Orlen SA
PSE:PKN
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
297
423
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches CZK.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
This alert will be permanently deleted.
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the conference call to begin ORLEN presenting our results after the second quarter of 2022. Today's presenters will include Mr. Jan Szewczak, CFO of PKN ORLEN; as well as Mr. Armen Artwich, Management Board member for Corporate Affairs at PKN ORLEN. A warm welcome also to all our webcast viewers. Let me now give the floor over to our presenters.
Thank you very much, and welcome to today's conference call. This is yet another conference call recapping our performance of the second quarter. But this is, to a certain extent, exceptional because it is the very last conference call at which we will show and discuss the performance PKN ORLEN before the merger was with Grupa LOTOS.
As you know, August 1 due to the completion of the transaction and the clearance, it took place in the beginning of the month. And as of the next conference, we will discuss our combined performance starting as of the August 1, and the scale of our operations will be larger too.
Secondly, we meet today at a point in time when our macro environment is a very difficult one. It's very volatile for our business, for the fuel and energy business in general. We all know that the barbaric war in Ukraine goes on. We see what happens in the market of fuels, crude oil, natural gas, coal. We have shortages of feedstocks. We have broken supply chains. This all has an impact on rising prices across global markets.
You saw it already in the last quarter of last year. But in the most recent time, especially in the second quarter of 2022, we see new negative drivers, such as rising inflation rate around the world, in Europe as well as first signals of recession looming around the corner in some countries and in some economies. The sanctions on the imports of Russian fuels and crude oil, they have driven down the supply on fuel markets.
The reduced supply, both in Europe and around the world, had a major impact on the prices, especially of fuels on the margins, on model-finding margins practically across all markets and in all companies. On the other hand, we see that high prices of fuels resulted in demand going -- demand going down. And the forecast for the business for months to come are not positive. We will have a number of challenges ahead of us.
And those are major challenges. Lower consumption of Russian oil higher -- drastically higher prices of natural gas, high discount rates. These drivers had an impact on our consolidated performance going down by PLN [ 2 billion ], all these drivers had an impact on our performance, and we must remember that impairment losses are purely an accounting treatment. And they can be reversed as time goes by, if possible, depending on how the situation evolves.
Model refining margin for July stood at 18.5 billion -- $18.5 per barrel going down nearly 50% year month-on-month. You can see that those margins for following a considerable downward trend, and we expect this trend to continue. That is why it is so important to proceed with our investment projects and to be consistent in that particular area. I'll be speaking about it in more detail later on. Those investments will make us independent -- totally independent from the supplies from the Eastern direction. We are talking about our investments in hydrogen and alternative fuels and power -- wind power, and this will be discussed in depth by Mr. Artwich.
This all is supposed to send us in a very comfortable position in terms of our access to energy sources as well as secured energy for Poles. I'd like to touch on the fact that happened a couple of days ago in Gdansk during a ceremony marking the merger with LOTOS. This is the best testament to what Mr. Daniel Obajtek was talking about in a couple of days ago, this merger between ORLEN and LOTOS will be visible for Poles, and also in our buckets.
And you can see it when you look at the prices of fuel stations, this is the very best proof of the fact that -- this has brought fruits. We are talking about fuel prices, which are going down below PLN 7. And also combined with our promotional actions and promotional campaign offering fuels at lower prices down by PLN 30 per liter. This shows that this project -- this investment project and the merger with LOTOS was a necessary one.
Abrupt changes in the market are also visible within our business. I would like to especially emphasize the special role of the Upstream segment. I believe that today, all the upstream companies around the world are compliant, and they are making crazy profits nowadays. But you can also see that this is combined coupled with lower performance of retail. This will be discussed by Mr. Artwich later on.
Quite recently, Upstream segment's EBITDA compared to Retail segment's EBITDA was only a couple of percent. However, due to high prices of crude, the profits made by our Upstream segment are almost accounting for 50% of our Retail segment's profits. And therefore, it shows that those trends and the pillars of our operations have changed. And it shows that the contribution of those segments has an effect on our total performance. And let me stress it once again that today, our Retail segment, that is the sales of fuel stations including both fuel products, but also nonfuel products and nonfuel offering is only, merely 8% to 10% of our profit. That means that we make money elsewhere today, in petrochemicals, refining, upstream and energy -- trading and energy as well. These are the main pillars of our business nowadays.
So all the stories about -- let me put it this way, [ region ] margins are untrue. And if you show some goodwill, you can actually see it on paper if you go into it. LIFO EBITDA was at PLN 5.3 billion on the back of major shutdowns in Lithuania and in the Czech Republic, the crude oil utilization ratio, the utilization ratio was at 83%. Had it not been for the maintenance shutdowns, this figure would have been much higher. Sales volumes went up year-on-year to 9.8 million tonnes. Our cash flow from operations stood at PLN 9 billion, especially this was due to negative effect of hedging. We spent PLN 3.2 billion on CapEx projects.
At the same time, which is very important for us and which we have emphasized as a Management Board for quite some time now, we have managed to considerably drive down our debt. Our net debt went down by PLN 4 billion quarter-on-quarter only. That means that quarter-on-quarter, we owe less by PLN 4 billion and the net debt figure stands at PLN 11.6 billion after the second quarter. And net debt-to-EBITDA covenant is the best proof of that, it stays at a very safe level of 0.42. This is a figure which we have not seen for quite some time, for a long time. Especially these days, given that quite recently, the value of money was low, price of money was low. And we had cheap money on other hand. Many big companies around the world took out a lot of debt.
We always took a cautious approach. And therefore, now we can take pride in the fact that our debt is at a very, very low level, coupled with very high investment project. Investment rating is shown on the slide and the AGM of ORLEN recommended dividend payout at PLN 3.50 per share. Opinion of our shareholders is very important to us and a good relationship with our shareholders is our priority. We can take pride in fact that nearly 99% of our shareholders were for the merger with LOTOS. This shows that the viability of this project is true.
And all the complaints and all the misgivings that we are seeing and hearing in the press, elsewhere, we can clearly see that they make no sense because our shareholders have a very down-to-earth and rational approach. They are counting and keeping their fingers crossed on further profits and further dividends from the combined multi-ORLEN utility group.
Key facts or key events of the second quarter is the agreement of the European Commission for the merger with LOTOS. We have signed a merger plan, including the termination of parity -- share parity ratio at 1.075:1. In July, AGMs of both companies approved the merger. And last Monday, just last Monday, it was registered in the National Court Register. This is a historical event. We are enforcing to complete the merger with PGNiG, Polish Gas and Oil Company. We keep diversifying the sources of supply of crude, especially in Lithuania where we see no Russian crude whatsoever at this point.
We are continuing our growth projects. Some of these projects will be discussed later on. And we can take pride in the fact that for the eighth time in a row, we received the Golden Leaf of Polityka newspaper, the same for Anwil, and the Silver Leaf for ENERGA, which means that all these group companies deserve to be recognized with such distinctions.
Before I move on to more details, traditionally, I'd like to extend my gratitude on behalf of Mr. Daniel Obajtek, President of the Management Board, as well as all the members of the Management Board, which we here represent only, but it does not include us only. And also, the employees who contributed greatly to those -- the success of the merger with LOTOS, as well as the future merger and future acquisition of PKN ORLEN.
On Slide #5, you see information on our macro environment. With intent, we are showing you the drastic changes in the prices of feedstocks. You can see the Brent crude oil price increase. It's worth pointing out that Brent crude oil price was hovering around even $130. In terms of natural gas, you can see on the slide that there's a rating -- there has been a rating increase by nearly even 400%.
The question of prices also translates into in exchange rates against USD and euro. You can see the difference between PLN 3.80 versus U.S. dollar even going up to PLN 4.5. So that means that the change is PLN 1 per dollar, which is a huge difference. Let me remind you, again, that we buy crude with U.S. dollars and not with -- and we don't pay with PLN for crude. Obviously, we would like to, but it's not the case.
As well as CO2 to emission rates, this costs us a lot as well, and those prices were going or have been going up since 2021, even up to EUR 80 per tonne. That means that in the second quarter, we have been -- we were operating in a very demanding and volatile environment. Crude oil price was going up by USD 45 per barrel, the same for natural gas going up and the same for commission rates. It was not an easy period to operate in. But as you will see soon, our performance was quite solid in such a volatile and difficult macro environment, and we are very happy to say that.
In the second quarter of the year, we see -- we saw the very first signs of economic slowdown mainly due to the energy crisis, but also due to inflation rate going up, social unrest -- public and social unrest. Consumption of fuel in Germany and in Lithuania, went down year-on-year, even though we saw a rising consumption in Czech Republic and in Poland, going up year-on-year. There are a number of factors which contributed to it. And the drivers, including the inflow of Ukraine citizens to Poland. This also had an impact on those results.
Moving on to our financial results. You can see quite a lot of figures on this particular slide. But we need to focus, first of all, on the growth in revenue nearly by 96% year-on-year due to a number of factors, to a significant amount of PLN 27 billion for 6 months. We are talking about a significant increase here.
As I said before, we reported LIFO-based EBITDA at PLN 5.3 billion, going up by PLN 2.3 billion year-on-year. Obviously, this was due to higher sales volumes as well as positive macro effects, higher fuel and nonfuel margins as well as utilization of historical volumes. Those positive factors were offset by higher utilization on cost of utilization, as well as higher costs and impairment losses on our property plant equipment, as I said before.
We saw a positive impact, LIFO impact at PLN 1.3 billion, which was the impact of changes in crude oil prices. Our financial results stood at minus PLN 0.2 billion as a result of the surplus of negative foreign exchange rate differences as well as interest costs, combined with a positive net impact of settlement of -- and valuation of derivative instruments. Our net results in the second quarter stood at PLN 3.7 billion and going up year-on-year by PLN 1.1 billion.
Moving on to the discussion of our performance by segment. I'll give the floor over now to Mr. Artwich to continue the presentation.
Thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I will start with the next slide, Slide #9, which shows LIFO-based EBITDA broken down into segments. Refining segments reported PLN 1.845 billion, going up by PLN 1.6 billion year-on-year, mainly due to positive macro effect, utilization of our historical layers of inventories, combined with a negative impact of sales volumes, higher cost of internal usage as well as high cost and impairments -- impairment losses on PE.
In the petrochemical segment, our performance was at PLN 1.6 billion, going up by PLN 622 million year-on-year, mainly due to the positive macro impact, higher sales volumes, higher trade margins, wholesale margins, combined with historical inventory usage as well as higher cost of operations.
In the Energy segment, our LIFO-based EBITDA was at PLN 1.2 billion, nearly PLN 1.2 billion, which is comparable year-on-year, mainly due to positive impact of macros as well as higher sales volumes, which was offset by the negative impact of higher cost of operations.
In the Retail segment, our performance, LIFO EBITDA performance was at nearly PLN 700 million, going down year-on-year, mainly due to negative impact of lower fuel sales, fuels margins as well higher costs, a positive impact of higher sales volumes and higher nonfuel margins.
In the Upstream segment, our LIFO-based EBITDA stood at PLN 300 million, going up by PLN 244 million year-on-year, mainly due to our positive macro impact as well as higher sales volumes.
In the Corporate Functions segment, we reported higher cost of operations, which was also presented -- which is also presented in this particular slide.
Moving on to a more detailed discussion of segments. In the Refining segment, as I said before, our performance is at PLN 1.8 billion LIFO-based EBITDA mainly due to a positive macro impact year-on-year due to higher margins of both light and middle distillates, higher differential as well as the weakening of PLN versus U.S. dollar exchange rate. Those effects were partially offset by the negative impact of hedging as well as higher provisions for CO2, valuation of CO2 contracts, lower cracks on heavy fuel oil as well as higher cost of internal usage of crude. In the second quarter, we saw sales volumes going up by 2% year-on-year, including higher sales of diesel as well as JET and heavy fuel oil. At the same time, we reported lower sales of gasolines and LPG.
In the graph, you will see the item, Others, which includes mainly: Higher trade margins going up by PLN 0.6 billion year-on-year, as well as the usage of historical inventory layers at PLN 0.4 billion year-on-year, as well as higher fixed and overhead cost, cost of labor, as well as impairment losses at minus PLN .28 billion, which has already been mentioned by Mr. Jan Szewczak.
In terms of operational data in the Refining segment, in the second quarter, our crude oil throughput was at 7.2 million tonnes, which means that it went up by 0.4 million tonnes, including -- at Plock, the throughput was higher by 1 megaton year-on-year, combined with a fuel yield going up by 3 percentage points due to the lack of negative impact of our maintenance shutdowns of the olefin unit, which took place in the second quarter last year.
At ORLEN Unipetrol, our crude oil throughput went up by 0.1 million tonnes, megatons, due to a favorable macro environment as well as lower might make in shutdown of lower effect of maintenance shutdowns. Our lower fuel yield was down, which was down by 5 percentage points, which was due to higher share of high sulfur crude oils in our structure. And at ORLEN Leituva, our throughput decreased by 0.6 million tonnes due to planned regular cyclical maintenance shutdowns of the refinery. At the same time, we reported higher fuel yields going up by 11 percentage points due to higher share of low-sulfur crude oils in our throughput structure.
Thanks to the improvement of our macro environment in the second quarter, we sold 5.9 million tonnes of our refining product going up by 2% year-on-year, of which by 13%, 14% in Poland and 11% in the Czech Republic due to market macroeconomic situation improvement as well. And in Lithuania, reported a decrease by 21% due to the cyclical maintenance shutdown.
In the Petrochemical segment, our LIFO EBITDA stood at PLN 1.6 billion and the main drivers of this figure was -- were included a negative macro impact as a result of valuation of CO2 contracts, higher provisions for CO2 as well as lower margins on polyolefins and PTA, which was partially offset by the positive impact of higher margins on olefins, PVC as well as fertilizers. In the second quarter we saw sales volumes going up by 31% year-on-year, including due to higher sales of olefins, polyolefins, PVC and PTA as well as fertilizers.
The item, Others, presented in this graph, includes mainly around PLN 100 million year-on-year increase in terms of higher trade margins, the usage of historic governmental layers at minus PLN 0.2 billion as well as higher fixed and labor costs down by PLN 0.1 billion year-on-year.
Moving on to operational data of Petrochemical segment, we must say that we saw higher utilization of petrochemical and main petrochemical installations, across the ORLEN group, especially the olefins unit at Plock, and this was mainly due to the maintenance shutdown in the second quarter of last year, due to BOP at Plock units. This is a comparable statistical effect due to a 2021 maintenance shut down. The same applies to the Metathesis unit at Plock.
In terms of our Fertilizers unit at Wloclawek, we saw an impact of lower availability of our installation in the second quarter of 2022. In PTA, and PA unit in Wloclawek, means we had no maintenance shutdowns and therefore, we saw an almost maximum utilization ratio of our production capacity in the second quarter of this year. The same applies to the Unipetrol's olefins unit. It operated stable -- in a stable way in the second quarter of the year. Our sales amounted to 1.4 million tonnes, which was an increase by 31% year-on-year, of which in Poland, by 52%, mainly due to an increase in olefins, mainly due to the maintenance shutdowns of the olefins installation in last year. And the Czech Republic going up by 6%, mainly as a result of market situation improvement, as well as a decrease in sales in Lithuania, especially due to our cycle regular maintenance shutdown on May and June 2022.
In terms of the Energy segment, our LIFO-based EBITDA was at PLN 1.1 billion, mainly due to effect of -- on the performance of our ENERGA Group. We must mention the negative macro impact year-on-year mainly due to higher provisions for CO2 as well as the valuation of CO2 contracts, combined with an increase in margins on electricity sales as well as distribution services. The positive volume effect, which was mainly -- which came mainly from higher production as well as sales of electricity in both CCGT and CHP units at Plock, as well as lower consumption of natural gas at PKN ORLEN. We must, at this point, mention high quotations of feedstocks.
We also reported lower production sales of electricity at CCGT at Wloclawek as well as a distribution at ENERGA Group. The items other include mainly PLN 0.1 billion year-on-year impairments of assets.
In terms of the Energy segment operational data shown on this particular slide, Slide #15, in the second quarter, PKN ORLEN produced 2.7 terawatt hour of energy of electricity, almost 60% of renewable and resources as well as gas fuel sources. Our production of electricity increased by 4% year-on-year due to higher demand from PC as well as a longer shutdown of CCGT at Plock in the second quarter of 2021. Higher installed capacity of our wind farms year-on-year resulted in higher production from wind. Our electricity sales was at 6.2 terawatt hours, going down by 8% year-on-year mainly due to unfavorable macro conditions for our gas-fired units. However, in terms of electricity distribution, our performance was at comparable level to the second quarter of 2021.
Moving on to the discussion of our Retail segment. Our Retail segment in the second quarter of the year, reported EBITDA -- LIFO-based EBITDA at nearly PLN 700 million, going down by 16% year-on-year, mainly due to higher fuel margins as well as higher operating costs. Our sales volumes went up by 4% year-on-year, mainly due to gasoline -- higher sales of gasoline, diesel, oil and LPG. Our fuel margins were -- went down in Poland, whereas in Germany and in the Czech Republic, they stayed rather flat.
Our fuel margins were combined over many more different across our markets. The others item in the graph includes higher costs or operating costs of our fuel stations.
Moving on to the operational data of our Retail segment at the end of the second quarter of 2022. We had, in total, 2,885 fuel stations in total, going up in Poland, in Germany as well as in Slovakia. 80% of the stations, or fuel stations, have a Stop Cafe concept. At the end of the quarter, we had, in total, 2,309 such fuel stations going up year-on-year. Our sales volumes went up by 4% year-on-year, mainly due to higher sales in Poland by 15%, combined with lower sales across other markets.
Our shares, market shares went up in Slovakia but decreased in other markets. We must also point to the fact that we are dynamically improving the accessibility of alternative fuels at our stations. At the end of the year, we had in total 567 such points going up year-on-year, mainly in Poland, going up by 237, in the Czech Republic by 122 and by 19 in Germany. Our clients were able to use 519 electric vehicle chargers. And the number across the market is shown on the slide.
We also have 2 hydro stations in Germany as well as 36 CNG stations. And just recently, we have opened the very first hydrogen station in Poland, in Krakow, and it is used to fuel public transport vehicles, that is buses, in Krakow.
In the Upstream segment, we reported in 300 LIFO-based EBITDA, which is due to -- which is a result that is 5x as much compared to last year and the positive impact of our margins versus last year. The positive macro impact was additionally augmented by the positive impact of hedging year-on-year.
Our average production was at -- was shown on the slide, going up by 0.6 thousand barrel of oil equivalent year-on-year. We reported an increase in production in Canada, by 0.3 thousand barrels equivalent per day and the production in Poland was comparable. Our sales and volumes in the Upstream segment went up by 33%, including a twofold increase in sales volumes for crude sales, combined with lower sales of condensate as well as sales of natural gas.
Moving on to the operational data of our Upstream segment, you see there's a lot of details on Slide #19, and I recommend that you dwell into those details. I do believe that it's enough for me to say that we continue to focus on our most prospective projects, both in Poland and in Canada, by which I mean mainly Plotki, Sieraków in Poland, as well Ferrier and Kakwa in Canada.
I'll now turn the floor over back to Mr. Szewczak who will discuss our financial strength, starting with cash flows.
Going back to our financial figures. On Slide #21, you can see our cash flow from operations and from investment as well as free cash flow. And based on those figures, you can draw a conclusion and then second quarter, our cash flow from operations were at PLN 9 billion, as you can see in the graph, which was offset due to the negative impact of our working capital increase our needs at PLN 2.6 billion or minus PLN 0.6 billion in terms of the total effect as well as the settlement of deposits securing our hedging improvement at minus PLN 0.4 billion. Our net inflow from operations, combined with our investments is also shown on this slide.
Summarizing the -- not only the second quarter but the entire first half of the year, we generated more than PLN 8 billion in LIFO-based EBITDA, and the LIFO effect was at PLN 3.5 billion. Our working capital increase was over PLN 7 billion. Our CapEx figure was at PLN 6.3 billion. And let me remind you at this point that we have very ambitious plans in the pipeline in order to see our investments going up to PLN 15 billion in total. Those are the figures that we have not seen for years and years, and within a scale of just 1 year to have such a spending on our and on the investment projects, on CapEx projects. It used to be the figures that we would report for a couple of years before.
In terms of the purchase of CO2 as well emission rights, as well as property rights, we spent PLN 1.7 billion and this is consider -- this is a considerable figure, and this is totally independent of us. We also spent PLN 4.4 billion on settlement on deficit, securing hedging instruments to hedge our market risks.
Well, we also -- our debt position. As I have said before, this is something that we take pride in, and we value it so much, we managed to drive down our debt figure by as much as PLN 4 billion quarter-to-quarter only, mainly due to positive cash inflows from operations, as I said, standing at PLN 9 billion at the end of the second quarter, combined with our CapEx spending at[ 4.1 ].
Our mandatory reserves in the balance sheet at the end of the second quarter of 2022 amounted to PLN 7.7 billion and a very important covenant, that is meant debt-to-EBITDA covenant was at a very safe level, again, 0.42. Our financing are well diversified. You can see it on the pie chart with the average maturity at a very safe level, good investment ratings both from Fitch as well as from Moody's with good outlook. This all proves that our co-op company has financial strength and is also well managed.
The next slide is devoted, as you can see, to our CapEx spending. As I said, our planned CapEx in the entire year of 2022 is at PLN 15 billion, of which 70% for growth CapEx projects. And within 6 months, we spent PLN 6.2 billion, of which 30% spent on petchem -- petrochem projects.
Main growth projects in this year included in the Refining segment, construction of hydrocracking unit, high construction of HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oils, as well as [indiscernible] unit. In the petrochemical segment, we had an extension of our olefin unit at Plock and the priority -- this is our priority and petchem, but we also extended our fertilizers production capacity at Anwil.
In the Energy segment, we are upgrading our current assets as well as connecting new clients of the ENERGA Group. We're also constructing the CCGT unit at Ostroleka and Grudziadz as well as a wind farm on the Baltics in the Baltic Sea. In Retail, we added 7 new stations. We opened 9 nonfuel stations as well, nonfuel sites as well.
Moving on to our outlook and the macro environment. Mr. Artwich will discuss this final part of our presentation.
When we talk about the outlook for the period of the months to come in 2022, we mainly expect that the average price of crude oil will stabilize at around $115 per barrel. We are also expecting that the margins will remain at a relatively moderate levels compared to last year's levels due to the shortage of fuels across global markets. We must mention at this point that the margins went down quarter-on-quarter, and they went down considerably.
We expect that the petchem margin will stay flat at around EUR 100 or EUR 1,200 per tonne year-on-year. We also expect that the gas prices will continue to go up across all our markets, even by 300% due to the politics and the direction taken by the Russian order to cut down on the supply of gas to Europe and Western Europe.
On the other hand, we will have certain regulatory actions taken in order to manage the gas market in order to reduce the consumption of natural gas in the member states of the European Union. We also expect that the electricity prices to go up to over PLN 1,000 per megawatt hour due to very high gas and coal prices.
GDP outlook for our home markets, our main markets, are quite optimistic. We expect that the demand for our fuel and petrochemical products will continue to go up. On the other hand, it is difficult not to see the first signs of economic slowdown in the world, which obviously can have a major impact on the picture that I am painting today. There is a major reservation that needs to be mentioned at this point. Our macro environment is highly volatile. It's highly changing. So there might be certain events looming in the future, which can change the situation in the market drastically.
In terms of regulatory effects, the governmental anti-inflation package will be extended, and this will have a positive impact on the stabilization of retail prices.
This will be all in terms of my contribution today, and you are now very much welcome to ask your questions in the Q&A part of this conference call.
We are now moving on to the Q&A session. We have 2 questions from Mr. [indiscernible] representing [ 24 PL ]. Do you know where the fuel stations will be given over to MOL and when we will have the rebranding? And when will the logo of ORLEN appear in the Hungary Market? Mr. Jan Szewczak will answer the question.
Our plan is that ORLEN logo appears in Hungary as soon as possible, take or just steps to make it happen. I believe that the beginning of next year is a very reliable forecast for this particular project. It is a costly project. And it is worth pointing out that we will have 144 ORLEN stations in Hungary, which means that Poles will be able to refuel their cars at ORLEN in 6 markets, in 6 countries, from the Baltic Sea to nearly the Adriatic Sea.
Which means that we can take pride in it. We -- not a long time ago, we would never have dreamed about that. In terms of MOL's stations or those will be taken over by MOL, we cannot give you much detail. We still have some time in order to implement all the remedies that we have negotiated. We will take a close look. We will be very watchful. But at this point, we can already say that this is a great achievement. This makes us so much proud. And you will see our stations in Slovakia as well.
Which means that when you come back to Poland from Southern Europe, you can refuel your car at an ORLEN station. And we are very proud to see that because all nations, the other nations, can really be envious of that. Moving on from the Adriatic Sea up to the Baltic Sea, you can see many ORLEN stations along the way. As I said before, at the beginning of the next year, you will see the logo of ORLEN, those stations in Hungary.
Mr. [indiscernible] representing [indiscernible] asks about the problems in terms of supply and logistics around the world and unstable supplies and volatile prices of products. Do you see any risk because of that to your planned investments in the Baltic Sea in terms of your Baltic power wind farms in the Baltic Sea? When will we see the first production of electricity from those Baltic power plant?
Consistently with our partner, Northland Power from Canada, we are consistently driving our project and wind farm project in the Baltic Sea, Baltic Power. And we are within the schedule. We are expecting the production phase 2025, 2026.
We have just signed an agreement with a Danish company to transport and install wind turbines in our project. And we are now in the process -- we're now waiting for the process of selection of the suppliers of both internal and external cabling as well as the supply of foundations slabs for the wind power farm, the wind farm.
Now we are, as I said, within the schedule, we are proceeding as planned. And it's worth pointing out that Grupa ORLEN also applied for new licenses on the Baltic Sea to construct new wind farms on the Baltic Sea. The potential of those new projects and the new licenses is estimated. It meet the demand of 25% for electricity throughout Poland, for the entire country. So our ambition is to continue our projects in this particular segment.
In a nutshell, we see no risk for our projects due to the factors that you have mentioned.
The last question from the Polish Press Agency. What are your current plans for the SMEs -- and SME and SMRs as well as the corporation, for instance, with the Polish Atomic Energy, Polish Atomic Unit. When will we see the first such reactor in Poland?
As you know, ORLEN centers clean energy, the company that was set up to develop and implement SMRs in Poland is the exclusive holder of the SMR technology, or rights, from Hitachi GE Energy, which is the world's most advanced project of this type.
We have begun -- at ORLEN, we are consistently working in order to have first SMRs in Poland, and bring them on stream still in this decade. One of the key projects in this -- on this stage of works is to meet the regulatory demand and requirements.
We are cooperating closely with the Polish Atomic Institutes in order to -- or agency, in order to meet all the requirements, regulatory requirements for reactors of those types. ORLEN industry energy applied to the Polish Atomic Agency for an opinion for the particular technology, BWR 300 of GE Hitachi. And we also applied for the very same opinion in Canada as well as in the United States.
To move this forward the very first formal foremost step which needs to be taken. And in terms of the implementation of SMR technologies, we are not far from the leading players around the world. And we are actually keeping touch with them.
Mr. Colin Katri, representing [ Supreme ] Business asks how will you apply the profit towards which investments will you apply your profit in 2022?
We have partially actually answered that question. We have discussed major investments in CapEx projects. We do believe that without such investments, such major investments, it is difficult to remain on the vanguard in the world. And what we want to be is to be a leader, at least in the region. And after the acquisition of PGNiG, we have become or we are becoming a major player, a powerhouse in Europe.
This is why we are delivering those projects, we have been delivering those projects for a couple of years. Given the CapEx figure compared to our profits, you can see quite clearly that this is a priority for us. CapEx projects are a priority. And they are state-of-the-art projects too. We're talking about polyolefins, [indiscernible] this will be not only Europe -- one of Europe's largest such unit, but also one of the most cutting-edge, state-of-the-art industrial units in our region in Europe.
We also mentioned hydrogen and alternative fuels, or wind power in the Baltic Sea, wind farms in the Baltic Sea. These are all projects that are in the pipeline that they are delivered, as we speak. And we are using state-of-the-art technologies for that purpose.
This is why our agreement with Saudi Arabia was so important to us, not only in order to secure supplies of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, but also in the context of our future cooperation and partnership in terms of technologies, in terms of scientific possibilities and staying on cutting-edge technologies, as well as licenses that the Saudi Arabian company holds. Very pricy licenses, too.
So this is where we see the potential for us in terms of our partnership with such a powerhouse. Let me remind you that not too many countries in Europe have taken that opportunity or have that opportunity. So we are keeping our fingers crossed that this year's CapEx at PLN 15 billion as planned, will be delivered as planned.
We have never invested that much at ORLEN, both in terms of the upgrades of our units and replacements, but also our growth projects. To sum up, I'd like to say that our prices -- fuel prices in Poland are the lowest in Europe and one of the lowest in Europe.
We would like to keep it that way. We would like to make sure that the situation is stable, but also that fuels are -- remain available to our consumers.
We are well aware at the same time of the fact that we make a lot of money abroad, too. And we do believe that those cutting-edge, state-of-the-art technologies and investments I have just discussed will bring a positive contribution to our financial strength and our economical strength, not only companies but also the entire countries.
All the other questions we have received will be answered by our press office. We are now recapping and closing this conference call summarizing our performance in the second quarter of 2022. Thank you very much for your attention, and see you. Goodbye.