Giacomo Romeo: Thank you. Patrick, sorry for asking this question, or it comes every meeting. You have added to your position in terms of, if you want gas in the U.S. with this CCGT deal. You have talked in the past that you have been looking at increasing your upstream position there. Maybe can you talk about the market you are seeing for deals on gas assets, what type of assets you are looking in terms of plays? And whether that’s one of the acquisitions we could see in 2024?
Patrick Pouyanné: No, being clear, it’s not as you see one, it could be several. So, you will see soon one, small one. It could be a sum of small assets. The question for me is the M&A is good if you buy at such a good price, cheap price. That’s all. So, we have time. I need the gas by ‘27. I don’t need the gas tomorrow morning. So, we are building. No, it’s part of which we are clear. We want to hedge our LNG position in the U.S. with more upstream gas. So, we have opportunities. But don’t expect us to make a giant acquisition. We are shy people in the U.S., we want people.
Giacomo Romeo: Just one on cost inflation, you talked about rigs. Can you perhaps talk to other areas where you are seeing cost inflation? And perhaps related to that, there have been headlines suggesting you are seeing some cost increases in Uganda with – relating to the pipeline, so perhaps just if you can talk about what you are seeing there.
Patrick Pouyanné: No, this one, we observed it in – when was it. When the teams wanted to order for steel and I refused to pay. ‘22, remember the teams came to us with a huge increase on the steel, which was in March or April. I say, no panic, relax, we will be late. I say, okay, we will be late. No, we will not be late because we have other events, by the way, in this project. And in fact, towards the end, we put the order on the steel, I think beginning of ‘23 and it was a very reasonable price. So, sometimes it’s just a question of arbitration between the planning and the cost. And so – and that’s true that sometimes our project managers, they have a clear – they want to be within the planning. I told them no, within the planning, within the budget, it’s both.
So, sometimes it’s just a question for the management to, okay, to arbitrate between both. And again, if on some of the projects we have – today, we have a debate on some of them. But I mentioned, we want to sanction Sepea 2 [ph], Tapu 2, Suriname, and Camino. We need to – if we have to delay one, we will delay one. But on Suriname, I can tell you, we are trying to work on an innovative solution. By the way, looking carefully to what our big friend in Guyana is doing, to benefit from their own way to develop that. So, we try to transfer part of their way to manage some of the leased FPSO in order to be efficient on the cost. So, the cost for me are fundamental. What we should not be is replicating some mistake we have done in 2010 by being driven more than volume than value, so managing the cost.
And so you have to look to different options. Our teams love to operate. We want to operate. But does it mean that we own all the lease, there are alternatives in the market, which have been developed. So, it’s not because we are at $80, we should forget them. So, we are working on it very clearly. So, if I have to choose, sometimes, I will prefer to delay. The oil will not disappear. So, if I need to delay a project, we can wait a little.
Renaud Lions: Kim?
Kim Fustier: Thank you. I had a follow-up on hydrogen. I was wondering in which parts of the world you are seeing the most attractive bids on your 500,000 ton green hydrogen tender. And I seem to remember your comments in New York a few months ago were a lot less positive on hydrogen back then. And then my second question is on short-cycle upstream CapEx. I see it’s $1.5 billion this year. Is that an increase on the previous run rate of about $1 billion, or is it about the same? And is there enough runway to continue with this level of short-cycle activity going forward?
Jean-Pierre Sbraire: Thank you for the second question because I forget to comment it. On this slide, there were four messages where I forget one. So, thank you. No, we – no, it’s not an increase. We keep this flexibility. I mentioned 1.5 to 2. It’s a good way, however, to arbitrate if we have to – suddenly, we have another COVID epidemic, which I don’t hope, pandemic, I don’t hope. No, we have that. In fact, positively, it’s more – no, we just announced, I think it’s tomorrow, we put into production Akpo West in Nigeria. It typically is the type of a tie-back which we have been able to do, deciding that 1 year ago, 1.5 year ago, and to put it into production, benefiting from a high price. So, it’s – I think we have in our portfolio, either in Nigeria and Angola, but also in the North Sea, on [indiscernible] for example, in Denmark, and also, by the way, we have few share in our production in Argentina, in the U.S. We can make this type of short cycle.
So, we decided that we need to have 1.5 billion to 2 billion of short cycle every year in order in case of, again, cash to be able to arbitrate, and also today is more a positive way to benefit from a good price. So, they are very profitable – they are profitable at 50. Of course, when we launch Akpo West with production at $80, profitability is very high. So, this is very important in the way we appreciate to keep this flexibility in CapEx that we mentioned in September.
Patrick Pouyanné: Now, on hydrogen, don’t – I mean im still on the – there. In fact, all that is linked to where is the demand. The demand exists in Europe, and we are refiner in Europe, because there is a policy, which is quite a complex one where you have some ETS advantage on credits, when you are, I would say, using green hydrogen in your refined products. So, as we are paying quite high, an increased CO2 burden in Europe, you can find a way to not only promote green hydrogen, but having some credit, so it makes things economically viable. Again, it’s completely linked to these framework, European framework. Is there today demand for green hydrogen as itself without this type of framework, no. The reality is no.
So, that’s why you have more supply than demand. The question for us is, today, I mentioned the volume, we will see what will be the price at which it can be delivered, knowing that we don’t want ammonia, we want hydrogen, which is a little you have to transform ammonia. Where does it come from, at the end of the day, my view is that it will mainly come from local European producers, U.S., will be a mix. It’s not so easy to manage all these. We will see because there are also today some uncertainty because the regulation, for example, in the U.S. is not truly completely approved. So, is a green hydrogen produced in the U.S. exactly acceptable as a green hydrogen in Europe, there is a regulatory debate. That’s one of the debate. We also know that there are some big plants being built in the Middle East.
So, for me, it’s a good way to see at which price we can deliver these volumes to Europe. So, we cannot say you more because we have received all of this, we are working on it. It will take six months probably to better qualify them. But we are working actively. And you have different type of producers. You have the large hydrogen producers, but you have also a lot of developers. So, we are looking to that. And we will give you more information. I know a lot of people are looking to our tender to better understand where is the market. So, we will give more information when we have them. We will not get it at $3 per kilogram, just to – but – and under $6, it will be okay. We will see if they find a challenge.
Renaud Lions: Okay. Maybe one of the last one. Bertrand?
Bertrand Hodee: Bertrand Hodee, Kepler Cheuvreux. Two small questions left. Can you update us on the progress you are making on your Oman LNG bunkering project and how this project is innovative? If I remember well, it is fully electrified. And the second question is on Shell SPDC exit in Nigeria. I haven’t seen any press release from Total following that decision. I assume that you will exit as well. Can we assume it is under the same terms, or the negotiations that needs to be done for Total, to TotalEnergies?
Patrick Pouyanné: No. We are on the same way. We want to keep the control of the – we had the difficulty to be – the oil part we want to exit. We have the gas. The gas resource needs to be – are very important for the expansion of an LNG. So, we need to find a way to be sure where the gas is developed. So, I think the Shell scheme, which is in fact to create a sort of SPV for the gas, where we will keep the economic price, but the cost as well, is a good scheme. The difficulty came that SPDC as a company, it’s super complex to carve out. The idea initially was to carve out the gas license, it’s super complex in the Nigerian system. So, we have to be more innovative to do that. But fundamentally, the exit is clear.
