Specialist
Former SVP at Air Products and Chemicals Inc.
Agenda
- Assessment of Air Products’ (NYSE: APD) major capital spending programs
- Deep dive into the Saudi Arabia projects and strategy, including Neom
- Air Products’ hydrogen technology, capability and economics
- Market growth expectations and potential impact of further cost inflation
Questions
1.
Could you outline how Air Products is organised as a company?
2.
Air Products has seen a big step up in CAPEX from recent years. Pre-pandemic, it was running USD 1.5bn-2bn per annum, but FY22 guidance is USD 4.5bn-5bn. What is driving the company to invest more in its assets?
3.
How did Air Products become the world’s largest producer of hydrogen?
4.
How much of Air Products’ business today goes to serving the refining industry? Which other markets is the company likely to invest in for hydrogen?
5.
How have the rising commodity prices, which we seem to read about every day, impacted the cost of producing hydrogen?
6.
Can you give an overview of grey vs blue vs green hydrogen? How much of the different hydrogen types does Air Products produce?
7.
Can you outline the range of costs to produce grey, blue and green hydrogen? You talked about the tolling arrangements and the pass-through on energy cost.
8.
How would you differentiate the major projects that Air Products is spending money on? Is producing blue hydrogen in Louisiana better or worse than the green hydrogen in Saudi Arabia, which you said will get converted to ammonia?
9.
Could you expand on Neom in Saudi Arabia? We now have a separate reporting segment on the Middle East and India for Air Products. What do you see from an opportunity and risk perspective there for these projects?
10.
Is Air Products investing directly in electrolysers? You mentioned the electrolysers in Neom. What risks do you see in using them? Who are the leaders in producing them?
11.
How do you think Air Products capitalises on the energy transition? You mentioned it earlier and gave us the whole background on refining. What has to happen in the industry or maybe downstream for this to present a real opportunity?
12.
Is there a particular area in the future energy demand pie chart where you think hydrogen can fill the need?
13.
This month, Air Products made an announcement around its SAF [sustainable aviation fuel] business, proposing a new USD 2bn expansion project. If something like this project can be done in three years, how big of an opportunity from a profit point of view would you see? It looks like a fairly sizeable investment at USD 2bn, but what are your initial thoughts on that?
14.
Where do you see Air Products having an infrastructure advantage in the energy transition, as opposed to building things from scratch? Are there any areas where you might consider assets are stranded?
15.
Where do you think the most interesting segment of the hydrogen value chain will be? Thinking about the hydrogen economy and who might be the winner, you did mention big oil, getting into blue hydrogen and carbon capture. We talked about electrolysers and we’ve discussed industrial gases.
16.
What do you think are the 2-3 key questions that our clients need to be asking of Air Products’ leadership about the future of hydrogen?
