Prepared remarks
Welcome to our webcast for the results of the fourth quarter of this year. It's great to be with you. This event will be conducted in Portuguese with simultaneous translation into English, and you can find the links for both languages on our Investor Relations website. I want to mention that all participants will have the opportunity to watch the broadcast online as listeners. Following the introduction, we will have a Q&A session as we typically do, and you can submit your questions to our email. Joining us today are Magda Chambriard, the President of Petrobras, Álvaro Tupiassu, the President of Gas and Energy representing 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; Ricardo Wagner, Director of Governance and Compliance; Sylvia Anjos, Executive Director of Exploration and Production; and William França, Director of Industrial Processes and Products. Now, I will turn the floor over to our President, Magda Chambriard, for her opening remarks.
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 by saying that 2025 was an unprecedented year in terms of production growth in Petrobras. As you could see, 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 resources in our facilities. First, I'd like to remind you that the brand did not help us. The oil prices 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 consistently.
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 working hard 24/7. We're repeating 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 that had 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 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. After arriving, it was anchored in a record-breaking period of 12 days with 26 anchoring systems connected proving that we operate with excellence, planning, and integration across the teams in everything we do. P-79 is already moored and soon, it will start to operate. We delivered our facilities before the deadlines, and we delivered contracts for refineries below the intended price and with that, we've been producing more every day. We're 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 record-breaking production 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.
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 year-end closing for 2025. As President Magda said, we had unprecedented growth in oil and gas production, 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. The average Brent in 2025 was $69 per barrel, a 14% drop compared to 2024 and well below our expectations. What we can and should manage is our resilience in the most diverse scenarios. 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, and here, we left out gains from exchange rate variations and other factors that do not have a cash effect.
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 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. In 2025, we recorded a growth in the sales of derivatives in the domestic market 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.
We achieved an x-ray of an 11% increase in 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, platforms reached a record of 1 million barrels of oil a day. In Mero, we hit another record, and we increased our operating efficiency between 2024 and 2025, reaching an efficiency increase of about 4 percentage points, equivalent to additional production of 100,000 barrels per day. This efficiency gain is equivalent to what we would obtain from a new production platform.
Questions and answers
I think every analyst is entitled to a single question. I'd like to discuss some of your earnings in further detail for quarter four. But as 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 from 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? Can you give us your views?
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. If it's $85 per barrel, we need to be prepared. If it's $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, and the company delivered its results and showed that it has remained resilient in face of this price variation. We keep our internal policy solid, looking at oil and derivative pricing without transferring this volatility to the Brazilian domestic market.
Yes. Thank you, President. The company has this strategic plan. We are indeed prepared for a Brent range that is quite wide when you consider the short and the long term. I think we've never had such a scenario. The regions that export oil have been closed, which has a huge impact. When you no longer have this production of oil and petroleum products, it freezes the market, and we know how that works. The market is expected to change prices or adapt to the new pricing. However, in short run, we have favorable netback to Petrobras and greater margins, especially with our oils outside the conflict region. All our flows go towards India, Europe, and other areas. We're in a privileged position regarding logistics and shipping.
First, I want to congratulate you on the greater transparency of information. My first question is about the oil price being much higher than the Brent that you have in your budget. 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?
Thank you for your question. It's great to hear from you again. Our main focus is on maintaining capital discipline as always. We will be cautious with our decisions. If we see additional revenue, we will address investments first, followed by debt management. Our goal is to reach $65 billion in five years. If we have a cash surplus, we will plan accordingly in line with our capital discipline that we've been discussing.
Going back to the prices, how long can the company maintain its unaltered prices before that starts harming its refining margin? Should we always expect the refining margin to be positive in scenarios where this margin is challenged?
Thank you for your question. I will start the answer and then Schlosser will help me with the rest of the answer. Right now, we are asking ourselves what's the trend. As of now, this question remains unanswered. If this volatility is high, it will certainly require quicker responses. However, we are focused on ensuring that our customers are satisfied without transferring volatility.
It’s part of Petrobras' strategy to always analyze international market prices, ensuring we provide value to our customers without transferring volatility. We have not adjusted diesel prices in 300 days, despite a volatile environment. The strategy was created to ensure robustness for the company.
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. We are trying to anticipate the ramp-up of P-78 and P-79.
We're meeting our goals with optimized operations and logistics. If there are new opportunities in oil or petroleum products, we will seize them. In the short term, we are well-positioned with good supply and imports.
Could you tell us about your discussions regarding IG4 and Braskem? How do you see the equalization of the debt at Braskem with some capital injection?
At Braskem, we have a corporate issue at stake. Our partner will have the preponderance of administration. We believe this will be resolved in the near future to maximize the synergy between Petrobras and Braskem and benefit our shareholders.
Can you tell me about your timeline in your exploration schedule in the equatorial margin? And with higher oil prices, are you considering any short-term hedging?
We have no hedge strategy being assessed. The hedging cost would be huge and applying hedging to the amount of oil we produce would be unfeasible. The equatorial margin has great potential. We're drilling and expect to reach the reservoir interval in Q2 2026.
We made a great achievement with our equatorial margin license. We expect to assess the oil system, the results of the well will determine our next steps, but the equatorial margin shows potential similar to important international discoveries.
We are extremely proud of our integrated work and the delivery capacity of the Petrobras team. Over the course of 2025, we became Latin America's biggest company, and we've worked hard to achieve that. The company is a strong cash generator, and we are committed to providing value to our stakeholders.
As a take-home message, a wrong strategy in a commodity company at a time of high volatility may bring about huge difficulties for the future of the company. Our administration principles are based on capital discipline, operational efficiency, and the search for production increase.
Thank you. 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.