We have never counted that as being anything significant. That is not comparable anything like the IRA because with the IRA, it becomes very meaningful when you start. We are sequesting in Louisiana, 5 million ton of CO2 at $80, that’s $400 million a year of contribution. Obviously, it costs some money to sequester is. But as I said, the numbers are not comparable. So on the infrastructure bill, we have always said it’s a good thing. It obviously is a good thing, it’s better than nothing, but it’s not something that will make any material difference to what we are doing or not doing.
Kevin McCarthy: Okay. Thank you for that. And then secondly, if I may, would you comment on your outlook for the corporate and other line. It came down quite a bit in the fiscal fourth quarter, and you’ve been active on LNG. So maybe you can comment on the forward profile for LNG as well as the controllable expenses flowing through that line in 2024.
Seifi Ghasemi: Sure. I have made this statement in the last quarter, and I’d like to reiterate that, that we do have programs in order to control our corporate cost. We had a significant amount of corporate costs in 2023 because we were pursuing a lot of projects and starting up a lot of projects, those things do cost money, we don’t expect that the amount will be as much in 2024. In addition, the fact that our LNG business and so on and the other businesses are doing well, will help on that. So we do expect a reduction of that corporate cost in 2024 versus 2023, quite a significant amount.
Kevin McCarthy: Thank you very much.
Seifi Ghasemi: Sure. Thank you.
Operator: Moving on to Stephen Byrne from Bank of America.
Stephen Byrne: Yes. Thank you. Was the strength in hydrogen demand during the quarter in the Americas, specifically in your U.S. Gulf Coast pipeline? And if so, what fraction of those pipeline customers are you in dialogue with about switching them from gray to blue? And if the demand outlook in that region for Blue hydrogen is so robust, are you – might you potentially consider reducing the design and scope of the Louisiana project and drop the ammonia piece of it, which would include the offshore port and so forth in addition to an ammonia reactor?
Seifi Ghasemi: You are asking a very, very good question. I do not expect that we would get to the stage that we would drop the ammonia part because there will be a robust demand for blue ammonia. But you are very right, the demand for blue hydrogen is growing in that part of the world. We are engaged with all of the customers and the interesting thing is that if we ever expand the project, that is where we can focus more on what you said that maybe produce more blue hydrogen than trying to produce more ammonia. So overall, the story is very positive, as you said, and the fact that Air Products has a 700-mile hydrogen pipeline in that part of the world gives us significant advantage in being able to optimize this. But that is a very good position to be. And I think you’re pointing out a very good point.
Stephen Byrne: And then one follow-on with respect to the Netherlands blue hydrogen project, I believe Air Liquide is also involved in a project with Porthos. And my question for you is, as Netherlands is moving in this direction of blue hydrogen, do you see potential that the rest of Europe might relax its preference for green and embrace blue more?
Seifi Ghasemi: Right now, the blue hydrogen project in Netherlands is very practical because you do have these steam methane reformers there, and it’s very efficient to capture the CO2 from the and produce blue hydrogen, it’s better than the gray hydrogen. But I do not think that, that signals that the fundamental demand for new applications in Europe, especially for mobility and for some of the refineries will go to blue. I think green hydrogen will still be – will end up being a preference for Europe, as you have seen in the announcement of some of the major possible users. So I think it will be a combination of the two.
Stephen Byrne: Thank you.
Seifi Ghasemi: Thank you. [Indiscernible]
Operator: [Operator Instructions] We’ll hear next from Josh Spector from UBS.
Chris Perrella: Hi, good morning. It’s Chris Perrella on for Josh. A follow-up on, I guess, the volume outlook for this coming year with volumes in Asia down and some of the one-off deals that you did in 2023 rolling off, what are the volume assumptions underpinning your guidance for this coming year?
Seifi Ghasemi: Well, on that point, the way we have looked at this thing and – it’s very difficult to obviously predict the future. But overall, the way we have looked at this thing that you know that our business is very much related to – not to GDP but to industrial production. So the way we have kind of budgeted ourselves is that industrial production in the U.S. will be positive. And not double digit or anything like that. Last year, it was about 2.5%, something like that, maybe a little bit less than that. So positive in the U.S., flat in Europe, and down in Asia. That’s the very much overall economic condition under which we have produced the guidance for next year.
Chris Perrella: All right. And one quick follow-up on the Rotterdam project. How should we think about the capital spend? And will – with Porthos taking the CO2 from you, what’s the cost involved in having them essentially dispose of it?
Seifi Ghasemi: Well, they are going to charge us $10 per ton for disposing the CO2, which we will obviously pass through to our customers. We wouldn’t be paying for that. And then we obviously – we have a charge for our capital, and then there is a charge for the sequestration. And I don’t think we are at liberty to quote the number that Porthos is going to charge us but at some point in time, they might decide to make that public.
Samir Serhan: But the Dutch government providing incentives for the CO2 sequestration.
Seifi Ghasemi: But Dr. Serhan is adding that the Dutch government is also contributing on the cost for the sequestration.
Chris Perrella: All right. Is there a capital – a rough capital number for this — for the carbon capture?
Seifi Ghasemi: We haven’t disclosed that. We are not allowed to disclose that. But as I said, it is more than $100 million and less than $1 billion, so somewhere in between.
Chris Perrella: Fair enough. Thank you very much.
Seifi Ghasemi: So sorry about that. We are not allowed to disclose the number. Okay.
