Good day, and welcome to the PGNiG Group financial results for Q4 and financial year 2020 conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Marcin Piechota, IR Manager. Please go ahead, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the conference call held to discuss the financial results of the PGNiG Group for the Q4 and the whole year of 2020. The meeting is hosted by Przemysław Wacławski, Vice President for Finance. He's accompanied by our IR team, performance team, with our Norwegian office on the line. Let us begin with a presentation of the financial results, and then we'll proceed to our customary Q&A sessions. In the Q4 of 2020, PGNiG Supply & Trading signed a contract with Ørsted Salg & Service A/S for the purchase of natural gas from the Danish continental shelf, enabling gas exports to Poland and other countries once the Baltic Pipe becomes operational. In December 2020, the President of the Energy Regulatory Office approves PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny's new retail tariff, which reduced the price of gas for households by 4.5%. The new tariff is effective from January 1st, 2021. In December 2020, PGNiG Energa and PKN Orlen signed an investment agreement on the rules governing cooperation in the construction of a gas-fired unit at Ostrołęka C Power Plant. In the Q4 of 2020, the U.S. dollar depreciated by PLN 0.09 year-on-year, PLN 3.78, while the euro appreciated 5% year-on-year to PLN 4.51. The average oil price in the quarter fell by approximately 29% year-on-year to $44.60 per barrel. Translated into the Polish złoty, the quarterly oil price fell 30%. The Group's results were achieved in an environment where the weighted average price of gas under contracts traded on the Polish Power Exchange, based on maturity dates at approximately PLN 80, down by over 12% year-on-year. During the quarter, day-ahead market price rose 14% year-on-year to just under PLN 76. The PGNiG Group aggregate revenue was PLN 11.8 billion, which means that it fell by about PLN 400 million or 5% from the Q4 of 2019. Revenue from sales of gas, taking into account hedging transactions, declined 6% year-on-year despite a 2% increase in sales volumes, which amounted to 9.4 billion cubic meters. Operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, amounted to PLN 9.4 billion and were lower by 13% due to mainly to lower cost of gas. In the Q4 of 2020, impairment losses on non-current assets of PLN 780 million were recognized, far exceeding prior year's level of PLN 226 million. In the Q4, the group posted EBITDA of PLN 1.3 billion, representing a significant improvement on the PLN 30 million reported for the same period last year. Let us now move on to discussing the performance of each segment. EBITDA generated by the exploration and production business was PLN 0.2 billion, a decrease of PLN 500 million year-on-year. This fall was led chiefly by impairment losses on non-current assets of approximately PLN 680 million. Due to a rebound in market prices of natural gas, particularly pronounced in December 2020, the upstream reported a 22% increase in revenue from sales of gas to PLN 922 million. In contrast, revenue from sales of crude oil fell by PLN 200 million year-on-year, reflecting mainly year-on-year declines in oil prices. Oil production volumes remained stable year-on-year as a combined effect of a strong 48% growth in production volumes in Norway and a fall in production volumes in Poland. In trade and storage, revenue from gas sales fell by PLN 600 million or 7% year-on-year, reflecting lower selling prices of hydrocarbons under both spot and futures contracts. Revenue dropped despite a 2% year-on-year increase in sales volumes. The key driver of the segment's Q4 performance was a strong year-on-year decrease in cost of gas, which reduced the segment's operating expenses, depreciation and amortization by 20% to PLN 8.2 billion. Net loss on settlement of hedging instruments designed for hedge accounting amounted to PLN 14 million and was lower than the result achieved in the Q4 of 2019, which was a gain of PLN 188 million. A write-down on gas inventory of just PLN 1 million was recognized in the Q4 of 2020, compared with the much higher inventory write-downs of PLN 339 million recognized in the Q4 of 2019. The segment's reported EBITDA came in at PLN 1.3 billion and was more than 10 times higher year-on-year. The Q4, the distribution segment's revenue was up 18% year-on-year to PLN 1.37 billion. The segment's results were driven primarily by a 3.5% year-on-year rise in the distribution tariff at lower average temperatures in the quarter, down 1.5 degrees Celsius, which contributed to a 7% year-on-year increase in the gas distribution volumes. As a combined effect of these factors, the segment's EBITDA for the quarter rose 36% year-on-year to PLN 0.62 billion. The generation segment posted a 16% increase in revenue from sales of heat for the Q4 of 2020. Despite lower temperatures recorded during the quarter, heat volumes remained broadly flat year-on-year. Revenue from sales of heat was strongly supported by higher tariffs, particularly heat generation, heat transmission tariffs applied by PGNiG Termika. In the Q4 of 2020, revenue from sales of electricity from own sources decreased 8% year-on-year, primarily due to lower sales volumes. In the Q4 of 2020, the segment's depreciation and amortization expense dropped by 12% year-on-year to PLN 276 million, reflecting mainly lower reversal of provision for CO2 emission allowances. Overall, the segment's EBITDA amounted to PLN 360 million, down 12% year-on-year. Last but not least, some important news came from Norway today as PGNiG Upstream Norway entered into a conditional agreement to purchase INEOS E&P Norge AS business. Subject to the deal is a business portfolio of 22 licenses, including three producing license fields, Alvheim, Marulk, Ormen Lange, and Nyhamna gas terminal. INEOS E&P estimated volume of hydrocarbon resources associated with the licenses is approximately 170 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which over 94% is natural gas. Following the transaction, PGNiG estimated average gas output in Norway may increase by some 1.5 billion cubic meters per annum over the next five years. The purchase price is $615 million, however, will be reduced over time by revenue earned by the company in the period between effective transaction date and the date on which PGNiG acquires operational control of INEOS. Thank you for your attention. We'll be happy to take your questions now. Thank you, sir. If you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is switched off to allow your signal to reach our equipment. Again, please press star one to ask a question, and we will pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We can take our first question from Tomasz Czerkawski from Santander. Please go ahead. Yes. Hello, everyone. Just a few questions, if I may. The first one refers to capital allocation policy. If you could say something, what do you think about payment of dividends for this year or the month it could be? This is the first one. The second one is about profitability in the gas and trading business, because this is something which has been very volatile in the past quarters. Could you please elaborate what kind of margins or what kind of profitability would you expect this division to deliver in the coming years? It was the second, and the third question refers to the acquisition, which you have just announced. If you could say something about the cost profile of the assets which you have purchased. When do you expect the transaction to be closed? I noticed that there's a discrepancy when it comes to the reserve data which you provide and INEOS gave. INEOS is saying that the asset had 2P reserve of 80 million. You are talking about more than 100. If you could elaborate on this. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Tomasz, for your questions. If I may, I would like to direct the first questions of yours to our colleagues from Norway to elaborate on that, and then we will get back to the questions one and two. Okay? Here is Cyryl Federowicz, CFO of PGNiG Upstream Norway, and addressing three questions that were related to our recent acquisition. I will maybe start with the last one regarding discrepancy in reserve data or difference in approach to reporting reserve data. The data that was reported by INEOS that we saw at the level of 80 million barrels, is referring to so-called 2P reserves, which stand for fully developed and producing reserves of INEOS as of today. Our data includes both 2P and 2C reserves, which means addition of contingent resources. Within these transactions, it's quite meaningful because contingent resources that approximately account for 37 million barrels are related to Ormen Lange field and current ongoing projects, which is aimed at enabling producing increased volumes from the Ormen Lange. Our expectation is that 2C reserves on Ormen Lange within a year from now will become 2P reserves. Within a year from now, there will be no difference in reporting, but we need to wait one year until maturation of so-called third phase project of the Ormen Lange development, which is now ongoing. This is regarding reserves. Both data are correct, it's just a different basis. Regarding timing for closing. The closing is conditional primarily upon consent from the Norwegian authorities, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, and closing will happen immediately after the consent is received. Our expectation is that closing may occur between June and September. However, it will be highly dependent on when the consent is given to us. According to the agreement, closing will always happen on the last day of the month when we get the consent from the Ministry. It will be effective from following month. We have everything in place and all the agreements made with the seller to make it efficient. We hope actually to close this transaction as soon as possible, because this is the point in time from when we will start accounting for revenues, costs, and financial consequences of this transaction in our books. Regarding cost profile of the asset, historically, we have not disclosed any direct data regarding cost profile of our portfolio. However, what we can say is that majority of production in this transaction is coming from Ormen Lange field, which is one of the largest, the second-largest gas field in Norway. Which results that cost of production in such a large field is typically very low due to economies of scale. I can refer to publicly available data from Rystad Energy that estimates average cost of production in Norway at the level of $8 per barrel. This is average, and I just can refer that the transaction that we executed is far below the average because this is one of the largest fields. I think that concludes answers for Norway. Yeah, if I could. Thank you very much. What kind of production do you expect to achieve this year? You said 1.5 billion cubic meters. Also, INEOS said that the assets were producing, I think, 40,000 barrels per day. It seems that your guidance is below what those assets were producing. Yeah. The information from INEOS are referring to 2020 production that they achieved. We, in our estimate, put our individual estimate of production in year 2021 and five subsequent years. So 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas we reported is an average from the upcoming five years. And production is on slight decline every year, so it will be more than 1.5 this year, and it will gradually be reduced. This is also Marek Woszczyk from PGNiG. I'm responsible for commercial and business development. I just wanted to add that our published 1.5 BCM, as Piotr mentioned, is not only an average over next five years, but it is also gas only. Right? The portfolio, even though it is predominantly gas, it is 94% gas, it will also yield NGL and condensate production to PGNiG Group, and this is not catered in for in 1.5 BCM, but is reflected in the estimate of INEOS, which was saying 33 kboe a day. Thanks. Thank you very much. We hope that concludes the questions for Norway. Regarding dividend policy, I will hand to Mr. Przemysław Wacławski for a comment on that. Thank you for this question. For the moment, we are not disclosing any information regarding the dividend to be paid in 2021 for 2020. We are still analyzing the cash flow needs and the potential investment needs and acquisition needs, like we have announced today. I can only make a remark that the policy stays the same. We shall propose the payment of dividend up to 50% of the consolidated net result. In the last year, it was around 30%. This information is going to come in the next weeks, probably. Thank you very much. Thank you. Regarding the question of profitability of LNG, what to expect in our business segment. We see that based on the forward price curve. Of gas that will, forthcoming months we should expect a rise and then a fall of prices, which is normal for forthcoming seasons. What we can see is that the curve has flattened, and this is a very different story than we experienced in last year, where the volatility on the gas market was very high. The gas price is rising with the price cap for our retail customers, households, set by the regulator in the tariff, means that there will be a pressure for the margins generated in the retail business. Simply due to the fact that the costs of gas on the exchange are close to the average price set by the regulator in the tariff. Taking into account that currently our procurement costs and formula of the most important imports gas, contracts for imports, are based on the market prices of gas. This means that this lower volatility will have to be well managed by our hedging policy. Just to keep the margins stable at the wholesale business, while the retail business will have to deal with the pressure of rising costs of gas and the limited space given by the tariff. Thank you very much. Thank you. As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. We can take our next question from Michał Kozak from Trigon. Please go ahead. Yes, thank you. I have two questions. The first one, could you share the information of the implied EBITDA multiple of INEOS assets for the last four quarters or 2020? The second one, could you present your outlook this year comparing to the previous year results in distribution and energy segment? Thank you. Thank you very much for your questions. If I can ask, please, our colleagues from Norway to answer the first questions. Then we'll get back to the second one. Regarding EBITDA of the Norwegian organization, here we are in pretty comfortable situation because this consists of public data, as financial results in Norway are public. We can give you the exact EBITDA numbers for INEOS E&P Norge in the last three years, which were very much driven by fluctuation of prices. Starting from the year 2018, INEOS Norge generated EBITDA at the level of NOK 5.3 billion. In 2019, EBITDA was at the level of NOK 2.7 billion, and in 2020, it was NOK 1.4 billion. Changes in EBITDA were driven by, on the one hand, production that went through decline over this period. Now it is expected to flatten out. The other important factor were gas prices, because it's gas-driven organization. Last year's decline in EBITDA was driven by average gas price in 2020. Thank you very much for answering this question. Regarding outlook in our distribution and generation segments, of course, we see with the new tariff for distribution, the outlook for this year, if there will be no crucial changes coming regarding the temperatures drop or warmer winter seasons, we should assume a rather stable result coming from distribution. In terms of generation, apart of course of the weather conditions that may occur in this year, we can see rather stable results with potential upside coming from introduction of Żerań gas-fired plant in September this year. Higher volumes of electricity generated from this unit and lower costs that may be a positive effect for generation. Okay, thank you. Could you present also net debt for the last year in INEOS and, yeah, that's it. Again, from Norway, straight answer, we are not absorbing any debt of INEOS according to transaction. Both debt and cash are not a part of this transaction. We take over the assets. Thank you. Thank you. Again, as a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one. It would appear we have no questions or no further questions at this time, sir. I'd now like to hand the call back to you for additional or closing remarks. Ladies and gentlemen, conference is coming to an end. Thank you very much for your participation in today's event. If you have any additional questions regarding Q4 results and other developments of PGNiG's operations, please contact our IR team. I thank you very much for your attention. Thank you very much our colleagues from Norway for participation in this event. Thank you very much and have a nice day. Goodbye. This concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
Loading workspace