at new opportunities at the same time and every potential opportunity the company may seize to generate value to its shareholders. And everything that comes out in that sense, we have been looking into. We currently have no commitment in terms of investing in what you mentioned. We have made no commitment in that sense. These are only opportunities that we've been discussing and looking into and assessing both domestically and internationally. You mentioned Mexico. There's a very positive institutional aspect that may produce benefits for us in the future. But it's important to remember that any investment we make will have to be approved by the company's governance, which will assess every remaining assessment. We use $50,000 flat throughout the process. We need to assess its economic feasibility, and it has to fit our ambitions, which has to have a good fit.
Our next and last question will come from Caio Ribeiro with Bank of America.
I have a question about capital allocation, more specifically with regards to M&A. I wonder if you could add some color to what your priorities will look like with regards to going back to licensing and fuel or moving into ethanol or even purchasing the Mataripe refinery? If you could also talk a little bit about the timing of these decisions, when should we expect them to be made? Also the timing for assessments and where it stands today, all of that would be very helpful.
I can start and if anyone finds it necessary, you can add to my answer. Well, we remain on track with what's in our strategic planning. That's the driver of our decision-making process. Obviously, we are building and other things may add to what we're doing if we understand that could be positive for bondholders. In terms of position, we have the noncompete with Vibra, and this will be honored in full. And maybe we can discuss that later and evolve if need be. We have an ambition when it comes to distribution, which is not on the retail side, but rather on the B2B side. We have a few projects in that sense, and they have been progressing well. And what we're seeing, we find very positive.
As for Mataripe, as we said, there's due diligence in place. We have no news in that sense and negotiations have not moved forward so far. But as usual, if anything comes up, we will communicate to the market in due time.
Well, I can talk specifically about ethanol. The topic is moving forward. As Magda said, it's still a priority within our business plan. We understand this is a priority segment and Brazil has maturity in terms of technology and public policy, but negotiations are still ongoing. And in due time, we will be communicating any development respecting the confidentiality and the sensitive aspects involved in negotiations. But in terms of the transfer of energy, this is something we have been looking very closely into.
Yes, it's also interesting to talk about that the distribution of fuel and LPG will always be our goal and will reinforce the strategy to move closer to the market. So whenever possible, obviously, all impediments being removed, we will come back to the market with opportunities.
Thank you so much, Caio, for your question. Fernando, Angelica and Nozaki for your answer. We would like to thank everyone for joining us. This concludes our question-and-answer session, and any additional questions may be sent to our Investor Relations team.
I will now hand it over to Petrobras' President, Magda Chambriard, for her closing remarks. President, please go ahead.
Well, reiterating what we said before, Petrobras' performance has been very professional and guided by capital discipline, attention to our projects and our deposits as well as our assets so as to always maximize value with operational efficiency, respect to health and safety regulations. And that's what's guided the technical Board of Petrobras and its advisory Board as well with the purpose of delivering to our bondholders, whether in the private or the public side, also guided by capital discipline. Rest assured, that will remain our policy. Thank you, and I hope to see you by delivering equally satisfying results next quarter.
Thank you, Magda. A recording of this conference will be available for replay online.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
Strong operational quarter: record recurring profit and production drove cash flow, funding capex while prioritizing debt reduction and capital discipline.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Production: 2.7MM barrels/day (+15% YoY); >3.0MM boe/day when including gas (barrels of oil equivalent).
- EBITDA: Adjusted EBITDA $20.0B (ex-one-offs), ~+70% QoQ.
- Gross profit: $19.5B, highest in company history (recurring basis).
- Cash flow: Operating cash flow $12.3B, nearly +50% QoQ.
- Refining: Refinery utilization ~101% FUT; product output +6% QoQ and imports down ~40%.
🎯 What Management Says
- Production push: Management credits ramp-ups (P‑78/P‑79), platform debottlenecking and better reservoir management for sustained higher output and lower decline (~4% vs prior ~12%).
- Capital discipline: Prioritize high‑return E&P projects, fund growth with cash flow and opportunistically prepay/renegotiate liabilities to save cash.
- Refining strategy: Increase yields of value‑added products (diesel/jet/gasoline), cut imports and expand exports to maximize cash generation.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Production guidance: Company remains at top of its 2026 range and sees room to exceed targets via further ramp‑ups, but keeps conservative risk buffers.
- CapEx: H1 CapEx $10.4B; full‑year cash investment guidance ~$16.9B (±5%), with >80% to E&P.
- Debt & payouts: End‑Q net debt $60.4B, gross $70.8B; management expects convergence toward plan-range debt (~$65B) and prioritizes debt reduction over extraordinary dividends for now.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Decline & sustainability: Analysts pressed on how sustainable the ~4% decline is; management pointed to 4D seismic, intelligent completions and higher water injection as durable mitigants.
- Diesel/imports: Questions on import strategy and pricing; Petrobras says imports are commercially driven, seasonal, and refining plans aim to minimize imports while meeting commitments.
- Capital allocation & Braskem: Investors asked about extra cash use and Braskem exposure; company reiterated priority order: high‑return projects, debt convergence, then possible surplus distribution; Braskem matters under active review with limited comment pending governance processes.
⚡ Bottom Line
- Conclusion: Exceptional operational execution produced record recurring profits and cash flow, funding growth while management stays focused on high‑return E&P, refinery optimization and debt reduction — offering shareholders meaningful near‑term cash generation with sensible capital discipline, albeit still exposed to oil price and regulatory risks (gas policy, Braskem outcome).
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to Petrobras' webcast for investors and analysts about our results for the first quarter of 2026. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. This event will be held in Portuguese and English. You can access the links to both languages on our Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions]
We have with us today Magda Chambriard, CEO of Petrobras; and Angelica Laureano, Executive Logistics and Commercialization Director; Clarice Coppetti, Executive Director for Corporate Affairs; Fernando Melgarejo, Executive Director and Investor Relations, Flavio Bretanha Freire representing the Engineering Technology and Innovation Directors; Ricardo Wagner, Governance and Compliance Executive Director; Sylvia Anjos, Exploration and Production Director; and William França, Industrial Processes and Products and Temporary Energy Transition and Sustainability Director.
To start us off, we will begin with Fernando Melgarejo -- excuse me with CEO, Magda, who will make her opening remarks. Go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, Eduardo. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here with you to present our good results once again for Petrobras.
I'd like to greet Fernando Melgarejo, our Financial Director; Clarice Coppetti, Corporate Affairs; Flavio Bretanha representing, Renata, Engineering; Sylvia Anjos, Exploration and Production; and Angelica Laureano, Logistics and Trade; William França, Industrial Processes and Refinement; Eduardo De Nardi, Investor Relations, who just started us off and all the investors joining us today for this earnings call for the first quarter of 2026. And the press as well as all the other executives who are here with us, who will support us in answering your questions. I'd like to greet all of them and congratulate all of our employees for the results that they delivered this quarter, which have made us so proud. So I'd like to welcome you once again.
We are happy once more to present this quarter's results, which have been marked by operational records. Our oil and gas production has reached unprecedented levels, which is the result of the exceptional effort we've made and a strong partnership between all the different areas of Petrobras.
This is what has allowed us to reach these results and overcome the several challenges we faced.
I would like to highlight two of the main milestones we reached in oil exploration and production in the first quarter. Our average production was 2.58 million barrels of oil per day, of which 2.18 million barrels were directly produced from the pre-salt layer. We're very proud of this result because it was much higher than last year's average. However, this has already been surpassed in April. So it was a production of 2.58 million on average last year, which has already been surpassed as we reached a milestone of 2.73 million barrels per day in April, up 6% versus the average we had in the first quarter. As I said, every day, Petrobras has been overcoming and surpassing its own results.
So when we see these results, it might seem like reaching these records has been simple. But this is due to a joint effort from our teams, like I mentioned before. It's a highly complex job with high levels of technology involving capacity expansion projects, managing our reservoir operational efficiency and using all the opportunities that we have to offer our investors from the government or from the private sector, increasingly more oil and gas and byproducts. At the end, we are providing energy in general with safety first.
Since we're talking about surpassing our own results, I would like to remind you that Petrobras has been doing this also in capacity. When we remember that FPSO Almirante Tamandaré, the biggest one we had was an oil rig designed to produce 225,000 barrels of oil per day. It was the biggest in Brazil, and we were able to expand its capacity to reach 270,000 barrels a day. We have simply increased in this platform, our production by 45,000 barrels of oil per day. In the future, we have 3 more rigs which are exactly like this that will be delivered and are being built in Singapore. And we will have a total of 4 with this capacity expansion of 45,000 barrels of oil per day beyond their original design.
So 45,000 x 4 is 180,000. So as a result of this capacity, expansion. And as we overcome the challenges we have in Petrobras, we will deliver 180,000 barrels a day rig in addition to what we already have. So this is all the result of the excellent work we have done in the company.
But I would like to say that beyond the technical excellence of our teams in developing these opportunities, we are also counting on surprising productivity from the pre-salt wells. So when we say that we're expanding by 45,000 barrels a day of oil at Almirante Tamandaré And that we have 3 other rigs that can do that, in these 4 rigs, we will add 180,000 barrels of oil a day, and that's because this can only happen due to the exceptional production capacity of the pre-salt layer that we have in our hands.
Currently, we have the biggest deepwater oil field in the world, which is the Búzios field, a giant field that produces a little over 1 million barrels of oil per day, which will soon reach 1.5 million. And we might be able to deliver a field some time from now that will produce 2 million barrels of oil per day. Now we have 2 fields that have surpassed the milestone of 1 million barrels per day, which is Búzios and Tupi.
And going back to Búzios, now we have 8 platforms in operation in Búzios, on May 1, the P-79 platform, the eighth platform of the Búzios field started production 3 months before the scheduled start of operations. We expect to reach the capacity of 180,000 barrels of oil per day with only 3 to 4 wells. As a reminder, the original project was based on 4 wells and we will be able to reach the capacity of the platform with 3 or 4 wells, which is amazing, both in terms of our productivity and the productivity of the pre-salt area.
But when it comes to project capacity, we also need to say that Petrobras is delivering more than what was initially designed. And we're looking at this platform of 180,000 barrels per day. I'm telling the team that, well, now you've spoiled us. Now we need 200,000 barrels per day. And the teams are working on that and making it possible. As I said, we are overcoming challenges every day.
Recently, we also took a very important step for the production of oil and gas in the Northeast of Brazil. Due to the increased prices in the international oil market, we decided to expedite the possibility to fund the Sergipe Deep Waters project. You probably remember that in our group of projects with guaranteed funding, one of the Sergipe platforms had undergone a value increase in terms of crude oil. So we can guarantee the funding of 2 of these platforms. So Sergipe has now 2 projects approved that will have the capacity so far to produce 240,000 barrels of oil per day and to process 22 million cubic meters of gas per day.
When it comes to natural gas, Petrobras has been consistently investing to expand the capacity to produce natural gas and also to expand its capacity to deliver energy coming from thermal power plants. So we're going to have a gas pipeline that will be able to produce in this deepwater project to deliver 18 million cubic meters of gas in addition to what had been initially planned, which corresponds to half of our supply of natural gas for the first quarter of 2026. And we're also proud to say that we have contracted all of our thermal power plants that had gone out of contract in the last auction that was promoted in Brazil. And with that, with the delivery of another 9 thermal power plant contracts, we're being able to add to Petrobras' annual revenue another BRL 4.5 billion per year.
When it comes to refining, the team spirit is the same. And the goal to surpass -- our challenges is equally the same. We're permanently in search of excellence and in search of more and better results. In March, we reached yet another record in the production of S10 diesel with a lower sulfur content. We are producing 512,000 barrels per day for the S10 diesel, a result that reflects the investments we've been making to modernize our refineries and to increase the supply of greater added value byproducts. Our S10 diesel is our highest added value product as a reminder. Last year, we started to operate this new hydro treatment unit at Replan, our refinery.
And we completed the modernization of REVAP which shows that these investments are already creating results in terms of a higher S10 diesel production.
In terms of our refining park, the utilization factor reached 97.4%, which recently due to the war between the U.S. and Iran has now surpassed 100%. As I said, Petrobras does not like limitations. Our goal is to surpass limitations each and every day. And going back to the 97.4% figure, it is the highest level of utilization since 2014, since December 2014 in total safety, a level that we're very proud to have reached, but something that we've already left behind in April and in May.
In addition to the diesel in terms of processing capacity, we've expanded it while keeping the yield profile for diesel and gasoline, also for aviation kerosene. This increased -- processing capacity is very important in a scenario of higher prices of oil byproducts, which has been intensified by the recent conflicts in the Middle East, which bring about restrictions to the global supply of products and a higher pressure on our prices.
It's also important to say that Petrobras is constantly asked about price volatility and how we as a company, how we see the increase in international prices, whether we're talking about crude oil or byproducts. We're proud to say that we're having excellent results in terms of the sales of crude oil to international markets. And we've also been working alongside the Brazilian government in terms of providing funding to sales in the national territory of our byproducts in the domestic market.
Just to give you an idea, in March, up until mid-April, our diesel, which reached a $0.02 per liter of increase for Brazilian consumers was funded, which represented an increase in diesel prices of over 46%. These results have not yet been fully seen in the results of the first quarter, but they will appear in the results of the second quarter.
We're also working on the issue of gasoline. And very soon, you're going to hear good news concerning our gasoline. Our efforts towards increasing the production of byproducts for the Brazilian market in a profitable manner has been contributing to mitigate the effects of this global context in Brazil, strengthening the energy security of Brazil and preserving the expected returns for the company.
The increase in the processing of oil and in the diesel supply is one of the pillars of our refining strategy. We are committed to offering high-quality products and to being the best alternative for our customers.
When we look at the outcome of this war, we see a big opportunity in our business plan for 2026 to 2030, we expect to supply 85% of the Brazilian demand for diesel with the results achieved by the company and due to the confidence of the Brazilian market in Petrobras we are looking at an opportunity that will probably come with our next business plan, which is to achieve self-sufficiency in the diesel supply for Brazil.
What I'm saying is that we're now analyzing projects that will have the capacity not only to produce 85% of the entire demand for diesel in Brazil up until 2030. But once again, to surpass these milestones, this is something that's on our radar every day with our possibility to surpass milestones and challenges. And we will likely be able to deliver a refining plant that will be able to supply 100% of the Brazilian demand for diesel.
And when we talk about diesel, of course, gasoline always comes in the wake of diesel. So we're talking about supplying 100% of the demand for diesel and gasoline in Brazil. We've increased our processing level. We are committed to these milestones, but even more importantly, we're committed to offering high-quality products and to being the best alternative for our customers.
We keep on monitoring the international scenario, the impacts of volatility on the oil and gas market and our commercial strategy remains the same. Our governance remains the same. We attempt to compete in a more efficient manner, taking into account our market share, the optimization of our refining assets and the profitability of our company in an ever sustainable manner.
And since we do not transfer to Brazilian consumers, the abrupt price changes, and since we can also rely on the support of the federal government in terms of funding these products so that the price increases due to the war do not impact the Brazilian market, we've been very open to this partnership with the federal government. After all, the federal government is keen on maintaining Petrobras' capacity to remain stable at difficult times and also to keep offering products that are accessible to the Brazilian consumers. This is our market. We take good care of it. We make money from it. The Brazilian government has been acknowledging our role in delivering to the Brazilian market accessible products and this partnership between Petrobras and the Brazilian government has been, I can tell you, very fruitful for Petrobras and for Brazilian society.
These were my operational highlights because they're the foundation of our financial results, especially in a context of high Brent prices. One, where we look forward into the future, and we see every possibility to increase our production and also to increase the capture of the returns of this market to Petrobras. We are now in the midst of a virtuous cycle.
Our investments are being converted into more production and higher added value products available on the market as well as higher revenue for the company. More revenue for the company, more taxes for society in addition to increasingly more profitable projects in the company's portfolio. This cycle results in the creation of more job positions and a greater economic development for Brazilians as well as a wider and deeper presence of Petrobras abroad. We've been reiterating our interest in producing oil for international customers.
The Atlantic margin of Africa has been one of our goals in addition to possibilities in other countries as well. You probably heard that a while ago, we were in Mexico. We now have a delegation going to Mexico soon to analyze new business opportunities. And we remain persistent in our search for increasingly better results for the company and for expanding our business portfolio, always attempting to -- while maintaining our focus on return and tax discipline.
And to give you details about the excellence, operational performance that was reflected in the financial results for the first quarter of 2026, I'd like to give the floor to our Financial Officer, Fernando Melgarejo. I'd like to thank you for your presence and remind you what we've been saying, if you place your bets against Petrobras, you're going to lose money. We're very proud to say that.
Thank you. Thank you for joining us, and good morning to all here in this room. And we're going to present our results for the first quarter of 2026. We're very pleased with our operational performance as well as our strategic position. These are strong points that are highlights for this company's management.
We're going to start on Slide 3, talking about production. Last year, we discussed CapEx frequently on our webcast, always emphasizing our focus on executing the business plan and delivering on projects often ahead of schedule. That goes for deliveries and for production.
So the chart on the left-hand side shows the results of this strategy, a rising production curve. In the first quarter of 2026, we produced 2.58 million barrels of oil per day. And in April, we significantly produced 2.73 million barrels of oil per day, a new monthly record for Petrobras. And this all is the result of our focus and commitment.
If we compare the first column on the left, which represents 2024, where we produced 2.152 million of barrels per day with April 2026, this is a 30% growth, which is truly significant. 3 factors have sustained this production growth, more projects to increase capacity such as new oil rigs; increased operational efficiency, which has strengthened the stability of our operations; and an efficient reservoir management. This shows that we are more efficient in managing our reservoirs better.
Here on this slide, we have some concrete examples of this strategy. In the Búzios field, platforms P-78 and P-79 have come online. Both have a capacity of 180,000 barrels per day.
Let's continue on Slide 4. Petrobras invested $5 billion in the first quarter, with nearly 90% going to E&P projects. Our CapEx is focused on high return projects. On the right-hand side, you can see the evolution of investments in wells, subsea activities, oil rig construction and others. We increased our investments into wells by 11%, 75% in subsea activities and 22% in rigs. All of these investments have been focused on production. We also increased the number of physical deliveries.
We recently delivered P-78 and 79 with their related investments already completed and our focus is now on the well interconnection campaign and the construction of P-80, 82 and 83. These 3 rigs will have a capacity of 225,000 barrels per day each. And all of them, it's important to highlight, are owned by us and are no longer chartered as was our previous strategic model before Alexandre de Gusmão and Almirante Tamandaré.
On Slide 5, we can see that in the first quarter, we increased both our oil production and our fuel production. Our refineries produced 1.8 million barrels of byproducts per day. with S10 diesel production hitting a record high of 512,000 barrels per day in March.
Another highlight is our utilization factor, which went up by 6 percentage points in the quarter and in March exceeded 97%, the highest level since 2014. And we did this safely and profitably with a 68% yield of diesel, gasoline and QAV. As a result, we have more fuel for the Brazilian market with fewer imports. I'd like to emphasize the importance of this increase in processing capacity in the current scenario of global supply constraints and price pressures, producing more refined products helps mitigate the effects of geopolitical conflicts on the domestic market.
Petrobras is demonstrating once again that it is fundamental to the country's energy security. We are self-sufficient in gasoline. And as we heard before, in the future, we will also be self-sufficient in diesel. It's a matter of time.
Let's move on to Slide 6. Now we highlight the key figures for our financial results. We achieved an EBITDA excluding onetime items of $11.7 billion, driven mainly by higher production volumes. Our net income, excluding onetime items, reached USD 4.5 billion, and our operating cash flow stood at $8.4 billion in the first quarter.
There are 2 important points here. First, the rise in Brent prices is not reflected in the first quarter results because the price surge began in March and exports recognize this month are mostly priced in February when they are traded and shipped from Brazil to their destinations. So all the prices we got in March or most of them was still priced before these higher oil prices. And we will start seeing this increase in the second quarter of 2026.
Furthermore, the record production levels had virtually no impact on earnings because we had a backlog of exports amounting to around 80,000 barrels per day, which is another important point that will sustain our results for the second quarter. This inventory will be monetized at a higher price than it would have been in the first quarter.
Let's continue on Slide 7. Looking now at gross debt. We remain within the limit set out in our business plan below USD 75 billion. We closed the quarter with $71.2 billion in gross debt, a slight increase, but the trend is downward. I reiterate our expectation of convergence to $67 billion in 2026 and $65 billion by the end of the plan. It may be even smaller -- lower than that.
As stated in our business plan, our priority is using cash to invest in the profitable projects in our plan that were left out of the approved budget due to a scenario that was very different from the current one and our responsibility to the company's capital discipline. When we made this plan, it was a different moment and a different scenario.
But we laid out some flexibility in this plan, which allowed us to include our projects or postpone them. What we call base and target CapEx. We have to emphasize that over 60% of the total debt comes from leases that under accounting standards must be recognized as debt. These amounts are associated with assets that generate production and consequently, revenue for the company. We have an efficient and flexible capital structure even in more challenging scenarios, and we remain committed to capital discipline and the efficient allocation of resources. So we will continue to invest to generate value, always maintaining our debt level. And we maintain a robust liquidity position. We closed the first quarter of the year with $9.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Our minimum cash is BRL 6 billion.
On Slide 8, we show the status of some indicators in relation to our targets for the 2026, 2030 plan. Oil production reached 2.6 million barrels per day in the first quarter, therefore, within the upper range of the target for the year. We highlight the continued ramp-up of the new production systems, P-78 and P-79 in addition to complementary projects. Efficiency in reservoir management and improvements in asset integrity and management were also key to our excellent operational performance.
We're working to deliver production above the midpoint of the target and the first quarter 2026 results indicate that we are on the right track. This is not a promise, but rather a pursuit of greater operational efficiency. We're maintaining our guidance while making every effort to produce even more.
We invested BRL 4.5 billion in the quarter out of a total of BRL 16.9 billion projected for 2026. We continue to strictly adhere to capital discipline, prioritizing projects that create value and accelerating deliveries whenever possible. Our commitment is delivering value.
Operating expenses totaled BRL 5.6 billion for the quarter. It's worth noting that the exchange rates, transportation costs and increased production all impact this metric. For the year, we are maintaining our forecast of BRL 20.2 billion.
As for lease cash flow, BRL 2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 compared to BRL 10 billion for the year is also in line with expectations. It is under control from our perspective.
In summary, our projections remain unchanged, even though we are working to accelerate projects and exceed our production targets.
We continue on Slide 9. Here, we present our contribution through tax payments. It was BRL 72.4 billion total for the first quarter, of which BRL 27.3 billion were paid in federal taxes, BRL 29 billion to the states, BRL 700 million to municipality and nearly $15 billion in government royalties.
On this last slide , we have a few final remarks. Oil prices have risen, but we remain committed to the same goals set out in our business plan, a focus on capital discipline and responsible investment execution. We also remain focused on increasing our production through operational efficiency and the proper management of all our assets.
Last but not least, our commitment to governance, an essential pillar for value creation in the company.
Thank you once again, and I will be available along with the other directors to answer any questions you may have. I'll now hand it over to Eduardo, who will begin the Q&A.
Thank you, Fernando. Thank you, Magda. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions]
The first question will be asked by Leonardo Marcondes from Bank of America.
2. Question Answer
I would like to hear your perspective on the downstream market. What can you tell us about the market and prices in a broader sense? Can you tell us about what the supply dynamics are like in Brazil right now. And if you can tell us if there's any risk of shortages and considering the recent price increases, how do you assess the need for adjustments in diesel and gasoline prices?
Thank you. Thank you, Marcondes. I'll start answering your question, and then I'll hand it over to Angelica and William. So we are keeping track of prices. And we also know that when things are set in the press, oil goes up, and then we hear something else in the press, and it goes even higher. So sometimes you see a difference of $15 per barrel within a single day.
Our governance and our price policies is not passing this volatility on. So we are reducing the anxiety that we see in international prices. When we set prices for Brazilian consumers, even though we're following the market in general, and we have a tendency to follow international prices. So this is what we've done.
In March, the war broke out on February 28. So in March, exactly on the 12th we had a subvention from the federal government about diesel prices. So within 12 days of the war, we got a $0.70 subvention.
After 15 days, we also got another one with an additional $0.80. So the domestic market currently has a subvention of $1.50. And there's also one for imports, which has been approved and is being applied retroactively. So when it comes to diesel prices, we are keeping track of it accompanying it, and we understand that we are 100% compliant to our pricing policy as international prices change.
Gasoline is a little bit more complicated because not only does it -- not only is it affected, but it competes with Brazilian ethanol. So we're looking at gasoline prices internationally hiking up. But at the same time, we know that here in Brazil, we have ethanol, which competes with gasoline and in Brazil, we also have a flex fuel fleet. Most passenger vehicles in Brazil allow drivers to decide between gasoline and ethanol in every station, so they can choose between gasoline or ethanol, whatever has the lowest price.
As gas prices go up, and you heard me say about a potential price increase for gasoline. We are always keeping track of that in comparison to ethanol prices in the Brazilian market. About 15 days ago, ethanol prices were going down significantly in the Brazilian market. It is a competitor for us. So we are always keeping track of our market share and how the international market is changing as well as the ethanol market in Brazil. There will be a gas price increase, but we have to be sure that this market is still partly ours.
We also had an increase in QAV prices. As you know, QAV is a product that follows parametric formulas for its prices with signed contracts. So airlines and distribution companies had trouble with QAV. So we had to extend deadlines and the Financial Director will explain it to you better. But we diluted prices for payment in the second half of the year. It's as if we were financing a higher QAV prices passing this -- guaranteeing that this will passed on, but with an extension financed by Petrobras.
We recently had an increase in natural gas prices. And again, this is compliant to our current contracts and we're looking at figures for August to see if this increase will also require something from us. We might need to support these price increases with extended payment dates. But as I'm seeing here, we are always analyzing how prices are changing in the international market. And our policy is not to pass this volatility to consumers. The most important thing is that we are maintaining the company's market share in the Brazilian market. We understand that this is our market, and we're not willing to let go of it.
Okay. Angelica will now talk about the price evolution and França will also tell you how we are going to increase the production of byproducts.
Well, it's also important to say that there is no indication of any risk of structural shortage on the market because in Brazil, we have multiple agents and ANP as a regulatory coordinator, and they've been constantly monitoring the volumes available on the market. Petrobras has been contributing with our production and also within the safety parameters. We've been monitoring the market constantly in order to define the prices of our products.
Leonardo, thank you for your question. Concerning refineries. We've entered the quarter at 95%, 97%. We're operating at 102%, 103%. Since yesterday, we've been at 103%. And concerning self-sufficiency, since last year, we added 70 new S10 diesel barrels with Replan new diesel HDT and the REVAP of the Paraíba Valley refinery.
This year, we started to expand Train 1 at RNEST. We were operating at 85%. Now we're at 140% due to huge efforts by President, Magda. And this increase has been achieved within the regulatory safety limits. We are now at 140,000 barrels. And RNEST producers more than 100,000 worth of diesel, an additional 30,000. Our plants are expecting to achieve another 30,000 barrels of diesel and we are quite advanced in terms of our plans, '27 '31 to reach 500 in terms of barrels of diesel. This is our goal, and this is also a challenge at Petrobras.
Thank you, President, Magda and William and Angelica.
Now before I give the floor to Rodrigo for the next question [Operator Instructions]
Rodrigo Almeida from BTG, you have the floor.
Thank you, Eduardo and good afternoon, Magda, Fernando, everyone. I'd like to keep on discussing the fuels, and I'd like to dive into more details about the funding. So in terms of working capital, this is possibly what stands out the most looking from an outside perspective. The first quarter had a slight effect due to the funding or subsidies.
So I'd like to further understand from you first about the discussions with the government concerning the sharing of invoices and information with A&P so that they can start making payments and also the current scenario in terms of internal projections concerning the receipt time line and about diesel and all of the other products such as aviation, kerosene and natural gas what's the impact of these products in terms of working capital for the company, given that these volumes tend to grow very quickly. Those are my questions.
I'm going to ask directors Fernando and Angelica to answer your question.
Rodrigo, starting with the subsidies in March, it's -- they're in accounts receivable. They've been accounted for in our BRL 740 million results. Concerning -- now it's only a matter of procedures and we expect to get paid within this quarter. As for the other ones, there is still an ongoing operational workflow that needs to be completed before we get paid. And the impacts are reflected in the increased operational cash flow of the company and the free cash flow that we'll be seeing in the next few days, much closer to the current market prices not paid by the end customers.
The end customers are being protected as a result of the efforts made by the government. And part of these revenues come from the end consumers and part of them come from the government. Therefore, the prices will be within our expectations in a few days. Diesel is still being operationalized. We signed also subsidy in April. We signed a declaration of adhesion to the subsidy program and that will also have a positive impact in terms of working capital and cash flow for the company. Actually, it's not natural gas, it's liquid gas. And Petrobras, it is able to receive subsidies, both for imported and domestically produced diesel.
Next question comes from Vicente Falanga from Bradesco.
It's about the visit of the committee to Mexico as President Magda mentioned, that's also related to Braskem. Now that Petrobras has a new shareholders agreement and probably a few things have already been discussed and decided, my question is, what can Petrobras do to strengthen Braskem in terms of competitiveness, capital structure?
I read an article about the committee in the press and one of the items in the agenda that was the polyethylene plant in Mexico and who's running risk of losing control and et cetera. So I mean, what can Petrobras do to contribute to petrochemicals and to invest in the Gulf of Mexico?
Thanks for your question, Vicente. But our trip to Mexico involved multiple goals. One of them was to talk to the President of Mexico about the opportunity of entering a partnership with Pemex to explore the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico. If you look at the Gulf of Mexico that's been split into 2 parts, you see that the North American part of it is highly developed, and the Mexican portion with very little development especially in the ultra-deepwater environment, which is our specialization at Petrobras. So this trip to Mexico had the goal of opening up new markets, which is what we're doing, like I said, in Africa, we're also doing it in Mexico, and we'll also likely do it in Venezuela.
So this is our goal to have a future incorporations of oil and gas reserves. And in that regard, we think that the Mexican area of the Gulf of Mexico cannot be forgotten. Partnership with Pemex would be beneficial in order for us to assess new possibilities to operate and do new explorations in these areas. The partnership with Pemex is also positive in terms of expanding synergies to use oil and gas that may start to be produced as the result of a partnership between Petrobras and Pemex.
The Mexican Gulf of Mexico has mature fields. It's not restricted to exploration opportunities alone. It also offers opportunities for us to make partnerships in the operation of mature fields. This is also another analysis that we're going to undertake alongside Pemex. And if that's possible, what are we going to do with this oil?
Well, we are thinking about refining it in Mexico itself. So if it's being produced in Mexico, and being refined in Mexico. And if we can use the gas surplus in Mexico, that's the best case scenario. And if we're able to do that to the benefit of the synergies that are possible between exploration, production and refining and the production of gas and gas processing in Mexico that will be the icing on the cake of all of our efforts.
What we have so far in Mexico are the best intentions. They have not yet become a reality though. But since you asked the reason for our trip. Well, that was the reason those were the subjects that we discussed, the possibility to do exploration and production in Mexico and the possibility to increase production in mature fields in Mexico and possibly also using gas surplus and also a synergy with petrochemicals, which should also happen in Brazil. That's what we are working for in Brazil.
And as a reminder, we have 46% to 47% of the shares with the right to vote at Braskem, which is the sixth largest petrochemical plant in the world. And as Petrobras, we are totally interested in being more present at Braskem and to make the most out of all synergies resulting from our manufacturing plants, whether in Brazil or abroad. And the synergies -- given that the synergies that are possible to achieve. We have a scheduled meeting that will occur on the 13th, group in charge of refining will go to Mexico and another group in charge of exploration and production will be arriving in Mexico on the 13th to keep having this conversation that was...
Thank you, Magda. William is telling me that you asked about Idesa. And if we're going to lose it? Well, I can tell you that our intention is not to lose anything. We just want to win and conquer new things. Our development phase is over. And now as I used to say, we no longer like to sell. We only like buying and increasing our shares.
Thank you, Magda. Thank you for your answer. Thank you for your question, Vicente. Now on to the next question from Gabriel Barra from Citi.
I'll try to cover something that we didn't touch upon about CapEx and production. I think the week before last, I don't know if I'm wrong, but there was an event to talk about Búzios and we had the opportunity to talk about increased production in Búzios, not only in Búzios, but for the company as a whole. And now the oil scenario is much stronger than we had imagined during the company's last investment plan.
And to paraphrase a few things that were touched upon during this conference call. The company has been focusing on increasing production regionally. So my question is, this plan that we're currently following that was designed last year. How much of it can be modified 79 just started in Búzios, the 80 will begin next year. So what can we do in terms of increasing CapEx given this new oil scenario? Does anything change or it does not change? So my question to try to summarize it is basically related to CapEx. So what we should think about in terms of CapEx and if there should be an upside in terms of the numbers we've been working with given the new oil scenario?
Thanks, Gabriel. I'm going to ask Fernando to answer your question.
Thanks for your question, Gabriel. Well, our focus, like we said in our strategic planning is the same. We still see a very volatile Brent price, we do believe that these prices will increase between now and the end of the year. And this will bring about additional revenues in the short term. The decision to include new investments do not involve only a short-term perspective rather, it's a long-term and it involves identifying the resilience of the assets. Nothing has changed in terms of governance. It still has to undergo the technical assessments of strategic committees, the Executive Board and depending on how much we're investing, some of them need to be submitted to the administrative council of the company.
We've just included SEAP with 22,000 million cubic meters. That's the capacity that we're talking about. They were not on our budget. And now we have included them on our budget. They were outside of our base CapEx. So we are evolving in that regard. There are -- I mean, there could be others that have not yet been analyzed. And of course, it's also a matter of opportunity. If we see that there is anything that we can invest in to increase the company's value, we'll do that, of course, always focusing on the long term and not the short term.
The cash surplus, certainly, our main goal is to focus on investments and to anticipate it, we created a certain flexibility on our plan, stating that we could postpone investments, but that was based on the old scenario. And now we -- if there are opportunities, we will bring things forward in terms of our 2030 plan.
Well, just to add to what he said. We are in the waiting list for Búzios 12 or Albacora, which is something spectacular that can be done much more easily. And yes, it's already on our plan. So the plan gives us the flexibility of having assets and absolutely relevant projects. So yes, so it's all about drive. This is our 2030 strategic plan. Thank you, Fernando.
The next question will be asked by Tasso Vasconcellos from UBS.
My question is a follow-up question to the last one, Fernando. Obviously, the company started the year with a certain plan. Maybe they were budgeting at around $60 per barrel, but now it's a much more positive scenario in terms of cash generation. I know how difficult it is to predict oil prices, but at the same time, the company has its own internal plan with a course correction when necessary. You've talked about not passing on the price volatility to the consumer.
You yourself talked about reinvesting or resuming investments in the Sergipe-Alagoas project. So if you can tell us a little bit more about how much course correction you've been talking about? How frequently does the company talk about this or actually do it when necessary? And what oil scenarios have you been working with for the second half of the year?
Thank you, Tasso. I'll hand it over to Fernando, who will answer.
Thank you for your question, Tasso. I'll start with the end part of your question. The company has been getting prepared to work with a Brent balance of $59. So this is what we foresee in the company regardless of our future Brent prices. We stated this in our strategic plan. I ran the company last year at around $81 for a balanced Brent. And we expect it to reduce until the end of 2030 to around $48 or $50 regardless of what happens.
And after that, we have prices. What if prices are higher? Our priority is to continue to invest. We can postpone or advance these investments. But this is all being analyzed within the company and our technical analysis, and we also are always looking at the long term, never the short term. This assumption will facilitate some things, but this is not the decision driver if we have to hedge the project.
The second point is that we are directing additional resources that we might have this year to reduce our debt to converge towards $65 billion as quick as we can or even below it. And if we find any excess cash where we don't have any profitable projects for if we don't have any opportunities that might be an alternative for investments, then our path will always be the same that we've always said. We don't want to work with excess cash.
Our minimum cash is $6 billion We're running the company with $8 billion, $9 billion -- between $8 billion and $10 billion. And if we find an excess that will not be missed in the future. In any case, our projects are always aiming at the next 20 to 30 years. So if we don't find any then we would consider extraordinary dividends, but we don't believe there's any possibility for that this year.
The next question will be asked by Lilyanna Yang from HSBC.
I would like to get a little bit more color about your appetite for Mexico and Venezuela. And if you can compare this with the equatorial margin. I'd just like to get an understanding if, for example, Venezuela and Mexico would be $1 billion or $5 billion in the next 2 years or the next 5 years.
Thank you, Lilyanna. But I think you're in a bit of a hurry. Like Sylvia said, short while ago, we are about 1,000 meters from our goal in the equatorial margin. So that is our main goal. The first goal in our explorations. Beyond that, we also have efforts, or let me say it this way.
We have much more concrete ongoing efforts on the Atlantic margin of Africa, for example. So we're talking about Côte d'Ivoire, Namibia. We're talking about South Africa, maybe also Ghana, we have projects in Colombia, Peru. So we are focusing on South America and Africa. Along with that, we also discuss other opportunities. Notice that 10 years ago, we talked about the Golden Triangle which was Africa, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. The Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico is relatively unexplored.
So naturally, we would look at it and think what might happen there. But so far, all we've done is visit the Mexican presidency. So there's still a long road ahead before we can quantify any kinds of investments in the Gulf of Mexico. I hope I can do it. I hope that Petrobras really has a good opportunity to work in the Mexican part of the Gulf of Mexico, but this is still a wish list item. And Venezuela is a similar case. Venezuela has relevant resources found. They are our neighbor. So naturally, we would want to consider Venezuela. But right now, we still have it just as a wish list item. So I still can't look at Venezuela, or Mexico to see any investment value because this is still an initial discussion.
We will now receive a question from Regis Cardoso from XP.
If I can ask a specific question about Braskem. I think this is an important milestone from the recent shareholders' agreement being signed. And as the company's governance changed, Petrobras will have a much more active role over Braskem. And this might be a crucial moment in which Braskem was moving towards a debt restructuring and at the same time, petrochemical spreads improved significantly since March.
So my question is, what changes with this new role for Petrobras? Does Braskem still require debt restructuring? Is there really a greater spread level? I'd just like to hear your take on these changes. Hedges. What we have now is a willingness at Petrobras to work strongly on Braskem.
If you look at the last 10 years, Petrobras was basically absent from Braskem. Our understanding is that this was not the right way. Braskem and Petrobras have very relevant synergies especially with our refinement plants and the Brazilian gas consumption. And the Petrobras' participation in Braskem is so relevant that it cannot be absent from this work, and we have to be strong like Petrobras usually is. So this is what we're saying.
We want to be active participants in the Braskem operation because if anyone understands about cracking here or this kind of work, it's us. So of course, Petrobras can't have this refinery infrastructure, this presence in Brazilian refinement and gas production and the share of the gas and byproducts market in Brazil and let all of these discussions run at Braskem without Petrobras being included as a relevant partner.
So I think that's what changed. It was just the company's willingness to work with Braskem in a stronger way. And I'll let William and Angelica add to my answer.
Just adding to that answer, it's true since we joined the company, we had a mission of facing the issues of Braskem. First, so we have the right political power, vis-à-vis the economic capital that Petrobras have there. It took longer than we wanted. We had to experiment with several designs until we got to the current one with IG4 representing banks that hold shares.
Since then, we created a shareholders' agreement reflecting our intention, and we believe that, that's the best for the company. We're going to focus on the operational issues. As we heard, we know their operation. We know the situation in the petrochemical industry. We're very connected, and we have a lot of synergy between them and oil and gas. So that's what we did.
Right now, the company is in a transition. And after signing the agreement without the closing, we are already taking greater action, not fully as we have set out in the shareholders' agreement, but we've advanced significantly. As soon as the closing happens, this should take place. This is expected for the next 30 to 90 days. So this G4 will also be more active in the company. And all of the decisions will be made there with their structure. During the transitional period, we're also going to assess and understand the best alternatives we have.
And whenever we have a material fact from the company to Petrobras, we will assess it. I can say that we do not intend to consolidate debt. We will continue to be a minority in the company. And all the decisions made within Petrobras will happen according to the best practices for what will be best for our shareholders, always following this concept of investing -- investments creating value for shareholders.
Going into details about this management. We got an important position with G4. So we're working in a joint manner, assessing their operations, their logistics, their trade, the synergies that we have with our refineries. This is being assessed in work groups with the new G4. This is expected for the next 30 to 60 days. But we are already doing this together. That's very important because we have several issues that need to be discussed immediately because of the spread, which is very good with the war and that will tend to be extended. The Middle East represents 25% of global petrochemical supplies.
We know that they had issues because of the war, which is providing us with a better spread. So this is a part of our discussion. We're speaking to Braskem about the working capital so that they can have the right working capital levels to really capture and monetize this excellent spread that will be longer. So we're doing this together and our expectations are very positive.
As Magda and Fernando said about Braskem. And as a reminder, highlighting what Fernando said, we will continue to have a stake of 40%, 46%. We don't want to consolidate the debt. We want to be partners with Braskem, and that's how it will be. And we're not going to let go of our percentage in Mexico.
Thank you. We will now hear a question from Rodolfo De Angele from JPMorgan.
My question is about the diesel and refinement market. We can see that Petrobras is doing its part, trying to supply the most it can to the market with refinery utilization reaching record levels. So what do you think will happen in the future? And what can you tell us about other levers to help supply the market with sporadic imports?
Rodolfo, this is Angelica. So we frequently assess our plans and how we're going to supply the market. We're always looking at this from an economic perspective, but also from a physical perspective, how we're doing, how much we're producing. Right now, we have been producing well. This is not the highest seasonal moment for diesel. But right now, we've produced enough volume to comply with our commitments. We believe that probably in the second half of the year, we will need to import diesel.
In June already, but in the second half of the year, without a doubt, will require diesel imports since that's usually when harvests happen and that has a higher demand. We had 2 stops. The war helped us with Brent, and it got us at a very favorable moment because we don't have a lot of programmed downtime. So that allowed us to raise the [ crude ] above 100. We're going to have one stoppage in Cubatão and one in Paraná at the end of the year.
So this will be in the middle of the second half of the year, and that also helped us to produce more. We're producing an additional 100,000 barrels of diesel with this increase in the utilization factor and the expansion of RNEST. This is allowing us to reduce and eliminate any need for imports, which is very good. Just adding to that, there is no diesel shortage in the market, even in the foreign market. If we need to import, we will do that without any trouble.
It's important to mention one thing. RNEST had a significant participation in the increased load. We're going from 75,000 to 115,000 after the first engineering assessment. Magda went to CPRH, the Environmental Agency in Pernambuco, ANP. She spoke to the governor. We're always being supported by our refinery engineers and our engineering directors. So we were able to raise the load to 140,000, and we're testing for 150,000 barrels a day. This was a refinery that was projected for 115,000 and an additional 5,000. We are currently at 150,000 in each train. So we're going from 230,000 to 300,000. So this is a part of our self-sufficiency project for 2030.
Also add to your response, it's also important to say that the BRL 1.52 subsidy that's being proposed by the government is enough to let us import diesel and supply it to the Brazilian market, importing without any losses, we have to highlight that. Petrobras is not incurring any losses when it comes to any type of action to avoid the volatility of prices for the Brazilian consumers.
Petrobras is making profit, and we intend to continue to make profit. And one thing that I must say is that the generation that preceded my generation used to love oil and gas. And now I must say that our current generation, what we like is money. So please rest assured that what we like is money. We do not want to simply make any social -- to do any social initiatives. Our social initiative is to provide more value to our brand. Thank you. And now let's move forward to the last question.
The last question comes from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs.
I have a follow-up on Fernando's comment that there will not be an extraordinary dividends this year. According to my calculations, the company's cash flow should be above the dividends to be paid according to the policy. So I'd just like to confirm if the priority will be given to reducing indebtedness or with any additional cash flow or if you see any extraordinary item in cash flow such as the consumption of working capital that might produce the cash flow to something closer to the dividends defined by the policy.
Bruno, the first thing is that when there is an increase in the working capital that will have an impact on the net cash flow. And automatically, there is an increase in the extraordinary dividends to all shareholders. So 45% of what we see in terms of additional revenue will be made available through ordinary dividends.
Then our priority becomes investments, and that's why we decided to have the base and target CapEx so that we can securely add new funding projects there. And we have already added a few. And if there are no additional projects for the period, the next item in the agenda would be to pay the debt so that we can converge towards BRL 65 billion or less. And if we have already paid the debt, yes, the investments this year are already adequate.
And as long as this has no negative impact on the next year, so we do see the possibility of paying extraordinary dividends. That's always been our line of thinking. That hasn't changed. We don't want to operate the company with a cash flow that's seen as an excessive cash flow.
This year, the situation is still pretty cloudy to allow us to say that there will be a surplus that will allow us to pay extraordinary dividends. Right now, I can tell you that the possibilities are quite low so far. As Magda said, we've seen the Brent go from $110 to $90 overnight, $20 of volatility over the course of 1 day does not make us feel secure enough to make any decisions to distribute dividends. We'd be happy to get to the end of the year, with such a high amount of surplus that will allow us to distribute dividends, but I cannot tell you that yet that, that will be the case.
As I said, the situation is pretty cloudy so far. But we've been doing that during the construction of our strategic plan. So we're going to revise it towards the end of the year.
Thank you, Bruno, for the question. And thanks, Fernando for your answer. I want to thank everybody that participated. And I'd like to apologize to those of you that we could not answer on this occasion. This is the end of our Q&A session. If you have any additional questions, they can be answered through our Investor Relations team. I will now give the floor to President Magda, so please President Magda, you have the floor.
I want to thank everybody for patiently listening to us talk about the results of the first quarter and investment priorities for Petrobras. It's very important that we can count on your trust in our operations. After all, it is this mutual trust. On the one side, Petrobras that it has the interest of investors in mind and investors on the other hand, that -- their interests are taken into account. This is why it moves us forward. We can tell you that we're going to continue to deal with the company with a lot of capital discipline and compliance with all of our governance standards so that we can contribute to the growth of Petrobras in a way that's secure and profitable catering to the interests of our shareholders, be they governmental, private, or society in general.
So we are certain that we reached a great level during the first 76 years of Petrobras and that we still have a lot to deliver and contribute to Brazil for the next 72 years of Petrobras' existence. In order for that to happen, we need to be strong, thriving with a consistent free cash flow. Petrobras is a strong cash generator. I don't have to convince you of that. That's something that you can see, even before we can, so we keep on willing to deliver an increasingly strong Petrobras. Thank you all. Our doors are open. Our investor relations channels are always available. Eduardo is constantly available to all of you as well as all of us. Thank you.
Thank you, President, Magda. Thanks, everybody. This presentation will be been available on our Investor Relations website. And we will also make the audio recording available. Thank you, and have a great day.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
Record production and refining drove strong Q1 cash generation; management keeps capital discipline and will prioritize investment and debt reduction over special payouts.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Production: Q1 average 2.58m bbl/day; April monthly record 2.73m bbl/day; pre‑salt ~2.18m bbl/day (April ≈+30% vs 2024 monthly)
- EBITDA: $11.7B (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization, ex‑one‑offs)
- Net income: $4.5B (ex‑one‑offs); operating cash flow $8.4B
- Refining: Refinery runs ~97.4% in March (exceeded 100% later); S10 (low‑sulfur) diesel 512k bbl/day; 1.8m bbl/day byproducts
- Capital & balance sheet: Q1 CapEx ~$5B (~90% to Exploration & Production); gross debt $71.2B (target $67B in 2026/$65B by plan end); cash $9.1B
🎯 What Management Says
- Ramp upstream: Rapid delivery of FPSOs and wells (P‑78/P‑79, Almirante Tamandaré upgrades) to lift production and capture pre‑salt productivity.
- Refining focus: Raise refinery utilization and S10 diesel output to increase domestic supply; aim to cover 85% of diesel demand to 2030 and study projects for full self‑sufficiency.
- Capital discipline: Prioritize high‑return E&P projects, use plan flexibility to accelerate valuable projects, and target debt reduction before extraordinary payouts.
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Guidance: Company maintains 2026 plan and operating‑cost targets (Opex guidance BRL20.2B); expects higher Brent to flow into Q2 results due to timing of exports.
- Debt path: Gross debt closed Q1 at $71.2B with management aiming for ~$67B in 2026 and ~$65B by plan end.
- Capital allocation: Continue investing in high‑return projects (flexible base/target CapEx); extraordinary dividends unlikely this year unless sustained excess cash.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Downstream & subsidies: Petrobras is shielding domestic consumers via federal diesel subsidies (subventions recorded as receivables); subsidies will ease consumer prices but raise short‑term working capital until reimbursed.
- CapEx flexibility: Management open to accelerating projects (e.g., Sergipe, additional Búzios phases) after technical and governance approvals; long‑term returns drive decisions.
- Braskem & international: Petrobras to take a more active operational role at Braskem (G4 shareholder group) without consolidating Braskem debt; international expansion (Africa, Mexico, Venezuela) discussed but no firm commitments.
⚡ Bottom Line
Operational outperformance (production and refining) positions Petrobras for stronger Q2 earnings as higher Brent prices are realized; management stays disciplined—prioritizing profitable reinvestment and debt reduction—so shareholders should expect growth and balance‑sheet repair rather than large one‑off payouts this year.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
[Audio Gap]
Webcast for our results, the fourth Q for this year. It's a pleasure to be with you. This event will be presented in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English. And the links to both languages can be found on our website, the Investor Relations website.
I'd also like to say that all participants will be able to watch the broadcast online as listeners. And after the introduction, there will be a Q&A session as usual and you can send your questions to our e-mail.
With us today, we have Magda Chambriard the President of Petrobras, Álvaro Tupiassu, the President of Gas and Energy on behalf of Angelica Laureano, our Executive Director of Energy Transition and Sustainability; Clarice Coppetti, Executive Director of Corporate Subjects, Claudio Schlosser, Director of Logistics. Fernando Melgarejo, the Financial Executive Director of Investor Relationships, Renata Baruzzi, Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation and Ricardo Wagner, Director of Governance and Compliance; Sylvia Anjos, Executive Director of Exploration and Production; and William França, Director of Industrial Processes and Products.
So now I will give the floor to our President, Magda Chambriard for her initial considerations.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you to present our results for 2025. And for the fourth Q of the same year. We are extremely proud of our results, and that's why I say, and I repeat that if you place your bets against Petrobras, you're going to lose and we keep saying that.
Having said that, let's now start up by saying that at 2025, as you saw, was an unprecedented year in terms of the production growth in Petrobras. As you could see, over the course of the quarters, there was a constant increase in production, which is the result of a technical, secure, well-executed job done by our teams which work in an absolutely integrated manner, guaranteeing efficiency and the best possible use of our ore in our facilities of, our beds in our facilities.
First, I'd like to remind you that the brand did not help us. The oil prices had -- they plummeted, but it was the growth of our production. That allowed us to mitigate this drop in production. That was a big drop in the oil prices, but we delivered an additional 11% in terms of production in 2025 when compared to 2024, achieving and surpassing our goals has been a constant thing in the company. In terms of refining capacity, platform production and oil exploration goals or goals around the allocation of new products to new markets.
So I want to highlight a few of our records. The Buzios field platforms surpassed the operated production milestone of 1 million barrels per day in October 2025. And therefore, it's a goal that was surpassed before the deadline, the Atapu, and Sépia fields also reached 1 million barrels per day, and we are proud to say that this happened on December 31, 2025, showing that the Petrobras team is heads on 24/7. We're repeating into in Atapu, and Sépia, the historical milestone we reached in 2019. When it comes to nonrenewable energy, we should pay attention to this field, it was a declining field, a huge field that have been declining since 2019 that was able to go back to production levels making Petrobras proud to have 2 oil fields that produce more than 1 million barrels per day in the pre-salt sector and more oil means more cash flow, more investment capacity, more taxes and more dividends.
We are proud of having surpassed these goals. We've been working hard to achieve them and to surpass other goals, and we'll move forward, accelerating deliveries whenever we have the opportunity with a full focus on safety, operational excellence and capital discipline. A recent example of this efficient approach was the conclusion, the completion of the anchoring of P-79. P-79 was the latest platform to arrive in Brazil in the last few days of this year. And after arriving, it was anchored and a record-breaking period of 12 days with 26 anchoring systems connected once again proving that we operate with excellence, planning, integration across the teams in everything we do. P-79 is already moored. And soon, it will start to operate.
If we look at 2025, I need to highlight that we delivered our facilities before the deadlines. We delivered the contracts for refineries below the intended price and with that, we've been -- every day, we've been producing more. We've been producing better with fewer resources. And this is Petrobras' constant search for excellence. We used to say that tomorrow needs to be better than today. And today, undoubtedly has been better than yesterday.
We also had great news about our oil and gas reserves. In 2025, we incorporated 1.7 billion oil barrels, which allowed us to achieve the highest number of proven reserves at the company for the last 10 years. We're proud of this milestone especially because last year, we achieved a record-breaking production levels, record-breaking exporting levels. And nonetheless, we guarantee a record-breaking level of reserve replacement.
Our reserve replacement level and our generation of proven reserves and production have been much higher than those of our peers across the industry. In 2025, as I said, in terms of oil exportation -- exporting, it was 675,000 barrels exported per day in a year. In the last quarter of the year, the average was of almost 1 million barrels per day, which is the result of our logistic efficiency in relieving our platforms and a continuous work towards developing new markets. When I referred to almost 1 million barrels exported in the fourth quarter of 2025. I'm proud to say that it was almost because it was 999,000 barrels per day.
We almost hit the 1 million mark, developing new markets, logistic efficiency to allow for these exporting levels, new high-quality products sent to the market refineries achieving a utilization factor of 92% with almost 70% of the production being comprised by diesel gasoline and QAV, which are our highest added value by products, which contributed hugely to value generation and to our sales.
You can see that in spite of the drop in the oil prices, we delivered robust results with the production -- with the drop in production mitigated by the increased production and by the excellent performance of our refineries and by the expansion of the markets that our most valuable products. As I said, we sold 1,747,000 barrels per day worth of byproducts in the internal market, 1.43% higher than the same year -- the same period of the previous year, and that was fostered by gasoline and QAV that accounted for 74% of our sales. The sales of QAV aviation fuel saw an increase of 6% in the year, reaching the best performance level of the last 6 years. We keep on expanding the S10 diesel production, a high value-added diesel, and we've been advancing in the production of renewable content fuels.
Our diesel containing 5% to 10% of renewable content is a reality that's being increasingly accepted by our market. We started by producing a sustainable aviation fuel SAF at the Duque de Caixas and Henrique Lage Refinery. At President Bernandes, we started the contracts for the construction of this first plant dedicated to the production of SAF and green diesel. In addition to that, we, for the first time, delivered in 2025, a bunker with renewable content to the Asian market. I've had the possibility to tell you that in the previous quarter, but we're making good money by offering bunker or navigation fuel with a 24% content of renewable fuel in the Asian market. It's a good amount of money with all of the batches having been sold quickly at high levels. In the gas market, we also had great news. The second module of the Boaventura Complex unit for processing natural gas started to operate last year, increasing the total processing capacity of the unit to 21 million cubic meters per day.
We reached the milestone of 6.6 million cubic meters per day in terms of gas volume contracted in the inflexible modality. This is what a free market looks like, doubling the client database of Petrobras while still keeping our excellent service levels. This means that Brazilian companies keep on believing and betting that Petrobras is their main natural gas provider in Brazil. We will still have big growth opportunities with value generation moving forward. We've been able to combine a high-quality portfolio with high returns with an administration strategy based on discipline and capital increased operational efficiency. Petrobras is imbued with a strong purpose, which is to make this company increasingly bigger, growing along with Brazil, delivering to a Brazilian society and its investors, be they state-owned or private, the best the company has to offer.
We are building a company that is profitable, increasingly diversified and prepared to lead a just energy transition as well as prepared to fight the volatility of such an unstable oil market as the one that we are now facing, generating return for our shareholders and wealth and development for Brazil. I want to thank you all for your trust, and I reiterate that Petrobras' commitment is towards an even better future for the company and for Brazil. Before wrapping up, I want to say it again, if you place your bets against Petrobras, you're certainly going to lose. I'm proud to say that. Thank you for your presence.
And now I'll give the floor to our CFO, Fernando Melgarejo, who will have the honor to disclose on our behalf the financial results, which we're all very proud of. Thank you.
Thank you, Magda, for your introduction. I want to greet all of the directors and everybody that's watching us on this webcast, which discloses the results of the fourth Q of 2025 and the yearend closing for 2025. As President Magda said, we had an unprecedented growth in the oil and gas production in the company, which reinforces the quality of our assets as well as our capacity to have a strong cash flow generation even in face of challenging scenarios. Let's see how this reflected in our financial results in the next slide.
First, let's talk about the external environment. The average Brent in 2025 was $69 per barrel, a 14% drop compared to 2024 and well below our expectations. These are factors that, by their nature, are outside of our control. What we can and should manage is our resilience in the most diverse scenarios. For that, we demonstrated the company's management capacity to extract the maximum potential from our assets. Later, we'll talk about the management levers and projects that boosted production. Our adjusted EBITDA reached $42.5 billion without considering exclusive events. The amount is $43.8 billion, which is in line with the previous year. Net income reached $19.6 billion without exclusive events, it's at $18.1 billion.
Here, we left out gains from exchange rate variations and other factors that do not have a cash effect. In other quarters, exchange rate variation negatively impacted the balance sheet. This time, the impact was positive on the corporate result, reflecting the appreciation of the real against the dollar. Finally, in terms of operating cash flow, even though we are facing a scenario of a plummet in the Brent, we generated $36 billion in operating cash during the year, maintaining the results at the same level as last year, challenged by a 14% drop in Brent, which demonstrates that our result is robust, sustained by quality assets with high returns and rapid cash generation. This slide shows how we delivered these results even though there was this drop in Brent.
In 2025, we recorded a growth in the sales of derivatives in the domestic market of totaling 1.7 million barrels per day. I wish to highlight the 5.2% increase in diesel sales, a result that reinforces our competitiveness and capacity to meet the demand of the Brazilian market with profitability. We achieved a refinery utilization factor of 91% with 68% of the production being comprised of higher value-added derivatives such as diesel, gasoline and QAV. Another important aspect is that 70% of the oil processed in our refineries came from the pre-salt, which contributed to the generation of higher value derivatives, reduction of emissions and to our logistical optimization. This result is aligned with our commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.
A key factor for the offsetting Brent falls is what we achieved in 2025. We exceeded our target. So we have an x-ray of this 11% increase of our production in 2025 and the new production of the pre-salt had a vital role in these results. Buzios still delivers more than expected with productivity levels that are very high. In October 2025, [indiscernible] platforms reached a record of 1 million barrels of oil a day. In the Tamandaré, as you know, is now the platform with the highest production in Brazil with over [ 240,000 ] barrels a day. The platform reached a record of instant flow rate of 270,000 barrels a day. We have no records of a similar level -- production level worldwide.
In Mero, we hit another record, [ 650,000 ] barrels, and we increased our operating efficiency everywhere between 2024 and 2025, we reached an increase in efficiency of about 4 percentage points, and this represents additional production of 100,000 barrels of oil a day. This efficiency gains is equivalent to a startup of a new production like the Maria Quiteria and the Jubarte oil field. In other words, we're delivering a new platform -- production platform with just this efficiency increase. So that means more oil with the same assets. And with that result, we want more. We are committed to doing more with less. So -- and that is for everyone here, all the officers here, our employees. That's why we have programs for operating efficiency and also to reduce losses that can be avoided. This shows our teams have reached a new efficient operating efficiency level at Petrobras.
Next, please. From the beginning of our management, we have put efforts into changing the behavior of what was found in our investment in the previous years. Until 2023, we invested about 70% of our CapEx. And now recently changed in 2024 and 2025, our focus was on a profitable production increase. Our investment impacts much more than the deliveries of 2025. And that means our long-term commitment. For example, the tie-in of 77 oil wells. That was a historical milestone before the top number was 57. So we over -- more than doubled what we had before. We also reduced the risk of delays and increased the likelihood of anticipation, and this is something we've already discussed before about anticipations and forecast of anticipations. This is crucial for us to reach our production growth on our business plan.
Next, please. This is why 84% of our investment was allocated in exploration and production, as we can see. So 11% in RTM and 2% in low carbon energy. In other words, [ $17 billion ] in E&P with the best portfolio in the world. We'd also like to stress that the cost of our execution projects are in -- we're in control of that. We should know that all these anticipation of projects that is something we always work for. We've always avoided as we can see on the table, a full life CapEx of our current business plan projects are slightly lower than the same period in 2025,'29.
Next, on this slide, we have great news that we announced at the beginning of the year about our reserves. We added [ 1.7 billion ] additional reserve barrels, and that led us to have the highest reserves volume in the last 10 years. So -- and that's between December 21, 2025. And the replacement rate was 175%, even considering a record production in 2025. And the ratio between probable reserve and the production is below -- above what we expect, above what our peers are. So we have low cost, and this will be our -- remain our priority. Between December -- on December 31, 2025, we had $69.8 billion that our gross debt. We should highlight that over 60% of our debt, in fact, 62% comes from leasing, the platforms also ships and probes that's part of our debt.
In 2025, the Almirante Tamandare recorded $2.6 billion in debt and the Alexandre de Gusmao, another $0.4 billion -- sorry, $1.1 billion. So on our webcast, we should remind you that these new leasing installments lead to production-generating assets. In other words, it generates income. The 2 additional platforms added 270,000 barrels a day in capacity only for Petrobras. When you look at our financial debt, we're still working on our debt management. Along 2025, we want the lowest debt profile. And I'd also like to highlight very successful market -- capital market operations that took place in December with our bonds that became more attractive and also liability management operations in quarter 4 with some pre-banking prepayments in banking. So we had reductions in our debt from 2025 to 2026 and our -- next, please.
This quarter, the Board of Directors approved a detailed report for the payout of BRL 8.1 billion, BRL 0.62 per share that were paid in 2 similar installments in May and June. This strategy is to generate value and to conciliate investment in high-yield projects. And then we can remunerate shareholders in a competitive fashion. With regard to what Petrobras is giving back to society, it cannot be held in a single slide. Everything that is produced in this company, every platform, refinery, power plant, laboratory for every social project generates consequences for many layers of society. We want a short summary that can cascade down our Brazilian economy.
So we start with investment. In 2025, as we mentioned, we invested over [ $20 billion ], increasing -- an increase of 22% with regard to 2024. We're committed to speeding up everything that we can to generate return to our investors and to society. This investment led to over 300 jobs -- 300,000 jobs. That's about 5% of Brazilian investment. Another example is BRL 277 billion. That's what we paid, including tax royalties and special interest to government, state and local governments. We also distributed BRL 45 billion in dividends, BRL 17.6 billion for the controlling group, and we also allocated BRL 2 billion approximately in social environmental investments, sponsorships and donations. These are some examples of our multiplying effect in Brazil.
Finally, I'd now like to stress that we have high-quality projects that will deliver growth -- both growth and profitability. The entire Brazilian society as well as our shareholders will enjoy long term with all these benefits. I'd also like to stress that we focus on executing our business plan from 2026 to '30. We have 3 fronts. First, capital discipline; number two, greater production; and number three, higher efficiency levels. This is what we will keep seeking throughout 2026. We want results and also economic development for this country. So this is the end of my presentation. Thank you. So all the top management is here, all the directors, officers are here to answer your questions. Eduardo?
Thank you, Magda and Fernando. We will now start our Q&A session.
The first question comes from Rodolfo De Angele of JPMorgan.
2. Question Answer
So I think every analyst is entitled to a single question. I'd like to discuss some of your, earnings in further detail of quarter four. But as I cannot, I cannot ask a long question, I'll just ask about your current scenario. In other words, what's going on in the oil and gas industry, considering the conflict in the Middle East. We've had questions by our clients on how the situation is, especially with regard to fuel. So how is Petrobras preparing to work in this moment of uncertainty and also highly volatile prices?
So now I'd like to hear from you, from Petrobras' top management, how you see your supply situation. Do you have any prospects, any strategy about prices? Can you give us your views? Is there anything going on in exports? Is it possible to increase the use of refineries in the short run? So these are some of my concerns that I can ask of you, especially short-term concerns.
Thank you. I'll start by answering the question, and then I'll ask the other officers to also give their answers in refining and finance. Yes, undoubtedly, this is a high geopolitical instability. So at this moment, we want to make sure that the company is ready for any situation, anything that may happen. So if it's USD 85 per barrel, we need to be prepared. If it's USD 55, we need to be equally prepared. I'd just like to remind you that we started last year with an oil price that was higher than $80, and we finished the year with less than $60, so that was $59. And the company delivered its results and showed that it has remained resilient and faced this price variation accordingly.
At the beginning of the year, this volatility was again very high as a result of the war. But we still keep or stick to our internal policy, which remains solid. We looked at the oil and derivative pricing without transferring this volatility to the Brazilian domestic market. And this is something we've been doing several times. Last year, we delivered a great result in terms of prices. So when Petrobras looks at international qualities and the appreciation of its products and also considering its own space, in other words, how it is in the Brazilian market. This is not a concern anymore. This is an equivocal I've had many similar questions this week. So this was okay when the price of oil decreased. Will this also work when prices increase exponentially as we see it now? Yes, it will. We have no price -- internal policy of price fluctuations. There's no discussions on this matter.
As for routes, we will have an explanation in further details in a minute, but we really need to keep exporting what we need to export our refinery or import what we need importing our refineries still have a growing processing capacity. Our manager, William -- Officer William will talk about that. And our cash is still on our focus. We're really concerned about ensuring that this company remains resilient, that we respect our capital discipline and that we reduce costs. We're talking about $85. A few years ago, it was $59. And now those that mentioned $55 next year. So we are indeed working hard and checking all these variables, and we want to ensure that the company remains absolutely prepared to face any scenarios that might come up along 2026 and 2027.
I'll now give the floor to another director. And the second one will be [ Fernando ] who will talk about the performance of our refineries. I'd also like to remind you that when it comes to exploration production and connection between oil wells, we are ensuring increasingly greater production and our target is to have increasingly more oil wells and also to optimize our -- the production and extraction of our deposits. Everyone is working hard and together to deliver these results.
So can you explain a little more about this global market, Schlosser?
Yes. Thank you, President Mrs. President. Yes, the company has this strategic plan. So we are indeed prepared for a Brent range that is quite wide when you consider the short -- and that in the long term. Now in the short run, our situation is highly unexpected. I think we've never had such a scenario. So the regions that export 16 million in oil and an additional 5 million in petroleum products, this region will be closed. Of course, this has a huge impact. We take snapshots at different times, 10 days ago, for instance, what people said, they were talking about $50 a barrel or a surplus of 4 million or 5 million barrels available. So -- and then it all changed.
So we have different focuses at different points. There are also consequences to this. When we have, for example, Brent. So the first is when you no longer have this production of oil and petroleum products. It's as though the market froze. Oil was not being paid, and we have 2 or 3 days without oil trading. That was the initial impact. So we know that we know how that works and the market is now expected to change prices or adapt to the new pricing. We have many ships that were trapped. There's also a set of ships that are unloading, so shipping -- or freight values are now adjusting. So in the short run, let's look at our snapshot again. Our current snapshot is when -- as for our oils is that this means a favorable netback to Petrobras. So we have greater margins.
So when it comes to oil, I would also add the fact that the markets that we supply, they're outside of the conflict region. We're not in the Gulf region or any other region where there's a conflict. All of our flows go towards India, Europe and other areas. So we're outside of this area, which is a good position for the company. If you look at the oil, we're looking at a more interesting netback for the company in terms of shipping. If you compare Petrobras with other companies in the world when it comes to freight, Petrobras is also in a privileged position. If you look at the international market, the companies are more or less working with 5% of their own fleets and 95% with other contracts. And Petrobras is with a -- in a much better position in oil exploration, we have more than 30% of rate allocated to long-term contracts, which is also an advantage and the market average doesn't even reach 10%. So we're very well positioned in that regard. So for -- that's what I would have to say about the -- about oil.
When it comes to refined products, Petrobras is having no difficulty meeting its goals. We work with an optimized business plan. We optimize all of our assets, and we have very robust assets for that, be they terminals, refineries, pipelines. So we optimize that, and we optimize the more attractive export -- importing products. And we've been able to meet our goals and the imports are in line with our plans. In gas, we -- in gasoline, we are exporting it.
In LNG, we are also exporting it. We talk to the market, and there's a relevant level of importing being carried out by distributors. And the vessels that were coming towards Brazil are still coming to Brazil. And we'll get here. If you look at the entire scenario, the business plan of Petrobras and the other players is in line with our previous plans. I'd also like to say that when it comes to supply, in terms of supply, Petrobras is committed to its clients. In Brazil, Petrobras is not the only player in the supply side. We have other relevant players in Brazil. So this is our perspective when it comes to products and refined products.
The long-term perspective, as I said, is well covered by the strategic planning and the short-term view has to be done on a snapshot-by-snapshot basis. Every day is a different day. We do a constant assessment and obviously, we make use of the best netback opportunities, be they related to oil exporting or more profitable imports. So this is -- these are the details of the short-term planning. We covered basically everything along with our President. In terms of refining, we're already using the logistic planning for the first Q. And the idea is that we ended the year with 91% of foot in FUT and we'll close the first Q with 95% with a very good use of refined products. We have a few scheduled downtimes, especially in 4 refineries this year and replan will be revamped and expanded, but with the monitoring of the units, we are able, if necessary, to extend the campaign period of refineries, increasing the production of the refined products. And if necessary, we're also going to do that.
So we're working in a synergy with the logistics and commercialization area. And as we said, we've had an increase in the utilization factor, which is very good. It's a benchmark from a global perspective. I would say the biggest reference is strategic planning. There are no changes in that regard. We are seeking efficiency, also reducing our balance Brent to $59, as we said. And all of these optimizations are being looked into by the directors, and they can be reverted into good operational results for the company.
Well, I'm talking about pricing. The business strategy of Petrobras was created for times like these where there is a huge volatility as we are seeing in the market, a huge volatility coming from unexpected facts, and this is what it was created for. The business strategy of Petrobras provides this robustness to the company when it comes to conducting its business.
Thank you, Magda, Fernando, Schlosser, Emilia. Before we take the next question. I forgot to say -- let's limit the number of questions to 1 question per analyst, please.
Lilyanna Yang from HSBC.
First, I want to congratulate you on the greater transparency of information. And my first -- my question is the oil price is much higher than the Brent that you have in your budget, the one that outlines the investment plans. If the oil prices are still high, like that. Can you tell us what is the priority allocation of the cash flow that would be generated in excess of the budget for the first half.
Just to give you a hint of what I'm looking at is -- what are the investment projects out of the $10 billion that have not been approved or the ones that you said that you want to approve but the final investment decision could be postponed. What -- or which of these projects are in a more advanced approval stage and does that include Braskem, for instance?
Thank you for your question. Great to hear you again. Our priority is capital discipline as usual. We'll always be very careful in all of our decisions. It's something very recent. The entire world is still assessing its full effects. No one is fully clear as to what is going to happen, the new Brent price levels and/or even if that applies to the short or long term. What we've discussed before, including with you and your team, is that we always focus on the scheduled investments, both in terms of our base CapEx, our target CapEx and our CapEx under assessment. This is our focus.
And obviously, if there is additional revenue, we'll take care of investments, then we'll take care of the debt. We want to converge to [ $65 billion ] in 5 years. And if there is a cash surplus, we will try to anticipate it according to our capital discipline that we've been discussing. So our rationale is still the same when it comes to elevated unnecessary cash levels. If we understand that our cash flow levels are too high, we would love to distribute extraordinary dividends as long as we're sure that there will be no impact on the financial ability of our declared projects based on our '26 to 2030 strategic plan.
Now the next question comes from Bruno Montanari from Morgan Stanley.
Going back to the first subject about the prices, just to confirm, if I understand you correctly, it's very clear that the policy does not transfer volatility to the domestic market, but the President also said that it works in scenarios of high oil and low oil price scenarios. Since the Brent has reached levels above 90 today, for how long can the company maintain its unaltered prices before that starts harming its refining margin?
In other words, should we always expect the refining margin to be positive in scenarios where this margin is challenged. Is this the moment where you make the decision to adjust the prices, assuming that the prices will remain like that for weeks or months? I'd just like to understand if that's the correct way to look at the policy.
Thank you for your question. I will start the answer and then Schlosser will help me with the rest of the answer. Your sentence says something interesting. If this assumption remains like this. So I think that right now, what we're asking ourselves is what's the trend -- what's the tendency? What will that look like a few days from now? Is that a momentary spike? Have we changed our rules unnecessarily? Or is that a more persistent change that has to be faced?
I would say that as of now, this question remains unanswered. But if this volatility is really this high and if the price ascent is really that high, it will certainly require quicker responses than it would require if this scent were slower. But as you said yourself, as of now, we are not sure about anything. let alone this about this assumption.
Thank you. I think I agree with you. As you said very well, it's part of Petrobras' strategy to be the customers' best alternative. And we're constantly analyzing the international market prices, and we have to look at our position. Our exploration and production has been producing oil significantly. There has been an increase in refineries. As William said, our performance is world-class. And the main principle is not to transfer volatility.
In the past, for instance, readjustments were happening on a daily basis. If anything happened in the market, that would get immediately transferred to the market, but that does not work. It doesn't work for the company. It doesn't work for society in general. So basically, what we support in terms of commercial strategy is to guarantee that. And as the President put it very well, the thing is we're talking about snapshots. In 10 days, we're talking about a completely different scenario. We're talking about [ $1 billion ] in oil floating around the world.
So as I said, the strategy was created to take these aspects into account. But evidently, as you said, another variable that's part of the business strategy is financeability, which is comprised in the strategy. It's analyzed on a daily basis from a technical standpoint, and that's how we position ourselves. If you ask me, we have not adjusted the diesel prices in 300 days, even though there is an environment that's full of conflicts around the world. So given that volatility, the most important factor here is time.
Thank you, Magda and Schlosser. Bruno, thank you for your question.
The next question comes from Bruno Amorim from Goldman Sachs.
Congratulations on the solid deliveries throughout the year, especially on the production side. My question is along the lines of production. I'd like to hear take on the optionalities for anticipations and the operations of platforms. Is there a possibility of advancing them to 2026. I mean, what are the conversations with suppliers like -- so that's a more encompassing question. If there is an anticipation being considered in terms of anticipating the operations of platforms.
As we always say, we're always trying to anticipate. For 2026, we don't consider that any other anticipation is possible for the sail away of these platforms. The P-80 will sail away in August, P-82 in September and P-83 in February of next year. What we are looking at is the anticipation of ramp-up of P-78 and P-79. For P-78, I talked about -- we talked about the mooring record of P-79. But this week, we hit a record of the first injection of gas at P-78. The shortest time we reached with our own platforms had been with P-66 at 79 days. We were able to anticipate the injection by quite a bit, and that's fundamental in order for us to proceed with the other wells.
We have one interconnected well to P-78 and by stabilizing the gas injection, we'll ask for approval for a second well and so on and so forth. So for 2026, our campaign is to accelerate the ramp-up of the current platforms.
Thank you, Renata, and thank you, Bruno, for your question.
Give me one second, Eduardo. Just a reminder, Bruno, we are talking about 2 large platforms that will go into production in a scenario where we're able -- we've been able to significantly reduce the decline in the production of the large fields. So our reserves have allowed us to reduce the decline in production. And you've seen that if you look at the production numbers from last year, we're able to reduce the decline of our fields from 2024 until today from 12% to 4% per year. If we were at 12%, we would be adding platforms with no effects on production increase.
So if we are better able to manage our fields and optimize our gas injection projects, as Renata said, our water injection projects, our complementary development projects and so on and so forth. If we do that, we're able to keep the fields with a minimum amount of decline so that the new platforms really lead to an increased production. So at 4% of decline per year, more or less in the pre-salt, 2 platforms of 180,000 each represent a significant production increase for 2026.
In addition to the sale away of P80 in August. It should take it 2 to 3 months to arrive in Brazil. So in -- by November, it will be moored and that also ensures that by the beginning of 2027, we'll have additional support to our production. So we have 2 large platforms that will go into production this year, changing the production levels of Brazil and another 2 for the beginning of 2027, that will also go into production, also changing the production levels of Brazil in the beginning of 2027.
Thank you, Magda. We will now go on to our next question. That's Monique Greco, Itaú BBA.
I'll resume your -- the topic of our trade strategy. So when you discussed how you're dealing with volatility in the short run, so it's really interesting to see how you can ensure greater allocation of your production. So my question is now a similar question to your commercial strategy. So how are you running your commercial strategy? Are you meeting every day? Are you evaluating it weekly, every 15 days? Can you tell me more about how you've been building this answer to a question that remains unanswered. So can you give me more details about this process in order to build, to design the structure that you need to have before you decide your next move?
Monique, thank you for your question. I'll start by discussing our process, telling you about our process, what -- how the whole company is involved in the process. So as we said, our commercial strategy, it has this goal of being the best option for our clients. That's what we want to be. We have to have a strong position. That's what our commercial strategy aims at. So what do we do? We have our technical team working on this, our domestic market commercialization, our foreign market commercialization teams. These people, they talk daily. Every day, we write reports. So again, we have follow-up -- daily follow-up reports on Brent or even the exchange rate to the dollar of our petroleum products or derivatives. It's all part of what we call our alternative cost to our clients.
This is a daily analysis and reports are written and forwarded to everyone to a group, a special group with a President and the commercialization of logistics and finance officers. So we get that information every day. And this is also something we do with our officers. Our top management analyzes the scenarios, moments of crisis. So we do this much more frequently. Last week, for instance, we had a discussion with the executive directors, about the scenario or the pricing scenario. So when we have more disruption in the horizon, that means more frequent meetings. And also everything is presented to the Board of Directors. Our Board of Directors is also aware of all the conditions and what is being done in our commercial strategy. So we have daily meetings. And even when the need arises, it can -- we have more participation from the executive suite and also even the Board of Directors. I don't know if I answered your question.
Thank you for your question. Monique, thank you, Schlosser. Now Regis Cardoso, XP, you may proceed Regis.
I have a single question. So let me now discuss your current crisis situation. In the foreign market, we see limits shut-in oil production in the Middle East and crack spread of some products abroad. So my question is, in your physical operation per se in Petrobras in Brazil, what are the consequences? What are the effects that you feel in terms of LGP or the importing of liquefied gas? LNG or what you get from the oil that you are not getting from the Middle East, how will you adapt your refineries?
In other words, physically speaking, how has your operation or how have the operations been affected or maybe gasoline is less critical, but tell me about your day-to-day operations and how you're adapting and how you believe this will change or evolve over time because I know that you also have some ways of absorbing that fluctuation, but how will happen with your stocks over time?
Okay. I'll try to be less repetitive, and I'll focus on some other details. There are some operations like we import a very specific oil used for lubricants. The oil, we have that from the Red Sea. So we have a ship in the Red Sea and they get out from the other side. Saudi Arabia, for instance, they have 2 logistic systems. The prevailing system, they get out of the Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz, but also from the Red Sea. That's an alternative route. In terms of inventory, in oil, we have a guaranteed provision. We have a significant supply of oil with a significant inventory. And [indiscernible], we have a very long-term contract with Saudi Arabia.
So this type of oil is something that is -- that we can rely on. And our planning also includes an optimized scenario with the greatest profitability. When you look at our -- and yield, when you look at our progression linear models, we have the following more interesting imports, and we may change this every day if the situation changes dramatically. So we have many opportunities, many alternatives. And this is something we're checking every day. If a new opportunity arises in oil production or petroleum products, we will make the best of that and tap into that opportunity.
So if you have ships, for instance, that are sent to the U.S., but then we have a new opportunity in Africa with a much greater cash netback. So that depends on what happens on different days. As for the supply and the planning of supply, we're talking in a short term -- from a short-term perspective. And we're looking at April, let's say, we're good. We have a good position -- market position. We have the imports coming from our distributors. So this is our current scenario. And the President -- our President has discussed widely about seeking operating excellence. So in 2025, we have an indicator that was planned and what was achieved. And this has been the best results we've ever had in Petrobras' history, considering what we plan to do, this is the best results we've ever had. So the difference between what we plan and what we achieved. This -- we've achieved the best results. And that's a very relevant indicator. It means that we are highly efficient, and that means a great result
Next question, Tasso Vasconcellos, Tasso your question you may proceed.
I'd like to explore a new topic, based on some news that we saw earlier. It's about your questions about IG4 and Braskem. So what are you expecting? What is the outcome of the discussion? Is there any time line? And in addition, how about the Braskem shareholders? Do you see the equalization of the debt at that company with some capital injection?
Good Petrobras participate in that process of injecting capital in any way. So -- and if that is not possible, what are the other options you've been discussing? How could Petrobras contribute at some sort of a loan or any other possibility.
And now one follow-up to this point, this discussion about extraordinary is this decision to be taken just by the end of the year? Or can that be evaluated throughout the year considering our current scenario.
Okay. I'll start the answer, and I'll turn it over for Fernando to continue. I think this is for -- is up to Fernando really to answer this question. Anyway, at Braskem, we have a corporate issue at state. What's going on? There's a related party, and we have a shareholders' agreement with them. So we in other words, our partner will have the preponderance of administration. In other words, if there's an agreement between the shareholder of Braskem with IG4 who represents the banks. So this is pending approval by the CADE committee. And this hasn't happened yet. And the latest news is that this would be postponed to a month. This space is absolutely necessary for us to have a new shareholders' agreement with IG4.
In other words, we can better address the synergies with the Petrobras -- between Braskem and Petrobras. In other words, today, we know the synergies are not being used the way they should. Ultimately, Braskem is leaving money on the table as these synergies are not used with a company as large as Petrobras. We believe this will be sold in the next -- in the near future. And we will finally be able to enter into that new agreement with a new partner. And the point is to maximize the synergy between the Petrobras system and Braskem to benefit both Petrobras and Braskem in addition to our shareholders, whether government or private shareholders and Brazilian society at large. Can you continue on that Melgarejo?
Right. Well, still about Braskem, we should remember that with the -- in our government instances, we approved prevailing right. We're just giving up the right of first choice for everything we approved. So things -- if there's nothing new, things will be as it is. This has already been decided. And as the President said, petrochemistry is one of Petrobras' interest. We see synergies in that. So we are placing our chips on this project. But we cannot speak on behalf of the company if money will be invested or not from that company to Petrobras.
So we will do everything that generates value to Petrobras' shareholders. This is the logic behind it all. But everything will be communicated in a timely manner as soon as CADE approves this -- these proposals are approved. And what we are having now is the shareholders' agreement. So we need to wait now for dividends. As for your question on dividends, when we were planning our strategy, it was and it still is, of course, so we need to be really careful about the foreign political situation, and they still have a perspective on our prices. So we considered this, and we have a basis CapEx, a target CapEx. In other words, we need to be flexible enough to add new projects, start working on new projects. In other words, our focus is on the execution of the projects we already have to begin with.
And with a new Brent, nothing will change in the conduction of our projects, the Brent that we are testing. They're still at $50. This does not change. We need long-term resilience. That will not change in all our governance instances or levels. We also have greater return for any new investment. So we're trying to optimize or to achieve the greatest return on investment. And if it gets to $110, so we need to have the levels that we expect. And then we are also evaluating how feasible those projects are. That's a new governance level here. And then if they also see if there's a surplus in cash every quarter, this is calculated. And we not necessarily have payouts next month or in the next quarter or next year. It's too early to be able to state anything.
If we have surplus cash, of course, we'd love to pay that out as long as it does not impact our long-term sustainability. But it's too early to say anything about that. And the practice of evaluating surplus as our strategic agenda is. This is the best thing Petrobras can do to discuss our extraordinary dividends.
Thank you, Magda, Fernando and Tasso. Now the last question of our webcast by Gabriel Barra of Citi.
Well, my question is about this situation of higher oil prices and the equatorial margin. This is a very important topic in my opinion. There was the issue of the leaks that's already been solved. Now can you tell me about your time line in your exploration schedule. So when we have the first figures for the projects in the region? And can you -- also in a higher oil price scenario, can you -- and as Fernando mentioned, that won't change your long-term perspective much, I believe. Now do you -- are you considering any short-term hedging as we have a more stressed oil scenario. We don't talk much about hedging for Petrobras. Other companies do this more often. So maybe can you talk about all these points?
So I'll talk about the hedge. We have no hedge strategy being assessed. So far, we haven't had any strategies for hedging. And our opinion is that we shouldn't apply any hedging to the oil prices. That's a long-standing rationale that we still consider to be valid. The hedging cost nowadays would probably be a huge and to apply hedging to the amount of oil that we produce would be unfeasible.
Talking about the equatorial margin, Sylvia?
Gabriel, about the equatorial margin, we can say that we made a great achievement, haven't obtained our license. We are now drilling. We've advanced. We are now introducing the -- implementing the BOP. And in very few days, we'll go back to production and we expect to reach the reservoir interval in the second quarter of 2026. When we acquired these blocks, we entered into a minimum exploration commitment. We have to drill this well plus another 7 to ensure that we're adequately exploring the region. Just to reiterate, the equatorial margin has a big potential. It's different from our other pre-salt fields. It's reservoirs are very similar to what we find in the -- such as basin in the post-salt. And we -- any assessment of what we're going to do is highly result dependent.
So for this well, the results of a single well do not allow us to assess the exploration. President Magda, just to say that in the Campos Basin, we came to the first discovery after 9 wells. And here, we're going to assess the oil system, the results of well whether it produces oil or not, that does not indicate that we are performing an exploratory assessment.
There is a huge potential the equatorial margin is not there by itself. It's aligned with major discoveries that were -- that occurred in Africa back in 2010 and 2012 and their equivalent to the discoveries of Guyana, our oil system will assess if this generator is equivalent to the La Luna generator of Venezuela and the efficiency of the oil system and if the migration generation were adequate so that we can achieve the accumulation that we expect to achieve. But the results only make sense after the discovery. And once the discovery occurs, the exploratory assessment and then only can we think about the production system that will be adequate. But let's root for this well, which is the world's most famous well.
Everybody asked me about it. My -- even the janitor asked me what about ROL? So yes, that's a route for yet another discovery.
Thank you, Sylvia and Fernando. Thank you, Barra, for your question. This is the end of our Q&A session. If you have any additional questions, please send them to our R&I team. We'll be happy to answer your questions.
I will now give the floor to the Petrobras President, Magda Chambriard for her final comments about the 2025 results.
We are very proud of the results we're delivering. Petrobras is extremely proud of its integrated work and the delivery capacity of the Petrobras team. Over the course of 2025, we became Latin America's biggest company, which required a lot of work, a lot of efforts dedication and a lot of purpose to turn this company into Latin America's biggest company, we've been able to do that.
So let's maintain our mission and purpose. The company is a strong cash generator. Our processes are solid. Our procedures have proven correct and effective, and this is what we're going to keep chasing. We are committed to providing the best possible production by our pre-salt giants. We've just made an important discovery in the Aram reservoir. It hasn't been tested yet, but we've seen a beautiful flame indicating that that's yet another pre-salt reservoir that's emerging with a beautiful flame produced by gas and condensate.
Along 2025, we made 5 discoveries, not as big as the pre-salt. I would say that there are midsized discoveries that will require development efforts on our part.
And we are considering all of them along with a complementary development project for 2P Buzios. And for the fields in general, both from the pre-salt and the Campos Basin with capital discipline and with the certainty that producing is not enough. We need to produce a value to our refineries and find the best possible markets for our products in the world. This is what we're doing, and that we'll keep on doing and this is how we should look at Petrobras and understand that this team is really committed to delivering what they promised. So let's keep doing this. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Fernando. Any final words?
Well to wrap up. Thank you, Magda. Thanks, everybody. It's great to be with you, and to the investors, we are constantly available to ask to answer your questions over the phone or in person. As a take-home message, I want to say that a wrong strategy in a commodity company at a time of high volatility may bring about huge difficulties for the future of the company. That is why our Administration principles are based on 3 important pillars, regardless of the price of Brent, whether it's going up or down, which is capital discipline operational efficiency in all of our processes and the search for production increase.
Thank you, Fernando. Once again, I thank you for your attention. This presentation will be available on our Investor Relations website soon, and the audio track will also be available to you. Thank you. Have a great day, and see you in the next webcast.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — 2025 Earnings Call
Petrobras delivers robust 2025 results with rising output, strong cash flow and disciplined investment amid volatile oil prices.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- Adj. EBITDA: $42.5B (exclusives); $43.8B including exclusive items; flat vs 2024
- Net income: $19.6B; $18.1B ex-exclusive
- Operating cash flow: $36B for the year
- Production growth: +11% YoY vs 2024
- Reserves: +1.7B barrels; replacement rate 175%
🎯 What Management Says
- Capital discipline: focus on profitable production, efficiency and debt management
- Growth cadence: ramp-up of pre-salt platforms; P-78/P-79 accelerating in 2026, with P-80/P-82/P-83 slated for 2026–27
- Volatility resilience: pricing policy preserves domestic margins while pursuing value through robust assets and markets
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- CapEx target: about $65B over 5 years; ~84% to exploration & production, ~11% RTM, ~2% low carbon
- Strategic plan: 2026–2030 focused on capital discipline, higher production, and efficiency
- Dividends/cash: potential extraordinary payouts only if cash surplus is sustainable; no hedging strategy planned
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Pricing policy: volatility not passed to domestic market; decisions may be quicker if volatility persists; snapshots guide responses
- Platform ramp‑ups: accelerate P-78/P-79 ramp; P-80 (Aug 2026), P-82 (Sept 2026), P-83 (Feb 2027) sail away; ongoing optimization of imports/exports
- Braskem/IG4 discussions: CADE approval pending; aim to maximize synergies with a new shareholders’ agreement; capital decisions contingent on regulatory approvals
⚡ Bottom Line
Petrobras’ 2025 results underscore its ability to generate robust cash flow and growth through the pre-salt assets while staying committed to capital discipline and efficiency. The key catalysts ahead are the ramp‑ups of new platforms and ongoing Braskem synergy discussions, with dividends dependent on cash availability and regulatory progress.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Petrobras - Special Call - Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras
1. Management Discussion
Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Petrobras webcast with analysts and investors about its new business plan for 2026-2030. We are pleased to have you tonight. This event is going to be broadcast with simultaneous translation into English. The links to both languages are on our Investor Relations website. The participants will be listening in online. After the introduction, we're going to have a Q&A session and you can send us questions through the email [email protected].
With us tonight, we have Magda Chambriard, the President of Petrobras; Angelica Laureano, the Executive Director of Energy Transition and Sustainability; Clarice Coppetti, Executive Director of Corporate Affairs; Daniel Sales Correa, Executive Director of Trade and the Internal Market on behalf of the Director of Logistics, Fernando Melgarejo; Renata Baruzzi, Executive Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation; Sylvia Anjos, Executive Director of E&P; and William Franca, Executive Director of Industrial Processes and Products.
Before we start, I need to tell you that we won't be going over the entire plan in this session so that we can prioritize the Q&A session. We're going to listen to 2 speeches initially from President Magda and Director Fernando and the entire slide deck is already available on our website.
To begin with, I'll give the floor to our President, Magda Chambriard. You have the floor, Madam President.
Good afternoon, everybody. I would like to start by greeting all of Petrobras directors that were involved in putting this event together. Eduardo de Nardi, Executive Manager of Investor Relations, our moderator that you know so well. I also want to greet all of the executive managers and our workforce who helped disseminate the plan and design the plan. And I also want to thank and greet all of the investors who are listening to us remotely and the press, the participants in this business plan session and everybody watching us.
We are very happy to present to you the 2026-2030 business plan. This is the second plan of our administration. And as you're going to see, there are some aspects that are a bit different from the previous business plan. Before we go over the plan and before we talk about the future, I would like to go over what we delivered in 2025. For 2025, we promised to focus on the execution and acceleration of E&P high-value projects, and we indeed delivered significant results. We had a leap in production that was extremely significant vis-a-vis last year, we delivered 11% more production if compared to the previous year.
In 2024, our production was 2,150,000 barrels per day of oil on average in addition to gas. And we forecast we'll be finishing 2025 with 2,400,000 barrels of oil in addition to gas. As I said, that amounts to a growth of 11%, which is greater than the growth recorded in the last 10 years, mind you. We also anticipated the ramp-up of FPSO Almirante Tamandaré, the first of our big giants with the capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil a day that in addition to gas, again, and we have delivered this production with 5 pre-salt wells. But in addition to that, with the team's dedication, the team of engineering supplies and other teams, we managed to transform a rig of 225,000 barrels per day into a rig of 270,000 barrels per day, certified by ANP, the national oil agency and also by the Brazilian environment institute. Therefore, this is the highest production platform in Brazil. And we are going to talk about which rig, it leads this segment in the world to see if we deserve a Guinness award or not for this rig. These deliveries had a direct impact on our results. To give you an idea, out of every 100,000 additional barrels of oil produced per day, we make $2.5 billion in additional revenue. So as you can imagine, if we produce an additional 250,000 that led us to generate a considerable amount of money with this additional production capacity. We also expanded in our production of S-10 low sulfur content diesel. This is our most profitable product. We also advanced in the processing of natural gas with the natural gas processing unit of the Boaventura Park at full capacity.
So with the expansion of the S-10 diesel processing, the processing of natural gas and with the increase in the production of gas in the fields operated by Petrobras, we had enough gas at reasonable prices to enable our fertilizer projects. For the next 5 years, our decisions have been maintained, and they can be translated into growth, as you probably have seen, we make no empty promises. And I'm actually saying that we're going to have more production, more energy, more high-quality byproducts and more sustainable fuels. All of that with value creation.
Our plan forecasts an investment of $109 billion over the next 5 years with more than 70% of that amount being allocated to E&P projects. Our strategy is to maximize the value of our portfolio, converting investments into production and a growing cash flow. If we look forward, what we see is an increasing oil production that will keep on increasing up until 2028 when we intend to reach 2.7 million barrels per day of oil that again, in addition to gas. One important difference between this business plan and the previous one is that in the previous business plan, we would see the pre-salt peak production at around 2030 and 2032, and declining from then on.
This year, we are forecasting a production peak of 2.7 billion barrels of oil a day and a production of around 2.6 million up until 2034, which is to say that by means of supplemental development projects and also with the new rigs, we are amplifying the production of our company up until 2024, therefore, extending it for an additional 2 or 3 years. In terms of barrels of oil equivalent, we intend to reach the milestone of 3.4 million barrels of oil and gas per day in 2028. And as you all know, we produce oil and gas associated, and we intend to maintain a level of equivalent production again up until 2034. We are certain through all of our analysis and all of our observations and the data that's been collected to put this plan together. We firmly believe that fossil fuels will remain necessary for the upcoming decades and that Brazilian oil with one of the lowest carbon footprints among the oils produced on Earth will have a permanent role.
We're going to explore new frontiers because that is essential in order for us to renovate our reserves. As of the moment, our production starts to decline. That will allow us to continually contribute to the energy security of Brazil as well as for its sustainable development since we have a low carbon footprint oil. After the drop in the prices of Brent oil, and I should remind you that for the first half of last year, the oil prices were at $83 per barrel, whereas today, it's priced at $62 or $63 per barrel, or $20 or less. Nevertheless, our results have been surpassing the profitability levels as seen previously. So given the drop in the oil prices, we'd like to reiterate our commitment to capital efficiency and discipline.
The results that we delivered to you in Q3 are proof that we are implementing serious measures to optimize costs with an estimated savings of around $12 billion in manageable operating expenses between 2025 and 2030. Director, Fernando will talk about the measures that we took to optimize the expenses since there are too many. And they, of course, are implemented with our efforts to increase our production. And we firmly believe in the company's potential to reach good results. We also believe in the potential of our projects, which are resilient even in scenarios of low prices with a high rate of return and high cash flow generation. And this is what ensures long lasting benefits for our shareholders with a long-term maintenance of dividends.
And to all of you, I'm going to reiterate something that I've been telling you since last year. If you place your bets against Petrobras, you're certainly going to lose money. We will keep on focusing on what we know to do best to produce high-quality oil and gas byproducts always in line with the just energy transition. I'd like to thank you all for your attention, and I will give the floor to Director Fernando who will talk about our initiatives around optimizing expenses and to ensure the fundability of our company.
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you, Madam President, and thanks, Eduardo. Here we are once again to discuss our investment plan or the company's business plan. After the president's speech, I'd like to draw your attention to a few important aspects related to our plan and our decisions. Our plan has a portfolio of projects that can give support to a strong growth in production as you can see in the slides, we have a resilient portfolio against demanding scenarios. They have a high rate of return with a high generation of cash here. And our proposal for the drop in prices can be summarized into 3 pillars. Capital discipline, more efficiency and optimization. We have a resilient cash flow. We forecast a balance Brent of around $59 per barrel in 2026, that is the required oil price to maintain our net debt stable at the end of last year, next year and to fulfill our obligations, including dividends and also to fulfill all of the forecasted investments. In 2025, the balance Brent would be $82.
The reduction of our balance Brent is based on our new contracts using some levers. One, we have no rigs to add to the debt in the next few years, as was the case in the last 3 years. All of our rigs belong to Petrobras. Second, we are decreasing the number of rigs and support vessels. So this is not for the future. This is already happening. We are giving away some of the contracted rigs to other companies that are interested [Audio Gap] without being sure that, that would be a requirement. Therefore, we need flexibility to counter adverse scenarios if the risks materialize. And that's why we created an additional governance to follow up on the projects that increase our administration flexibility. We will start to assess our financial capacity on a quarterly basis to advance in additional projects and to guarantee the discipline and flexibility in the allocation of resources.
The total CapEx amounts to $159 billion, the same level of last year or very close to it, whereas from that amount, $81 billion account for the projects with the budget approved in the plan. The $81 billion they comprise the implementation -- the basic implementation portfolio. The Buzios project are in the basic implementation portfolio and their budgets already approved. In addition to the $81 billion, we also have other projects that amount to another $10 billion in investments. They are projects whose budget approval is conditioned to the confirmation of market conditions and financeability. As I said, financeability of these projects will be assessed on a quarterly basis.
These projects, which amount to $10 billion added to the base implementation portfolio, make up the company's target portfolio, which is of about $90 billion. We also have the assessment portfolio of $18 billion with opportunities which have a lower level of maturity. Just to recap, our total portfolio is $109 billion, same level or a similar level to that of last year. In our material, we explain these figures in details. I'd like to call your attention to the fact that with this plan, we are taking less risk when it comes to execution than we did last year, which is explained by our recent performance. Now that we've talked about our flexibility, I'd like to address our CapEx level, so everyone understands our choices. Just to remind you, these CapEx levels are considered in our breakeven Brent level of $15.9 per barrel and our debt expectation moving to $16 billion, remembering that our debt remains at $17.5 billion.
We planned a CapEx of $19.4 billion in 2026 and $21 billion in 2027. These exceed our CapEx for 2025. That's because we're accelerating our execution with more projects that drive value in our pipeline. We do not see growing costs in our projects, which is well explained in the material we provided. We included a table on Slide 29 of presentation with the full life costs in comparison for these projects. The level of CapEx in 2026 is explained mostly because this is a year when we'll be funding all our platforms from Buzios 6 to Buzios 11. We'll also move forward with Sépia 2 and Atapu 2 projects whose quality and profitability need no explanation. We'll also begin RNEST Train and Boaventura, which will provide economic benefits for decades and whose CapEx combined might be paid by about 1 year of our EBITDA in the RTC segment.
I also wanted to remind you that the resuming execution of our RTC investments is extremely positive. Our first major project in that segment was executed within deadline and below the below budget. I'd be remiss not to talk about the 2027 CapEx. We have 3 major drivers. First, the interconnection of wells in Buzios, which leads to our competency investments higher in 2027 for Buzios. Second, the peak investment in Sepia and Atapu. And third, the expected approval of SEAP in the next few months and consequent acceleration of our investment in 2027. I'd also like to remember that we'll pay for the construction of these platforms because they will not be affected. Also about 2027, remember that even though CapEx is going up, the same won't happen with our cash investment, which will remain at the same level of 2026.
That's because in the last few months, our inventory for materials has grown, and our plan allows for a change in that trend where we will be using up our material inventory. The use of our materials inventory in 2027 will be critical for maintaining our cash investment in a ratio below the historical average and with the drivers that we'll be delivering. So we choose to continue to move forward with our projects because our breakeven Brent in 2026 as a result of the many initiatives we've made, combined with our strong government gives us the necessary flexibility. This will result in higher value being derived or in other words, more revenue and dividends in the long term with controlled and managed risks.
We also need to talk about expenditure. We're providing more transparency on that topic and increasing our efforts to reduce our manageable operating costs. The President mentioned the comparison with our previous plan, including 2025, which is close to being delivered. I also wanted to mention important things. We are reducing our extraction costs and the cost of nonoperating platforms from $2.2 billion in 2024 to $1.2 billion in our plan, which is to say for the next 5 years, that will be about $4 billion. We're optimizing many logistics services for the wells, revising contracts and affected resources. And as I mentioned, the removal of platforms from our models of management. We also mentioned a voluntary dismissal plan, which will help us reduce our expenses. To reinforce the expanding control, we created a sustainability -- financial sustainability working group with additional governance.
Now another important point. Every cost optimization initiative will be deployed with full alignment -- in full alignment with our attention to people respecting the environment and preserving the operational safety and reliability of our assets. All efforts result in a healthy debt level, an adequate capital structure and the maintenance of our dividend policy. Before concluding, I'd be remiss not to talk about production. Considering our plans, we are increasing our expectation for our output every year between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels depending on the year. That includes investment of $81 billion with platforms that have already been secured when it comes to budget for investments and use of our inventories and affected resources, we made a point of adopting challenges in the production, which we -- where we chose to tell in our financial planning, a conservative approach in our production curve.
We've been consistent in outstripping our averages and production targets. It's important to say we're doing that with fewer resources and the continuation of what we did in the previous plan. When we look at production, we realized that our unit cost has reduced substantially, meaning we're increasing productivity, and we show that in the material that was made available to all of you. I'd also like to say that we have a very unique portfolio, and we will continue to manage efficiently to deliver robust growth and value generation. We'll be increasing our energy supply to the country deriving benefits to society and shareholders. We're making the company more resilient, allowing us to remain committed to growth and our dividend policy with a strong capital structure. In addition to that, we've approved additional governance providing more flexibility to our investments. This strategy prepares us to respond to short-term challenges fast, ensuring investments which will lead to Petrobras' growth and long-term value generation. On that, I conclude my speech and turn it over to Eduardo.
Thank you, Fernando. We'll now begin our question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question will be from Monique with Itau BBA.
2. Question Answer
First of all, I'd like to congratulate and thank Magda and Fernando for the level of disclosure and transparency with the plan's material. The breakdown -- the more detailed breakdown in forecast, CapEx and leasing really help us to have better quality in our analysis. So just wanted to leave my appreciation on the record. My question is to Renata. Considering the accelerated pace of your IP projects, how do you assess the possibility of advancing the SAA and the platforms that are currently projected for 2027. How likely is it that any one of them will be moved up to 2026. And if that happens, does it make sense to think that the 2027 CapEx might slip back to 2026? Would that be more room to reduce that 2027 CapEx?
Monique, the name of the game here is to move up our projects. I remember when President Magda invited me, she said, "Well, we need faster deliveries." We need to accelerate them, and that's what we're doing. I'm not promising anything, but we are indeed working to accelerating and moving up at least 80 for next year. So the idea is to have that delivered by the second half of the year and we'll be navigating that with the crew as we did with PC-79. Now we're doing everything we can, but I still can't promise. And that's because the second half of the year is the time when the sea is a lot more troubled. We really had a difficult time with PC-38 for anchoring and for interconnection. So we are being very conservative in our plans. But the idea really is to anticipate the delivery of these projects.
Thank you, Monique, and thank you, Renata. Now we'll hear from Rodolfo Angele with JPMorgan.
Unfortunately, I was not the first one, but I also wanted to compliment you on the disclosure. This really is extremely positive for us. So congratulations, Magda, Fernando and Edu as well. My question is on production. Here at JP, we were already working with a curve that was slightly steeper than yours. So I just wanted to talk a little bit more precisely about that. We just want to understand whether there is any room for positive reviews. For example, the discussion over the FPSOs, which are operating over their original capacity. Are they already over the curve? Or is that any leeway for changing your prospects?
Rodolfo, thank you for your question. Well, with regards to our curves with the capacity increase, yes, that's already been included. And whenever we open a new platform with high productivity that's the type of initiative we'll be seeking because it's been very successful. As to the production curve, it has been increased in our projections. Just to remember, last year, we had several platforms that have been shut down. In the second half, we concluded every suspension with active maintenance, fulfilling every demand and reducing every RTI. In that way, we were able to keep all of them operating. So in October, we had the best production result with 2,600 barrels a day -- or million barrels a day, I'm sorry. So it was really a special month where we had the fewest amount of shutdowns, maintenance shutdowns.
So you asked about positive reviews. Well, yes, there is that possibility because we're always seeking improved operational efficiency. And that's provided very significant results based on what we've achieved when it comes to platform maintenance. We've been able really to increase efficiency. So our target is to get to the first quartile of Solomon’ for all of our platforms. That really is the target. Naturally, we have boosted efficiency with every unit. So of course, there's still a lot of work to do, but also room to grow. And that's what we always try to do to get to the first quartile of operational efficiency.
If I may add to the answer, what does all of this mean? Well, it means that in a way, we are considering our production curve in a more conservative way. So to your point, yes, revisions are possible, but we do not want to make any promises because whenever we do promise, we make good on those promises. And when we do promise, that's because we already know it's possible. Right now, what we're doing is taking a more cautious stance. But looking at our history for the last year, that's what we have been delivering. So it is very possible that we will deliver a higher production than what our current plan provides for.
Thank you Sylvia and Magda and Rodolfo for the question. Now let's hear Bruno Montanari from Morgan Stanley.
I'd also like to extend the same commandment as my colleagues did, it is really helpful to have this type of transparency. It really helps to anchor our expectations.
My question is about cash generation. Obviously, your plan has a strong cash generation trend, especially in the medium to long term. So when we look at that chart for your sources and uses, including every project that is still under review, the project allows for some surplus in that new project box. But because the company has a long investment cycle and your pipeline for the next 5 years seems very long, would it make sense to maybe funnel eventual cash surpluses in a few years to maybe higher shareholder bonuses or payouts?
Bruno, well, there's no taboo here when it comes to paying out more whenever there is any cash surplus. Ever since we came to the company, we have sought to have a more efficient cash flow. We've reduced our cash to the level that we thought was more appropriate, so this really isn't any taboo for the company. But in order for us to have cash surplus to distribute via extraordinary dividends, we would need something significant, which is either Brent prices or production, which were much higher than what we forecast for.
Of course, we can't see anything that's much different than what we forecasted. Of course, our priority will always be our projects and projects that will lead to higher production because we believe that in the long run, that's what derives value for the company. But like I said, there's no taboo and if any change comes to pass, we won't have any problem in increasing our payouts from the higher cash -- operating cash flow.
Thank you, Fernando and thank you, Bruno, for your question. Let's hear from Tasso Vasconcellos with UBS.
First of all, I'd like to echo what my colleagues have said, and thank you for disclosing the new plan. I have a question about your capital allocation. We've been talking a lot about potential M&As. There's been a lot of discussion in the ethanol industry. Braskem is a company that has that situation addressed for the next 3 or 4 years. We also discussed assessing or reassessing the LGP industry. So if you could add a little bit more color to how these potential investments would fit in the plan that you've just disclosed, or maybe any indications in your expectations when it comes to timing.
And if I could also follow up on the call that you've had earlier about your intention to announce news on the ethanol side in 2026. We saw that there's $2.2 billion in ethanol within the plan. So when we look at your gas and low carbon energy, we see that there's something close to $1 billion expected for 2026. So if you could please help us understand and reconcile these figures, that will be very helpful.
Sure. Let's start with Braskem. Braskem, they have their own governance. There is also a public partnership issue that's being discussed that Petrobras does not take part in, well, even though we are, of course, engaged the solution we do not participate in but it's a problem that belongs to the partner and the banks. And of course, we are doing whatever we can to make a solution to be implemented as soon as possible. However, there is nothing on the table to discuss right now. So we don't have an opinion. Obviously, any and all decisions will be made by considering if it's good or not for Petrobras, we are here on behalf of the Petrobras shareholders for any decisions we have to make.
When it comes to the auctions, any reserve auction is more than welcome because everything we've been trying to do is to recover the company's reserves. The company can only have a long life as long as it has sufficient reserves for exploration.
About the LNG and about ethanol, we are negotiating with several partners, and we want to achieve deal in 2026. That's our goal and probably this disbursement will occur somewhere along the way. About the LNG, we haven't been allocating any investments in LNG, which is not to say it won't happen because we have an amount there, that's not directly related to projects, but it could happen, even though it hasn't been defined yet.
Thank you Fernando, Angelica and Tasso. Now let's listen to Regis Cardoso's question from XP.
I'd also like to join my colleagues in congratulating you on the transparency and presenting the plan. My question is related to savings in OpEx. And I think that one positive aspect of the new plan is this ability to navigate a scenario of lower prices. And in terms of the leasing line has dropped in comparison with the previous plan. And we can see that it's not a forecast to grow over the course of the plan in spite of an inflationary pressure.
So I would like to hear your take on that and which initiatives allowed for these savings to happen in terms of leasing. And also in terms of the OpEx that the President mentioned during her initial speech, I'd like to hear if most of the benefit has materialized or not given the fact that we saw a manageable operating expenditure that's lower for 2025 than what have been budgeted. So do we need a more intense effort in the area. I'd like to hear your take on that, please?
Let's start with leasing. For the next 2 years, we don't intend to have more leases. They're all our own vessels. So that in and of itself would reduce our leasing level. But we have leasings in seismics, boats, vessels and all that. And due to that, we're focusing on 4 pillars: first, a greater efficiency in allocating these resources such as, for instance, the utilization rate for each piece of equipment, renegotiating the tariffs with all of the asset owners.
Also, reviewing the contract terms. The terms are a big component when it comes to defining the prices, and we're reviewing that and also the sharing of resources with partners, we have partners. And if we have idle equipment among the equipment that we have leased, we discussed with -- that with our partners and find a way to sublease it to them. As for the TOT, we had some gains in 2025.
And as I said, I talked about personnel and we had a PDV that will bring about greater efficiency in the rigs that are no longer producing. We moved from $2.2 million in terms of annual costs to $1.2 million. And for 2025, we expect to achieve a $4 billion savings in these aspects. And about the lift costs, one important thing is that we've been producing more with the same OpEx levels. So we have a greater production at the same costs. And the entire Board of Directors is committed to optimizing costs and increasing the efficiency across the company.
Well, there is a very important thing to say, which results from an intense partnership across different departments of the company. In the PDF presentation, you probably read that in the last year, we interconnected a lot more wells than we did in the previous year. And that was possible because last year, it would take us more than a year to interconnect the wells, as now we're doing that in 7 months on average, which means that we don't need that many support vessels or aircraft. So these efforts around accelerating the interconnection of wells also led to significant savings when it comes to the chartering expenses.
Thank you, Fernando and Magda. Now let's listen to Gabriel Barra from Citi.
I would like to reiterate what my colleagues have said. It's great to have this level of detail to better understand what your forecast for the future. And picking up on a previous question, if you look at dividends, if you look at the plan, the company is using a somewhat high oil when it comes to the future curve. And when it comes to the cash flow, the future cash flows of the company and the oil price in the curve, if you consider that the scenario is probably a bit more challenging when it comes to cash generation vis-a-vis the dividends.
So I have 2 questions. Why are you using oil a bit higher than the curve and versus being more conservative in the analysis? And secondly, if the oil is really a bit lower than what the plan states, how should we consider leveraging since the company would end up using a bit more cash over the next 5 years? And how would the CapEx behave in this scenario of a lower oil for the next 5 years. Thank you.
Thank you, Gabriel. Well, to your first question, the higher or more costly oil. We have a group of -- actually, we take studies undertaken by scenarios, specialists and the average is $70, and we also saw other companies working on their forecasts at the same price, that's $63 for 2026 and $70 from 2027 onwards as of which point it becomes flat. And the other companies have been using the same price, more or less. My -- the only thing, Gabriel, is that our breakeven Brent, we moved from $82 in 2025 to a breakeven Brent of $59 and that's important to say. And obviously, for the upcoming years, the breakeven Brent will be in the range of $60 per barrel since we are increasing our production without increasing our costs.
And this increases the level of reliability due to the fact that we're increasing production, whereas we're still maintaining a much lower breakeven Brent. And if it drops, we will -- we've set up this new level of governance, as we call it, the $10 billion we have that's discretionary. And we -- if we identify that we cannot make investments because we will become indebted or will exceed the $65 or a lot more, and our cap is $75, even though our goal is $65 when it comes to the debt we would not immediately make these investments, and we would then postpone them for a future time, and that's how we would manage the company when it comes to the investments.
Thanks, Fernando and Gabriel, for your questions. Let's now listen to Jorge Gabrich from Scotiabank.
I would also like to reiterate what our colleagues have said and compliment you on your plans. Well, the levers are very clear when it comes to how to reduce structural costs. But where do we see the biggest challenges and the biggest gains? What are the main levers when it comes to challenges and gains? Thank you.
Thank you, Jorge. I'll ask President Magda to answer your question.
Well, in terms of challenges we could say that the main challenge is the oil price and the uncertainty that we are now facing in the oil industry due to the global geopolitical scenario. This affects Petrobras as well as all of the other oil production companies. In terms of levers, we've been optimizing our activities and the productivity of our fields.
For instance, if you take a huge rig, such as Almirante Tamandare, with the capacity of 225,000 barrels of oil per day with 5 wells and if you're able to increase the capacity of the platform by an additional 45,000 barrels per day, and as a consequence, you can add another additional well to it that's also able to deliver an additional 45,000. You're talking about engineering capacity and process optimization and a deep knowledge of the business that becomes a very important asset when it comes to increasing the return of the projects.
Another thing we're doing, which is also a novelty for Petrobras and you're going to see in the entry schedule for new E&P projects. You're going to see that we have an additional 9 new units. And for the first time we are having a complementary development projects, which are projects were replaced or add wells to the existing rigs, which add to the total production without increasing the production costs, which would usually be a requirement in order to be able to increase production.
If you're talking about, for instance, a project that has 5 or 6 wells in the pre-salt area, you may be talking about a project of 200,000 barrels of oil per day, something in that range with no investment equivalent to that, that needs to be made in a new rig, either by adding production, by adding capacity to an existing platform or by replacing older wells with newer ones. The amount, the productivity is unrivaled. And the amount of wells studied, analyzed and available to be connected in this situation is -- has already been exhaustively analyzed. And we're also adjusting our stock capacity reviewing our relationship with the vendors as well so that we can reduce the turnover of our inventory so that we can benefit from already purchased equipment and our projects would therefore require a lower CapEx.
So it's a number of different things. That's what we usually do when you try to optimize your procedures to generate more revenue with what you have available by reducing your inventory in this case and by improving the operational aspects as any other company does. When we look forward, we are pretty optimistic when it comes to the possibility of optimizing our portfolio because we are making visible progress, and that started back in the beginning of 2025 with great results.
We have a few dozen wells in the pre-salt that we have already identified and they can be interconnected to existing rigs and to rigs that were going to be receiving in the next few years. And the 40,000 barrels of oil per day. This is not a promise though. We don't like promising if we are not certain that will live up to the expectations. But what I can tell you is that we are fully optimistic with the possibility of making these deliveries, and we're working very hard with a lot of dedication. And that's why I always say that if you bet against -- if you place your bets or against Petrobras, you're going to lose money.
Picking up on what you said, and back to your point, Jorge, everything that we're doing to reduce costs, we're not putting the reliability and safety of our operations at risk. No reduction has been made when it comes to guaranteeing the integrity and safety of our operations. That's the utmost importance. We're really adjusting small inefficiencies here and there and improving our costs, but the safety of our operations is nonnegotiable.
Exactly the safety of operations and people. Of course, we're constantly optimizing that but we're not reducing costs related to that. But one thing the President said is about the challenge, which is a much lower Brent. Considering this risk in the last few periods and the last 6 months when we were still setting up the plan, we added 2 new forms of governance to our existing MO. One of them is a group of financial sustainability, which is another layer for expenses. The second one is flexible investments where we have base investments or baseline investments and the target. In addition to that, we have the indebtedness cap and a sustainable cash flow for the company. Not to mention all of the assets that allow us to optimize costs, for instance, by reduce -- reducing the cost of the rigs being decommissioned. We're talking about $4 billion to $5 billion in 5 years.
Also, I wanted to add that all these reductions in expenses also include the use of technology. We are working with direct partnerships to have all of these innovations in our center. So we have this group that's focused on deploying these new technologies and bringing these new innovations to the 4. So it's not only connected to who asked for the innovation, we want to do something that's more encompassing whether we're talking about robotization or drone use, we have made it a point to have this platform whereby we will look for new technologies that will lower our costs.
Thank you, Magda. It's important to mention that we have one slide on innovations in technology within Petrobras. That's in the material that we made available for everyone.
Thank you, Fernando. Thank you, Jorge, for your question. We'll now hear from Vicente Falanga with Bradesco.
Ms. Magda, Fernando, I'd like to commend you again on these more complete disclosure. I assume it was a lot of work, but it helps us a lot. Well, my question is about the assumptions behind the approval of a few projects. I wanted to understand if you also use the cutoff Brent at $45 to approve these ethanol projects. We know that the oil at $45 would consequently lead to lower ethanol prices. I also wanted to know if at that price, you'd be able to secure minimum returns to approve that type of renewable project. Also on your fertilizers project, could you give us more color on what's the natural gas prices that you use or maybe have an idea about what the maximum price is, if you can, to have that desired returns.
Well, Angelica, I think I can start here. Well, with regards to ethanol with regards to relationship to guests, what we consider for the opportunities precisely the breakeven price and the equilibrium price, thinking about the demand. It's also important to say that our cost of -- opportunity cost is very low. We went from 30-some dollars to close to $51 million in processing for natural guests within the company with the 2 platforms in Boaventura coming into operation and also the increase in production at Cacimbas, in Espírito Santo and also Rota 1 in UTGCA.
So we saw a significant increase in LGP supply, which gave us the opportunity to have 2 different fertilizer plants economically feasible, which is very positive. When it comes to ANSA and the Paraná, that's a different case because there the feedstock is asphalt waste from report itself. So with that, I'd like to turn over to Ms. Angelica.
Well, when it comes to ethanol the Brent assumptions are in line with the -- with all of the other assumptions in our plan. We work with the exact same assumptions.
Thank you, William, and thank you, Angelica. Thank you, Vicente, for your question. Let's now hear Bruno Amorim with Goldman Sachs.
Alongside my colleagues, I also like to thank you for the additional disclosure. I'd like to follow up on the flexibility of your plan, especially thinking about 2026 and '27 in the scenario of much lower oil prices. You actually mentioned that one of the ideas undergirding this split between basic implementation and target implementation of your CapEx is precisely to have some flexibility. But between '26 and '27, there's not a major difference between the 2 levels for CapEx. So I just wanted to understand if there's any flexibility when it comes to the base implementation CapEx between 2026 and '27 in case oil prices turn out to be too low. Thank you.
Hi, Bruno, in 2026 and '27, we have CapEx where there's a higher percentage that's already been approved. So the level of flexibility that we have for years closer to 2025, so next year and the following year. Flexibility is a bit reduced but we also have some leeway to put off some projects, considering the $10 billion that we can tap into, those projects might be put off. But indeed, the level of flexibility is really smaller because the current investment when it comes to maintenance, for example, is already being executed. So the level of flexibility there is a bit lower.
Thank you, Bruno, and thank you, Fernando. Let's now hear the question from Conrado Vegner with Safra.
I just wanted to go to Garcia. When you talk about cost management, you mentioned potential decrease in gas transportation tariffs. So if you could add a bit more detail about what does that discussion look like? If maybe we could see that tariff going down in the first revision? And if I could also add to my question, a related issue when it comes to the processing and distribution structure, do you think that the discussion over arbitration to determine the rate for using these structures has now been overcome? And is the discussion now about what would be used between Petrobras and your other structures?
Well, with regards to the transportation rate, this is something that's being addressed by ANP. This is the year where tariff revisions occur for the 3 main transfer companies in the country. So ANP is looking into the regulatory base for assets. So they expected -- these tariffs and this platform was assessed later this year. ANP has disclosed it will not be able to finish this year. So the plan is for by June of next year, we have a regulatory framework for the assets. And consequently a transportation rate. But we're waiting. Petrobras is monitoring this very carefully because it has a direct impact on our sales to the market. We have a direct input via the public hearings and also via the users committee as well as other associations. But we're looking at this very carefully, and we believe final decision should be made in a short period of time.
As for distribution, Sylvia will be taking the question. I can talk about it? Well, distribution is currently not the subject of regulation decisions. This is a relationship or the fruit of a relationship between partners or the responsible for building the infrastructure. ANP is considering some type of regulation, but it's still a nascent discussion. So at this moment, this is a matter that's decided between those distribution partners and the owner of the structure, considering PSA as a potential user of that distribution platform.
Thank you, Angelica, and thank you, Conrado, for your question. Let's now hear the last question from Caio Ribeiro with Bank of America.
My question goes back again to the assumptions that you used to structure your plan considering your Brent crude price at $70 a barrel. And for 2027, something between $60 or $65 a barrel, so still above over the curve. I just wanted to understand if the assumption were to stay in this range, that's closer to your curve, would you consider maybe adjusting your dividend policy or maybe under the gross debt ceiling or maybe even in a specific scenario with Brent prices below the levels assumed by the curve, would those decisions to change your policy, both the dividend and the ceiling of your gross debt might be changed. Thank you.
Well, a change in the way we pay out dividends is really not on the table. What we plan to do is to maintain our dividend payout policy just as it stands since last year. When we look ahead and think about $70 a barrel, what we consider is this. Imagine that next year, and this is something scenario specialists are saying, we might have oil prices below the current level. Another thing they're saying, and you were also reading that is, if that's the case, it's very likely that a lot of people will step on the brake and delay investments and consequently new projects and additional production.
So if that's the case, the -- even as a consequence of stepping on the brake we will see an increase in oil prices. So what we're hearing from most experts is we might have a more restricted scenario in 2026 and some recovery in 2027. That's what our plan accounts for. This is what we've considered. And this is the average of close to 30 different scenarios we've assessed and considered and looked into before putting together our plan.
We've repeatedly said that we have no interest in piling up money. So if at any point, there's a cash surplus. And we understand that our existing cash is enough to pay our expenses, which have been detailed in our strategic plan, certainly, that additional volume will be distributed. But we have no interest in either reducing dividend payouts just as we do not have any intention of keeping the money in the company.
Thank you. Ms. Magda, and thank you for the questions. So let's hear now from Gustavo with BTG.
My question has to do with the breakeven Brent. Could you give us an estimate or if you have any bullish prospect or bearish prospect in a breakeven environment in 2027, considering this is your peak CapEx year. What levers could you use in case this breakeven Brent is lower in 2027? Or also understand how the sensitivity changes in these different exchange rate scenarios.
Well, the breakeven Brent level is very similar. We have -- might have progress in our OpEx and also on our CapEx, if there's significant decrease in Brent prices. So we might postpone our existing projects using the breakeven Brent that will account for a neutral net debt.
If I may add a little bit to that, before we conclude. We are still working to optimize our processes and also in deploying new technology. Sylvia mentioned embedding new technologies in our operations, which will lead to a decrease in our expenses. Now I'll give you a very simple and basic example, just to give you an idea of what we're talking about. When we are to move the rig that is drilling in the equatorial margin offshore -- in offshore Amapá to the north, there will be need to clear the drill. This is a regulatory requirement from the Brazilian environment institute.
This is usually manual work that takes on average 2 months. But we now have technology available to clean -- or to operate that cleaning mechanically, lowering the cost of this operation in at least -- or to at least 30% of the original value may be even less than that. So we've been constantly working in embedding new technologies, for example, in delivering lighter equipment to our platforms via drones and that's just one example. All of that will contribute to additional cost decreases and to optimizing our chartering reducing the availability of support vessels and aircraft, really is an endless array of initiatives that have led to cost reductions in our every day that is being introduced constantly.
Yes. If I may add as well, in 2026 and '27, most of our investments will be funneled to Buzios, which really is where our profits are highest for the company. So it would make no sense to stop from making structuring investments in the long term, remembering that our investments are 20 to 30 years long, right now because of lower Brent prices. So that's the rationale right now behind our structuring high value-added investments. Not to mention that we're talking about resilient projects worth $40,000 to $45,000 a barrel. So even if the Brent prices go down, these are still the company's flagship projects.
Thank you Magda, Fernando. Thank you to everyone who asked questions. This concludes our Q&A session. If you have any additional question, you might send yours to our RI team we will address them as quickly as possible. I will now turn the call back to our CEO, Ms. Magda Chambriard for her final remarks. Please, Ms. Chambriard.
Well, first of all, I'd like to thank you all for your time and acknowledge your work and cooperation with our Investor Relations department, with our a CFO and with all of us. I'd also like to say that we're fully open and available to any question you might have and that we're making a huge effort to make this an increasingly more effective company in its projects and more profitable in its activities, all of which to derive value from its unique assets all over the world, including our subsea operations.
We occupy a valuable market. The Brazilian or the Southeast Brazilian market might be the best market in Latin America. And we continue to invest strongly in refining and products of the highest quality and which are very well accepted. Products that add value to our company, even ensuring an important head. Refining our products, these higher value-added products, in a way, improve our position in the market.
Just to give you an example, our banking for navigation with 24 in renewables is selling really well in Singapore. We've also expanded our coking market far beyond our borders so as to add value to our company. Renewable diesel is gaining more and more traction as a significant value-added product for Scope 3 decarbonization. So all of that alongside the increased efficiency in our production has added substantial value to us.
I'd also like to say that when we talk about energy transition projects, which are usually less attractive projects when we think about solar power or wind power, this can't be said about solar power projects, which we're delivering to generate power for our refineries. When we have a solar panel in our own refinery, we make sure that we are our own offtakers, the offtakers of our own production that the production of sun power added to a refinery that releases gas that we add to the market with fund gains. That project integrated to the synergy of the entire Petrobras systems adds great value when it comes to returns for the company.
So I just wanted to say we're thinking about the company as a whole, maximizing its synergies both in Brazil and overseas. And that this type of initiative, just as you witnessed over the course of 2025 led to significant wins and significant gains and we'll continue to do so over the next 5 years. So thank you so much. Thank you for listening to us, and we're here for any questions you might have in the future.
Thank you, Magda. Again, the plan is available in our Investor Relations website, and we'll soon make the audio available as well. Thank you so much, and have a great weekend.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Petrobras - Special Call - Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. - Petrobras
Petrobras unveils a 2026-2030 plan focused on higher output, cost discipline, and durable cash generation.
🎯 Key Message
- Narrative: Plan centers on growing high-value exploration and production, with capital discipline and resilient cash flow to support dividends amid oil-price volatility.
- Production trajectory: Oil output targeted to 2.7 million barrels per day by 2028; total oil and gas about 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in the same period.
- Capital allocation: About $109 billion in investments over five years, with >70% to E&P; governance enhancements to boost flexibility and fundability; breakeven Brent around $59 per barrel in 2026.
💡 Strategic Highlights
- Portfolio & capexture:
- Portfolio & capex: Base implementation budget around $81 billion; total portfolio roughly $109 billion; about $10 billion of additional investments conditioned on market conditions; $18 billion in opportunities; 2026 CapEx ≈ $19.4B, 2027 ≈ $21B; focus on Buzios platforms (6–11), Sépia 2, Atapu 2, RNEST Train and Boaventura; governance designed to improve funding flexibility.
- Efficiency & costs: Targeted ~ $12 billion savings in manageable operating expenses from 2025–2030; lower extraction costs and non-operating platform costs; accelerate well interconnections to reduce need for support vessels; reduce leases; voluntary severance program; technology to cut costs.
- Flexibility & risk control: New financial sustainability and flexible-investments governance; quarterly assessment of financial capacity; plan to fund platforms from inventories; maintain dividend policy and a strong balance sheet.
🆕 New Information
- New plan details: Formal 2026–2030 plan with accelerated project delivery, new units, and complementary development projects; extended horizon to 2034; updated price assumptions and breakevens; emphasis on resilience.
- 2025 progress: 11% YoY production growth; FPSO Almirante Tamandaré ramping to 270,000 bpd; expanded S-10 diesel processing; Boaventura gas processing; fertilizer feedstock improvements; cost reductions via interconnections.
- Governance & financing: Added financial-sustainability and flexible-investments governance; quarterly project-finance assessment; $10 billion discretionary to mobilize investments; commitment to safety and environmental standards.
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Timing of project delivery: Analysts asked to move up SAA and other platforms into 2026; management said acceleration is possible but not guaranteed due to offshore conditions, with some deliveries in the second half of the year.
- Cash generation & payouts: No taboo on higher payouts if cash surpluses arise; dividend policy remains intact; extraordinary dividends would depend on favorable Brent or higher production/cash flow.
- Brent sensitivity & CapEx flexibility: 2026–27 CapEx is largely pre-approved and less flexible; discretionary $10 billion provides some leeway to delay non-core investments if needed; breakeven Brent about $59; debt discipline preserved.
⚡ Bottom Line
Petrobras' 2026-2030 plan signals disciplined growth, heavy E&P investment, and cost efficiency with a stable dividend outlook. Success depends on offshore delivery and oil prices, but governance provides flexibility to adapt and protect cash flow.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Good morning, and welcome to the Petrobras webcast with analysts and investors about the Q3 results for 2025. It's a huge pleasure to be with you today. I'm going to share information with you before we start. This is going to be presented in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English and the links to both languages are on our Investor Relations website. [Operator Instructions] And here with us today, we have Angelica Laureano, the Executive Director of Energy Transition and Sustainability; Claris Coppetti, the Executive Director of Corporate Affairs; [ Fludi Shchloser ], the Executive Director of Trade and Markets; Fernando Melgarejo, the Executive Director of Investor Relations; Renata Baruzzi, Executive Director of Engineering, Technology and Innovation; [ Ricardo Wagner ], Executive Director of Governance and Compliance; Sylvia Anjos, Executive Director of E&P; and William Franca, Executive Director of Industrial Processes and Products. To get us started, I'll give the floor to Fernando. Fernando, you have the floor.
Good morning to our investors, stakeholders, shareholders and analysts who always join us in this webcast as well as journalists, Petrobras employees and everyone else following us today. Thank you for joining us in another Petrobras earnings webcast.
The scenario has been challenging, especially due to the drop in Brent prices, which impacts not only Petrobras, but the entire industry, both domestically and internationally. This context demands continuous efforts to improve our efficiency. And we've been focusing on these efforts, which is why we had a very positive third quarter, especially with the strong increase in oil production. This strong operational performance was fundamental this quarter, as you will see in the results that will be presented next and were disclosed yesterday.
We'll start with Slide 3. I want to highlight especially a new record-breaking oil and gas production in the third quarter, 3.14 million barrels of oil equivalent, 76% above the second quarter of 2025 and almost 17% above the third quarter of 2024.
Total operated production also set a record at 54 million barrels of oil equivalent. And once again, we set a new record for our own pre-salt production, reaching 2.56 million barrels of oil equivalent. This is due to a 4% efficiency increase in 2025 across operating field and the start-up of new systems.
Our E&P pace is intense as well as the entire company. FPSO [ Amira Mandrea ], which is part of the Buzios seven project reached a plateau with only five producing wells and three months ahead of schedule. I'll come back to this project later. It has brought about excellent results. P78 has arrived at its location in the Buzios field, and it will start operating by the end of the year. P79 will also leave the origin this month and come to Brazil. And also, when we arrived, our visibility was quite foggy in terms of the schedule of the delivery of these production systems. Ever since we arrived, this is being adjusted. The physical and financial schedule has also been adjusted. We had a CapEx that was slightly higher, but we're currently really comfortable with the deadlines, and we're sure that we'll meet the deadlines or even stay ahead of them.
Here, we highlight several milestones in the refining segment. Our key projects to increase S10 diesel supply are advancing. We signed 5 contracts for the construction of units at the [ Boraventura ] complex, which will expand S10 diesel and jet fuel production and also enable Group 2 lubricants production. We also signed all nine contracts for the completion of Train 2 at [ Arnest ]. These generated savings of more than BRL 1 billion compared to the reference budgets. By 2029, the refinery will reach a processing capacity of 260,000 barrels per day. These investments are aligned with an increased oil production, and they improve the Brazilian self-sufficiency, contributing to energy security, economic development and emission reduction.
In the third quarter, domestic sales of oil products increased 5%, especially diesel, which grew 12% compared to the second quarter of 2025. We exported around 800,000 barrels of oil per day when combined with byproducts exports surpassed 1 million barrels per day, reinforcing oil as Brazil's main export commodity. The refinery [ FUT ] closed the quarter at 94%, producing high value-added derivatives. We also obtained relevant environmental licenses such as the preliminary license for the [ BioQAV ] and renewable diesel plant at our [ PBC ].
The next slide shows record set by the [ Cavunas ], [ Caraguatatuba ], [ Itaborai ] and [ Casimbos ] gas processing plants, which reached 44 million cubic meters per day of gas specified for sale in August of 2025. This is equivalent to approximately 80% of the total volume consumed in Brazil's integrated network. We made progress in the free market for natural gas, reaching the milestone of 6.5 million cubic meters per day of volume contracted in this modality, which reaffirms the competitiveness of our portfolio.
Another important milestone was the construction of the [ Santome ] CCS pilot project in [ Maca ], a pioneering project in Brazil for the capture, transportation and geological storage of up to 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Finally, we celebrated the hiring of 850 technical employees and approximately 570 new employees who graduated from the training courses and will work to expand our operations. This was a brief summary of the various deliveries made in recent months.
Now let's continue with the next slide. On Slide 7, we see our financial highlights. We achieved an adjusted EBITDA, excluding onetime items of USD 12 billion. Net income, excluding onetime items, reached 5.2 billion, a 28% increase over the second quarter of 2025. Operating cash flow closed the quarter at USD 9.9 billion, up 31% from the second quarter of the year. Free cash flow was 5 billion, up 44% from the second quarter. With these results, we were able to approve a payment of BRL 12.2 billion in dividends. These figures demonstrate our ability to generate consistent and positive financial results, ensuring returns to shareholders even in a scenario of lower oil prices.
Next slide. Here on Slide 8, we detail the progress of operating results. Note that oil and gas production increased by 8% in the quarter. And considering the last 12 months, growth was 17%. In the oil segment, in the green range of the first chart, we increased production to more than 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, setting several operational records. We increased efficiency, reduced production downtimes and reached peak production at the [ AlmiranCittam Mandar FPSO ], exceeding its nominal capacity.
With this increase in production, we also managed to increase oil sales by around 14%. Sales of oil byproducts grew 5% compared to the second quarter with diesel standing out. This operational performance supported solid financial results and robust cash generation, which we will see in detail on the next slide.
In the third quarter, Brent rose 2%, contributing to the period's results, but it's also important to analyze the last 12 months. In 1 year, Brent fell by USD 11 per barrel, and we were able to offset this impact with higher production and improved operational efficiency. The charts show that we were in line with the results for the third quarter of 2024 when Brent was at $80 per barrel.
In fact, adjusted EBITDA, excluding one-off events, reached $12 billion in the third quarter of 2025, surpassing the EBITDA recorded in the third quarter of 2024. This reflects the excellent work of our teams who have transformed their efforts into more oil, more gas and more derivatives.
Next slide. On Slide 10, we will detail the distribution of CapEx, which totaled USD 5.5 billion in the third quarter of 2025. 85% of this investment is concentrated in exploration and production. 11% were allocated to refining projects and 2% to the gas and low carbon energy segment.
In E&P, where CapEx is concentrated, we observed that the investment growth occurred mainly in more subsea activities and platform construction. In platforms, we had a greater concentration of contractual milestones in the third quarter. Notably, the sale away of P78 and starting construction of the Sepia 2 hole, both in line with plans. In subsea activities, we began the prelaunch of lines for Buzios 6, which increased our investments in the quarter. This unit should start producing and generating returns later this year.
Also in the third quarter, we drilled 20 wells, completed 10 and interconnected 23. These activities contributed to increase our production. In the end of October, a total of 6 5 wells were interconnected, 41% more than the whole of last year. This is why our investments are in production development, especially in the Buzios field.
Buzios is truly an exceptional asset. There are six platforms in operation. And last week, the field reached a record daily production of 1 million barrels per day. I want to emphasize that we have a unique portfolio, especially in the E&P segment, where almost 90% of the company's investments are concentrated. Our strategy for delivering these investments has already begun to bear fruit with significant growth in production, but we still have much to reap with the entry of new systems, which over the next 2 years will add 900,000 barrels per day of capacity.
Delivering these projects on time or even ahead of schedule, as I said, while maintaining the projected cost means generating value for our shareholders above and beyond short-term dividends. We have a much more long-term perspective now than short term. Let's move on to the next slide.
On Slide 11, we will present the reconciliation between accrual-based CapEx and cash investment for the first 9 months of the year. We reached USD 14 billion in CapEx from January to September. I want to emphasize that we are on track to meet our guidance at the end of the year. We will be between the midpoint and the upper end of the projection.
Before we talk about cash investment, I want to make it clear that we will be above the midpoint of the range because our pace of investment execution is above the one that was projected in the current business plan. This is not, and it is important that this is clear to all of you due to higher project execution costs. All the projects remain the same. I will repeat this, delivering projects on time or even ahead of schedule while maintaining the projected cost means generating value for our shareholders.
Now let's explain this cash investment. To get the cash investment value, you must exclude certain expenses that have no effect on cash investments, such as leases, which are classified as financing under IFRS 16 and geology and geophysics expenses, which are classified as expenses in corporate accounting. On the other hand, we must add payments for contracts that were measured in other periods, but left the cash flow in this period due to a lag between the measurement and their payment. Especially those related to measurements made at the end of 2024 when we readjusted the financial and physical balance of our projects. There's also the inclusion of payments for contract milestones related to the mobilization of services, especially EPCIs for subsea activities and the formation of inventories of materials and equipment that will only be used in the future that will lead to savings then.
So the cash investment for the first 9 months of the year came to a total of $12.9 billion. Excluding carryover, especially from last year, the CapEx and cash investment ratio was 89%.
Before moving on to the next slide, I'd like to emphasize that our CapEx is heavily concentrated in the production curve and the results are already evident as we were able to see in our record production. On Slide 12, we present the company's debt history. We issued two new bonds in September, maturing in 2030 and 2036 to the amount of USD 1 billion each. It was a very successful operation with small spreads relative to sovereign bonds, demonstrating investor confidence in Petrobras. Gross debt reached USD 70.7 billion, slightly above the previous quarters due to these fundings, which strengthened our cash position in the period. Note that our net debt is stable. So the funding we raised taking advantage of an opportunity window like other companies remained in cash.
It's important to underscore that we remain within the debt ceiling set out by the business plan, and that more than 60% of the total debt corresponds to leases of platforms, boats and drills, which according to accounting standards must be included in the debt. We should also remember that this portion of leases is associated with assets that generate production and consequently revenue.
Next slide. On Slide 13, we present the traditional slide on the company's shareholder remuneration policy. Our policy is flexible and ensures dividends compatible with different oil price scenarios without compromising the company's financial strength. We apply the formula set forth in the policy and will distribute 45% of the quarter's free cash flow. So the Board of Directors approved a distribution of BRL 12.2 billion, as an advanced payment on shareholder remuneration for the 2025 fiscal year to be paid in two equal installments in February and March 2026.
Next slide. All the company's work fronts translate into more synergy, higher revenues and concrete results for the company, its shareholders and Brazilian society. In addition to Petrobras' investments in the country and its social and environmental projects, we contribute to economic development through the payment of taxes. We are the company that invests the most in Brazil. From January to September 2025, our activities resulted in almost BRL 200 billion in taxes for society. In the third quarter alone, we paid BRL 68 billion in taxes.
This concludes our presentation with two major recent developments. On Slide 15, we highlight the operating license from Ibama received on October 20 for the drilling of the Morpho exploratory well off the coast of [ Amapa ]. On the same day, we began drilling the well. This achievement was the result of an extensive and rigorous discussion process with Ibama. We fully complied with the licensing process and demonstrated the robustness of the company's structure for environmental protection with the highest safety standards.
The estimated total depth of the Morpho well is over 7,000 meters, which places it among the deepest wells ever drilled by Petrobras. This technical complexity reinforces our technological and operational capabilities. We will operate in the Equatorial margin safely and responsibly.
The next slide shows a second piece of good news. The FPSO [indiscernible] -- excuse me, [ Albiranea Mandar ], which operates in the Buzios field reached a record instantaneous flow rate equivalent to 270,000 barrels of oil per day on October 25. The unit's nominal capacity is 225,000 barrels. So this increase is significant and was achieved without the need for new investments. This is a major achievement for Petrobras' engineering and exploration and production areas. These teams are working on a series of actions to increase production through efficiency gains. Currently, we already have five more production units in addition to [ Albiranea Mandara ], which have received a favorable opinion from Ibama for capacity expansion.
In total, these expansions without adding CapEx add up to an increase of 115,000 barrels per day, strengthening our production capacity. Around 90,000 barrels per day of this capacity corresponds to Petrobras' share.
It's worth noting that for every 100,000 barrels of oil per day that we produce, we have an average of more than USD 2 billion in additional revenue per year. All of these initiatives that we're implementing follow strict safety protocols and are preceded by careful engineering analysis in addition to the necessary authorizations from regulatory agencies.
This concludes my presentation. All of the results presented here are the result of the collective effort of our teams, and I'd like to thank each director, especially [ Magda ] for her leadership. We will now be available to answer questions from analysts. Thank you.
The first question will be by Vicente Falanga from Bradesco.
2. Question Answer
I have two questions. First, you explained it very well during your presentation that there was an acceleration in developing [indiscernible]. But I'd like to understand from your efforts, what has been the contribution of inflation in our industry to the results from FPSO. Also this acceleration in CapEx in 2025, will it remove any constraints for the CapEx in 2026? Or will it offset anything for 2026? One of -- the second question is one of our main clients is Braskem, and they're accelerating their cash burn in a very concerning way. We see poor trends for petrochemical margins with unsustainable capital structures. We recently read on the press that this is being discussed at the level of Petrobras' Board. So I'd like to understand a bit more about that since this is becoming an urgent matter. What options does Petrobras have on the table to prevent a drastic situation with the biggest petrochemical company in Latin America, which is one of your main clients.
I'll hand it over to Fernando and then Renata can add to that answer. Go ahead, Fernando.
So let's start by talking about the Brazilian petrochemical industry. This is still a strategic area for us that is very important. Petrobras sees it as very relevant for our ecosystem around oil. So it is still very interesting. When it comes to Braskem specifically and the situation it's going through, it has its own governance that is definitely looking at their societal and cash issue. And we don't currently have anything on the table to discuss with them. We've gotten no proposals to discuss with them about among shareholders. And we're waiting for this moment. We hope that it is soon, but they have their own governance. And we cannot say anything if we don't have any proposals on the table for discussion, for assessment. And this will need to be an investment that makes sense and brings value for Petrobras' shareholders.
Concerning CapEx, I'll hand it over to Renata. But I can say that our CapEx has no increase due to inflation, meaning that we are accelerating investments, as I said earlier, investments are being accelerated in the company and projects remain the same. So if I take a project that has a certain budget allocated, this is not going to go up, but we are advancing some of these things. Renata will add to that.
Thank you for the question. As Fernando said, there is no inflation. It's quite the opposite. We are looking at a stabilization and actually price reduction, especially in the subsea area. We reached high levels in 2024, but we undertook several actions, bringing several players to Brazil. And with that, we were able to get more competitive prices. When it comes, for instance, to the FPSOs, CAP 1 and 2 received three proposals. And the only reason they did not receive the fourth proposal was that one company missed the deadline. But we can't even remember the last time we had four new proposals from companies proposing to us. So competitiveness is back.
And we're really speeding up investments, as you can see from the results of E&P production. Most of it, it's not only about FPSO. Just a reminder, we also had new interconnections between wells and rigs. We're also interconnecting an additional 40% vis-a-vis what we did last year up until October, and we still have two more months for new interconnections. And all of that is bringing more oil to the company and all of that means investment in CapEx. We have no expectations of reducing that. Next year, we'll still keep up the investment so that we can anticipate the projects more and more.
One very important example to us is P79. When we took office, we had no expectations as to when P79 was going to leave the shipyard. People are talking about August 2026, and it will come out of the shipyard next Monday, November 10, it will leave the Korean shipyard. So it's all about management. This is what we're doing. There's no additional money. It's all about management and monitoring so that we can deliver the projects within the expected costs, quality, deadlines and safety levels.
Now I'll give the floor to Monique Natal from Itaú.
The floor First, I want to congratulate you on the operational performance in the quarter. It was really solid. So congratulations to the teams involved. I'll pick up on the CapEx question, maybe changing perspectives a little bit. And that goes to Renata, picking up on what she said. With this acceleration that we're currently seeing, should we see a reduction in CapEx in the midterm? Maybe you said that not for next year, but maybe 2027, 2028, should we see a reduction given the fact that you're able to anticipate the CapEx a bit? And still the same question, how does the company intend to balance out in the short term this CapEx with the need to maybe tighten the seat belts, so to speak, in the context of lower oil prices?
And the second question that may also go to Renata is that considering your big feet in -- with [ Albiranea Manda ] and given the fact that you were able to increase capacity with no additional costs, what do you see in terms of total increment capacity in Buzios with similar measures from the perspective of engineering? Can you increase capacity by 20% in other Buzios rigs, which are more complex, P78,83, would that also be possible? And if that is possible, I mean, if you're able to add additional capacity with no CapEx to the other rigs as well, would that allow the Buzios project to be reconsidered about its need? Fernardo, you have a lot of work to do today.
I actually joked about this in an interview. At the end of the day, what you're trying to understand is what our strategic plan looks like for the next 5 years. It's all about who's the murderer, right? Everybody wants to know who the murderer is. But we are going to publish our new strategic plan on November 27, and you will have the possibility of seeing what it looks like for the upcoming years about the possibility of us increasing the capacity of other rigs. I'll give the floor to Sylvia. But before that, I can tell you upfront that for our own platforms or rigs, the engineering department has been analyzing up to what point we can take our production. We have P71 and P70 in 2P, it's producing a bit more. The capacity is 150. It produces at 159. So we have requested a study for P78 that will start production next month and P79 as well, but we don't have an answer yet. Sylvia?
This process to increase capacity was a very well thought-out process. We talked to the manufacturer to discuss the potential we are talking about extremely productive reservoirs, [ Olmire Tamar ] and there are 5 wells. And we heard from the manufacturer and from the engineering department and the regulator, the classifying society, I mean, we did a very thorough technical work to check the possibility. We saw it's possible and that it applies to other areas, and we'll do that for every unit that can be applied.
As Renata said, we're applying it to our own platforms and in some cases, such as P71, we had done that last year with the installation of Evolve that allowed us to increase the production by 10,000 barrels per day. So it's a technical adjustment. But any such type of adjustment is made on an individual basis for each unit after rigorous technical assessment and discussions with the classifying society and other stakeholders.
And that also makes a reality in Buzios. It's a spectacular reservoir, a huge field. Each well is producing great results. There's a rock and cavity structure that often produces even more than we initially expected. And that's why we received almost 1 million barrels that we celebrated. And it's also good to remind everybody that we were awarded the OPC award due to the Buzios production that was last week. So each unit will be reviewed whenever there is an opportunity, we will let the market know about that. It's a very positive piece of information for everybody.
Thank you, Sylvia. Now we'll hear from [ Thiago Casa ] from Morgan Stanley.
I have a quick follow-up to Monique's question and two more questions. The follow-up is that when it comes to increasing capacity above nominal capacity, how bureaucratic would it be to get an approval, let's say, for instance, that you find opportunities in other projects? How bureaucratic would that process be? I mean, for you to get an approval? Would it be quick or would it take longer?
And my 2 other questions are -- I know that we'll discuss that further in the business plan, but going back to optimization and simplification of projects. So what are the main discussions currently about Buzios 12 and what could be done there? How does it fit that perspective? And the second question is about the provisional measure from last week. What's your initial take on it about the potential impact of the provisional measure? And also, I'd like to understand how it could affect the decisions to invest in refit projects.
Well, capacity expansion is a very technical process, but it does not take too long. [ Mandar ], we started the process in February and the entire process was initially discussed, and we got an approval from Ibama. So it is not a bureaucratic or extremely long process. The entire technical team is involved associated with the classifying body and the agencies.
For Buzios 12, I think Buzios will be yet another project that we will review. And well, the fact that there is -- now we are in the bidding process now, and Renata can give us more information about that. And what we're trying to do for all of these units is to really simplify the projects and to have leaner projects that allow us to achieve more competitiveness and seeking out new players so that we can have a competition level that allows us to reach amounts that give us technical and economic competitiveness.
Before we started the bidding process for Buzios 12, we asked the market to send us certification suggestions for the technical specifications. We received many suggestions, many of which were implemented. And with that, we were able to bring down the weight of the top side by 20%. So it was a highly integrated process and a joint effort with the market. And for Buzios 12, we allow for even greater flexibility for companies to suggest even more simplification. So our expectations for Buzios 12 are big.
To give you an idea, in terms of prequalified companies for the Buzios 12 bid, we have 12 companies for BOT and 12 EPC companies. They have to be combined. So theoretically, we could have even -- we come to the point of having 12 proposals with simplification suggestions.
Thank you, Renata. Well, about the provisional measure, it's not yet final or approved. So let's wait for it. But in any case, there are a few things we can say in terms of oil reinjection. Well, reinjection is fundamentally decided based on our fluid, our reservoir and our volume. For instance, areas with an extremely high amount of CO2, it's -- they're basically impossible to work with if you do not reinject. So it is connected directly to the project. So we need to be careful about that.
And the second thing is the reference price. Obviously, when we're talking about a huge super giants, everything gets adjusted. But if you talk about the campus basin, that has a big number of mature fields, and we're now in the middle of a renovation process and that requires -- I mean, margins are smaller. So any addition in the values may render it unfeasible. So it's a big risk for each type of project in the specific case of the Campus Basin, which is very mature, like I said, the risk of increasing collection may render the renovation unfeasible. And I think the renovation is going really well. We have very good goals for the Campus Basin. We'll not forget it. Once again, we want to go back to producing 1 million barrels at the Campus Basin and an increase may lead to the possibility of that happening or an impossibility of that happening.
Now a question from Jorge Gabrich from Scotiabank.
First, congratulations on the operational results. I have two questions, one about refining and the second about the decision-making process for the CapEx.
First, about refining. We've been seeing a very high level of utilization even with the downtimes. Would you consider that this level is sustainable? Do you have any comments? I mean, what's the operational security cap that we could think about?
And the second question is, I'd like to understand what the decision-making process is like between leasing and owning the FPSO. What's the capital benchmarking that you use in your decision-making process to define whether you're going to adopt one strategy or the other. I'll give the floor to William first. He'll talk about refining.
Jorge. Thanks for the question. Well, the use of refineries considers the process loads versus the reference load of units. The reference load is obviously authorized by the regulator, the Brazilian oil agency and the capacity of projects and equipment, guaranteeing reliability, security and sustainability of that load over the course of the entire campaign of that unit. So the FUTs are aligned with the reference load, and they're required -- it's a requirement from the logistics sector of the company under Director Claudio, and he defines the logistic capacity for the period.
And I'd like to highlight that for this period in August, we had an FUT of 98%. It's an average FUT because it considers some scheduled downtimes that units have to go through to guarantee equipment integrity and to perform maintenance that occurs periodically, usually every 3, 4, 5 years. So that's analyzed. But in August, it was at 98%. So yes, we're close to the limit of reaching the cap at the units. And this is a number that is planned once again by the logistics and trade area. I'd like to say that we are working with a high reliability scenario, working in integration, and we expect even better results.
For the last quarter, highlighting that for the last quarter, we'll have a long downtime for the [indiscernible] [ Paraiba ] refinery distillation. It's a large unit of 240,000 barrels per day in terms of processing power. So it is undergoing a scheduled downtime and go back to operation in the beginning of December. The results will -- of course, this downtime will have to be accounted for in the FUT.
Well, Jorge, there's no benchmarking for contracting models. At Petrobras, we have a standard defined by Sylvia's department that based on Petrobras' internal technical capacity, for instance, sometimes our engineering department is overburdened with too much work, and we do not have enough headcount or depending on the supplier market, the company's financial capabilities. I mean, there's a series of factors that are taken into account in a risk analysis based on which we consider the best alternative for the company for that specific moment in time in that specific project. So there is no preference for one model versus the other. It's all about a technical decision after looking at the market and the company's internal conditions.
Thank you, Renata. Thanks for your questions, George. Now let's give the floor to Guilherme Costa from Goldman Sachs.
Congratulations, Renata, Sylvia and the entire Petrobras team on the great results. My first question is a follow-up to my -- to the previous questions. The platforms that are running with production above nominal capacity, how sustainable is this level of production? Could we say that this is a new plateau for the production of these rigs?
And my second question is about capital allocation. You've been very vocal when it comes to being careful with OpEx and thinking about remuneration to shareholders. Are there any discussions about potential changes to the company's internal policies given the scenario for next year? And about M&A. In last year's strategic plan, we talked extensively about the ethanol market. Do you have any update about the discussions since then? And also about the return to liquid natural gas, was there any change or progress or approval by the Board? And lastly, one last question about M&A. What's the company's appetite for the reserve capacity auction for next year?
Thank you, Guilherme. That's a lot of questions. Well, I'll give the floor to Renata.
About the production peak, basically, whenever we outline a development plan for a field, there's a ramp-up in production. It reaches a plateau and then it decreases. So the production expectations are based mainly on the reservoirs characteristics and availability and all that. So we always try to reach a -- to use a rig where the highest VPL is achieved. We usually design a rig for a production peak. And given the response of the reservoir with higher productivity, the peak was augmented, but the production peak is a restricted period during the operations of the field. After that, it will go down in production as is usually the case. So this increase in production is temporary in the production curve. So we will always try to reach it, but it is within the field development plan, basically based on the capacity of the reservoir.
Thank you, [ Sylvia ]. I'll give the floor to Fernando and Angelica if she has any comments.
Okay. So about all of this that we are discussing, I think the right word here is caution. Considering that there are no changes in policy. We intend to continue holding it. We believe that it's sustainable, and there are other things that we can do before we change the dividend policy. And M&A, everything we do goes through several scenarios. You need to be positive across all of them. So create value with shareholders, whether they are in the government or private. And the second point is that you need to have cash or sustainable cash long term that will -- in which it will make sense to allocate capital to this investment.
So nothing will be done if these conditions are not met. And obviously, if there's a lot of pressure on Brent, we have the possibility of postponing any investments that have been contracted. Thank you, Fernando. Angelica.
So about ethanol, we still strongly believe that ethanol is the strategic driver to achieve low carbon. In our strategic plan, we foresee the addition of renewables by 2050, around 8% to 11% renewables in our primary energy matrix. And so we're negotiating with partners about the possibility of going into this market through a minority stake.
Considering ILC, which is your next question, we have about 3 gigawatts of energy to sell in this auction. We think it will be difficult when it comes to the to allocating the transportation tariff. But we're speaking with the government to find some alternatives to allocate this transportation tariff.
We're going to continue with questions from Regis from XP.
Thank you for the space and the entire Petrobras team for these excellent results. Referring back to CapEx, and also the equatorial margin. I'm wondering if you found new evidence that reinforce the potential of the equatorial margin, if we understand how long it will take to develop it. And on a broader sense, if you have a plan B for the Equatorial margin basin. I don't know if you have any evidence that will confirm or not confirm your previous assumptions.
So when you accelerate CapEx that has a short-term effect. in Brent prices. And this coincides with oil prices dropping. So I don't know if this is something that you'd figure into your calculation, but still on acceleration.
Another question I have is that when I see the number of wells, especially in Buzios, there seems to be more wells per platform than we would need to meet this capacity given the productivity of the well itself. So does it make sense to drill these wells beforehand? Or would it make sense to reduce the number of drills? So that's my question. Thank you, Silvia and Renata will answer your question.
So first, about the equatorial margin. First of all, we're very happy with the environmental license, and I'll explain the potential we see for it. We started 95 million years ago when the sea close to Brazil -- well, when Brazil was closer to Africa, and you had a small sea there that created all these generating rocks. And this is what led to the development of oil in Ghana. We found and then Jubilee. And the same was detected in French Guyana with Jubilee and in Mesa in the [ Guyana ] Basin.
So this potential also is true for Brazil. The same reservoirs that they found in Ghana and French Guyana and Guyana are dated to the same times as the reservoir that we found here. So the fact that we are drilling for it in [ Mapa ] refers to these other basins. So we're going to test if the same generation process was effective here, if the quality that we have in this reservoir is the same as we expect, if there was a migration. So this first well will allow us to understand what the basin is like. But this is not enough. We are already planning for 8 wells in the region. And in Rio Grande do Norte, we had two findings with smaller volumes, not enough for us to place a unit. But now after Morpho, we are drilling one more well in Rio Grande do Norte.
Depending on how much accumulation there is there, we might have a production hub to -- and in the Mapa, we're still drilling the first well. We need to find oil. But regardless of the fact of finding it or not, we will need to drill other wells. We celebrated the fact that we got this environmental license, but this is just a license. And you can only find well -- excuse me, oils after you drill the well. So after we understand that, we will need to drill other wells to see these occurrences.
So to set expectations, we're hoping to find oil in this well, but if it's not in this one, we might find it in other ones. And again, in the Campos Basin, we only found it on the ninth well drilled. So the biggest success factor here is having geological similarities. -- but they can only be considered truly identical if we get the same results. So we are waiting. Thank you, Silvia. Go ahead, Renata.
[indiscernible] to talk a little bit about rent balance. It is not impacted by advanced payments. What is, is the project's VPL. It increases significantly as you have an advance of your revenue. So this is not being impacted. What impacts the balance Brent is the total cost of the project. As we're trying to simplify projects, that improves the rent balance. So this affects everything, rigs and all the subsidies. Considering wells, why are we still drilling wells in Buzios, for example?
You saw that the [ Aland ] rig, each well produces 50,000 to 60,000 barrels per day. If one of them is left out, that's a major loss for Petrobras. So we need to have reserve wells. That's one thing. On the other hand, the inventory we have of wells ready due to the increase in interconnections is going down fast. So we need to keep up the same pace as we conclude drilling wells, but we always need to look at our fleet and have plans B. Some companies in Brazil that drill for oil came to us to ask if we could share probes with them. So this is one of the opportunities that we have if we see that we're going too fast.
We can slow down our pace and the pace in which we drill our wells. But for now, this is not the case. If we continue at the same pace with interconnections very soon, wells will go into their critical zone. We're having a very healthy dispute our competition here in the engineering team because no one wants to get into that critical zone.
[Operator Instructions] Let's start with Tasso.
Tasso from UBS. Okay. So sticking to one question. I'd like to go back to that issue on balancing use sources. I'd like to understand how you're adjusting the company's spending. We've spoken about CapEx, but I'd also like to ask about OpEx. I know that you're going to give more details about this plan at the end of the month, but I'd just like to know how this process is going. how you're thinking of balancing these two pillars? And where do you see the most opportunities or the highest potential to reduce expenses, whether in CapEx or OpEx and in what areas? That's all. Thank you. So we're going to publish that plan in the next 2 weeks. And of course, there's pressure from society and from you to provide information beforehand. But I can only speak about it on -- at a superficial level because we're going to go into details when the time comes.
The biggest issue that we're seeing right now in our balance and our results refers to production. There are two very important verticals, cost and revenue. From the revenue perspective, we're increasing the amounts and that improves the conditions for our plans, the results that we are currently having and our future perspectives. From the OpEx and CapEx perspective, we're being very cautious, as I mentioned before.
There's a risk of Brent prices going up next year because we believe that the future scenario will lead us in that direction. And that, of course, needs to be related to our confidence level in strategic planning. It will continue to be high, and we will definitely have the possibilities of making adjustments. We're talking about simplifying and optimizing projects, reducing costs across all areas. In the corporate area, we had the PDV that is a part of our reorganization plan.
On the short term, we are increasing production, which should be at the top range of our guidance, and we'll publish more information when we have them. We can't provide any details yet.
Clifford from JPMorgan will ask the next question.
Okay. Now I was able to turn on my microphone. Congratulations on the solid results. We've been talking about this stronger production theory surprising us positively. So we were very happy about the increase in capacity for FPSO and the results that you presented. Most of my questions have been answered. But again, looking at use sources, we heard about this pressure on brand, but increased production, PDV and containing OpEx to sustain this cash flow for the future.
Even with these efforts, we saw that gross debt went up to nearly USD 71 billion, which is close to your 75 limit, although leverage is stable. So has your mindset changed about this plan? You mentioned that we will probably not see that minimum dividend policy again. So how sustainable is this? And what will be your gross debt limit for 2026 and beyond? Thank you, [indiscernible]. Fernando will answer your question.
From the debt perspective, we have to remember that our cap is BRL 75 billion, and we reached nearly BRL 71 billion this quarter with the capture we had and this increased the size of our treasury by BRL 2 billion. If we look at net debt in the third quarter, we saw a very small change versus the second quarter. It remained basically flat with much more robust cash. And when it comes to strategic planning, since we don't have the intention of changing dividends in our plan, we also believe that it is not necessary to change the cap on our debt.
We'll maintain it, but we'll do internal initiatives for efficiency, reviewing projects to do more with less before we change these two points. Here, I'm referring to debt and dividends.
Thank you, Fernando. We will now hear a question from Caio Ribeiro from Bank of America.
I'd like to talk to you about how you see this scenario of lower oil prices. And with this intention to keep gross debt at below BRL 75 billion, how does that impact your appetite in participating in bid tenders for noncontracted areas, especially PPSA?
Participating in auctions for Petrobras is just a part of replenishing our reserves. Whenever we have an opportunity, auctions are opportunities of increasing our reserves. So we will definitely participate in all auctions, not only this one. Of course, we are limited in cash flow. We need to be cautious, but we just need to see if this is economically viable.
We're still analyzing if we will do that. Recently, we participated in two auctions, which have been won. Sylvia might add to that answer. So auctions for Petrobras are an opportunity to replenish our reserves. So we will, of course, take these opportunities.
I'd like to confirm this partnership with the finance department, the perception about the importance of renovating reserves and the importance of our blocks. As I said before, we will participate in every auction we have in Brazil, looking for the best opportunities and knowing that we need to renovate our reserves. We have one of the best results in Brazil. And we, of course, cannot give up on the possibility of having the best blocks. We went to the auctions in Campos and we won both of them with high competitiveness. So our intention is to be present whenever these opportunities are. We have -- it's also great to see that we have a partnership between finances and administration in Petrobras, acknowledging the importance of new areas and new blocks for the company's future.
So it's very encouraging to have this commion across all these departments without new areas, it will be hard to be the Petrobras we are today. Now a question from Gabriel Barra from Citibank.
Fernando, the entire Petrobras. I'll limit myself to just one question as asked us to do, but I must insist on the CapEx. This is possibly one of the biggest issues we've been discussing with investors in the past few months. Having -- I'm facing a little bit of a challenge here when it comes to this year's CapEx and last year's CapEx, we see that there is something close to BRL 3 billion to BRL 4 billion that are not yet allocated to the projects. So this is probably your range of flexibility to make adjustments as it were. And we just talked about noncontractted areas, ethanol, Braskem, the services market Renata has been talking extensively about adjusting the portfolio of rigs and adjusting the subsea area, undoubtedly, there is a lot to be done, but this market is harder to deal with. Maybe [ Namibia ], there are several investments that are -- have not been included for next year. And to what extent, and this is an important part of my question, how counterproductive it is to stop a project of the company since most projects are 20 or 30 years long in Brazil, especially when it comes to offshore. So how much flexibility do you have when it comes to the CapEx for next year? That's what I'd like to understand.
Okay. We're going to answer your question jointly, myself and Renata. But by definition, the first years give us the lowest flexibility because there's 4 or 5 production systems up until '27, all of them being built. We have contracts signed. So we have a commitment to the supplier. Actually, our suppliers have been great partners to Petrobras. So our flexibility increases as time goes by. For 2026, we do not have a lot of flexibility. The projects, basically 90% of them are already contracted. And this is what we're doing.
In the longer term, we have the flexibility of postponing things here and there, and it's a high amount of flexibility. For all the projects that are not yet approved or whose contract has not yet been signed, we have the possibility of postponing them according to what we wish to do.
Well, Gabriel, we have no perspective whatsoever of stopping any projects. Stopping contracted projects is a very negative thing. So that's not even being considered. If you remember about our plan, we have the projects that are under assessment and projects that are already under implementation. I don't know if you remember, we returned two projects to the assessment phase. They were not yet contracted. We were still at the F3 phase, and we decided that we needed to study them further to increase their profitability.
So they went back to the assessment desk. So we should consider that our plan includes these two groups of projects. We have greater flexibility, as Fernando said, with the ones that are under assessment. We should not forget, Gabriel, that 90% of our CapEx is allocated to E&P and production. production is the key word for Petrobras. They're highly structuring for us, and we will continue to invest in them because we are certain that these were very well-assessed projects. And a production system, once it starts producing, it stays in production for 20 or 30 years. And the CapEx happens beforehand.
Last question from [ Rodrigo Almeida ] from Santander.
I want to mention something that may be interesting to discuss, which is about decommissioning. We may be in a dilemma in terms of the fact that there are some platforms that could bring about some additional OpEx, but there is an additional decommissioning cost. So I'd like to understand, do you think about reusing the rigs or about somehow postponing the decommissioning of the platform so as to gain more efficiency in the short term? Or I don't know, maybe making a partnership like with Baa. I don't know if there is anything similar to that partnership for these fields that are going to be decommissioned, if they could be transferred to a partner or not. So this is a bit of an unrelated question, but it could also be interesting to discuss.
Well, Rodrigo, I'm going to share the answer with Fernardo. Decommissioning is part of the history of the life of a field. You start with exploration, you develop production and all of them will reach the decommissioning phase. We have more than 50 rigs that are going to be decommissioned. And this -- for the future ones, we are attempting to reduce the -- as much as we can, the period between the interruption of production and decommissioning because now we have, for instance, a huge amount of rigs that need to be decommissioned basically at the same time. And before that, we are extending the lifetime of the rigs for the ones that are in operation. The ones that have already stopped operating, Renata and her team, they're trying to consider how to separate the wells from the rig because it's not only about decommissioning a rig because a rig has wells, it has lines and everything underneath that is not seen, 70% or -- that represents 2/3 of the entire cost.
So before removing a platform, you have to remove the wells, the lines and all that. And Renata's group has been working on that to try to as much as possible, quickly displace the platform to be decommissioned so that we can avoid the maintenance costs and the cost for personnel on rigs that are not producing anymore. So our efforts now are to -- are being invested in trying to decommission these platforms as soon as possible.
Well, Rodrigo, when Sylvia's team assesses the lifetime of a rig or a field, that's done 7 years before stopping production, which is when we have to let in PO. Now especially with P35 and P37 which are about to be removed from the location because like Sylvia said, all the wells have been decommissioned, all the lines have been cleaned up, so we'll bring the rig to the coast. In that process, we'll try to reutilize the rig. We're setting up a bidding process to at least use the hull. We know that the top side is a bit more complicated because these are really old rigs that do not cater to the current specifications.
So we'll now set up a pilot to reutilize the P35 and P37 hulls. If we're successful, that may become our new normal, but each case will be different. I was looking, we have 54 rigs out of operation that need to be decommissioned. And all of them are going to be assessed as for what to do with them.
And now we are going to take the last question from Gustavo Cunha from BTG.
Well, my question is in line with this scenario where the company is close to the debt cap. I'd like to understand the rationale of the PDV and if we can expect additional PDV, how the company is balancing out the additional need for OpEx due to new platforms and the use of the required OpEx due to the low price scenario.
Thank you, Gustavo. Concerning the PDV, there is -- we have no plans to release any other PDV. The PDP that we launched is meant for a very specific population. These are or the voluntary separation program, the VSP. There for employees that retired before the social security reform, a little over 1,100 workers. And we worked towards in addition to retaining knowledge, which is extremely important for us, we also worked within the guidelines and parameters established by [ TG Par 52 ], which outlines all the financial limits for the VSPs.
So I also want to make it clear that we technical level hiring process. We hired more than 1,700 technical level workers and part of them are still being trained at the Petrobras them thing I didn't mention about the workers that have already retired since 2019, they are technical workers. So the company is managing its headcount very carefully and also working on the knowledge transfer, which is fundamental. We need all of the workers that remain at the company dealing with extremely critical processes for the company and have a very high level of knowledge. It's essential that they transfer that to new workers that are now being hired.
Thank you, [indiscernible]. And with that, we will wrap up. If you have any additional questions, you can send them to the GRI team. Before we finish our broadcast, I'll give the floor first to Director Sylvia and then to Director Fernando.
Well, I'd like to highlight in October, we had an oil production of 2.6. And this is very positive data. I also want to highlight the importance of adequately managing the reservoir. Maybe for the first time, we're going to have three executive managers specializing in reservoirs and President Magda. She's also a reservoir engineer, she is constantly working with us on managing the reservoirs. So increasing -- there's an increase in production, increase in units, but also greater efficiency in terms of greater water injection, greater production, greater well allocation. So we reached 2.6 in October, and that's very encouraging news.
So wrapping up some final words, a perception, actually, the third quarter highlights the results that are produced by the administration of the company. The administration is highly aligned with the company's governance. We're talking about the fiscal Board, the statutory and nonstatutory Boards, the administrative Board, the workers and the Board of Directors. We are all extremely aligned with the long and short-term sustainability of the company, even in the face of a lower brand and focusing on a few subjects. First, production, we had a CapEx in the past that was highly scrutinized by everybody and led to some questions and the results are seen in production, and we have even more to show you with a strategic plan that will be delivered on the 27th.
Also strengthening the entire governance of the company. All the projects go through a scrutiny financial assessment of three scenarios. It has to be positive. They must have a synergy with the company and all that. Also optimizing costs. at all levels, whether it is investment costs by finding better engineering solutions, production costs. Our goal is also to try to reduce them. The corporate costs that we've been implementing new projects, projects that would be approved in a normal situation because all scenarios are positive. We understand sometimes that indicators could be even better.
So we take a step back, and we are reviewing them to make them even better. Energy transition, which is always on our agenda and will always be on our agenda, has always been and always will be and also a just energy transition. I want to thank you all for watching us and being with us. And as Eduardo said, we are available to take any questions you may have. in our meetings, the chat conferences as is always the case. Thank you, and have a great weekend, everybody.
Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR — Q3 2025 Earnings Call
Petrobras posts strong Q3 2025 results with record output, robust cash flow and disciplined capex.
📊 Quarter at a Glance
- EBITDA: USD 12.0b (adjusted, excluding one-off items)
- Net income: USD 5.2b (excludes onetime items), +28% QoQ
- Operating cash flow: USD 9.9b, +31% QoQ
- Free cash flow: USD 5.0b, +44% QoQ
- Production: 3.14 million boe in Q3; 76% above Q2 2025, 17% above Q3 2024; total operated 54 million boe; pre-salt 2.56 million boe
🎯 What Management Says
- Capex execution: acceleration in 2025 with new platforms (P78/P79) and Buzios capacity expansion; target ~900,000 bpd additional capacity over 2 years; deliveries on time or ahead, costs controlled
- Strategic plan: new plan to be published on November 27 outlining next 5 years
- Dividend and energy transition: preserves flexible dividend policy (45% of free cash flow) and pursues renewables/ethanol with minority-partner talks
🔭 Outlook & Guidance
- Guidance status: on track to meet annual guidance; Capex pace above prior plan with 9M cash investment of USD 12.9b; 89% cash-investment ratio
- Debt framework: gross debt USD 70.7b, net debt stable; debt cap around USD 75b respected
- Risks: Brent price volatility could delay or re-phase investments; provisional measure under debate may affect project economics; no plan to alter dividend policy
❓ Analyst Q&A
- Capex flexibility 2026: limited flexibility for 2026 due to contracted projects; only later years offer room to shift; stopping contracted work not contemplated
- Buzios 12 and market dynamics: bid process and market competition have driven simplification; up to 12 prequalified firms for BOT/EPC; top-side weight reductions pursued to boost competitiveness
- Provisional measure impact: reinjection decisions depend on reservoir conditions; not final and requires careful assessment; campus basin economics could be sensitive to price changes
⚡ Bottom Line
Q3 2025 confirms Petrobras’ ability to grow production and cash flow while keeping a tight rein on capital spending. The company signals a meaningful multi-year capacity ramp at Buzios, maintains a disciplined dividend stance, and will unveil a new strategic plan later this month. Key risks remain Brent price volatility and regulatory shifts that could affect project economics.
Financial data from Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Mar '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 96,711 96,711 |
0%
0%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 56,733 56,733 |
6%
6%
59%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 39,978 39,978 |
7%
7%
41%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 4,108 4,108 |
23%
23%
4%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | 2,063 2,063 |
1%
1%
2%
|
|
| EBITDA | 30,771 30,771 |
3%
3%
32%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 1,044 1,044 |
17%
17%
1%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 29,727 29,727 |
3%
3%
31%
|
|
| Net Profit | 20,889 20,889 |
124%
124%
22%
|
|
In millions USD.
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Petroleo Brasileiro SA ADR Stock News
Company Profile
Petróleo Brasileiro SA engages in oil and gas exploration, production, and distribution activities. It operates through the following segments: Exploration and Production; Refining, Transportation, and Marketing; Gas and Power; and Corporate and Other Business. The Exploration and Production segment involves crude oil, natural gas liquids, and natural gas exploration, development, and production. The Refining, Transportation and Marketing segment involves refining, logistics, transportation, trading operations, oil products and crude oil exports and imports, and petrochemical investments. The Gas and Power segment includes transportation and trading of natural and liquefied natural gas, the generation and trading of electric power, and the fertilizer business. The Corporate and Other Business segment comprises the financing activities not attributable to other segments including corporate financial management, and central administrative overhead and actuarial expenses. The company was founded on October 3, 1953 and is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | Brazil |
| CEO | Mrs. Chambriard |
| Employees | 43,199 |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Website | petrobras.com.br |


