The Louisiana project had funding paused in May after the industrial gas major’s new management team looked to de-risk it by handing off the downstream carbon capture and ammonia synthesis elements.

Investors had previously questioned whether the project overstretched Air Products’ capital allocation and risk profile, as carbon capture and ammonia synthesis typically sit outside its business model.

Now, however, the company believes it could take a final investment decision by mid-2026, with the project coming online by 2030.

Yara could take on ammonia production, storage, and shipping facilities – accounting for around 25% of total project costs, now estimated at $8–$9bn, up from $4.5bn originally.

If agreed, Yara would assume responsibility for the operations and offtake of all of the blue ammonia produced, while Air Products would own and operate the hydrogen and nitrogen production.

Air Products would sell around 80% of its blue hydrogen to Yara under a 25-year offtake agreement, enabling the production of 2.8 million tonnes of ammonia per year.

The remaining 20% would be fed into the industrial gas firm’s existing US Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline system.

However, it appears the company is still negotiating the carbon capture segment of the project, which is expected to sequester around five million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.

Air Products expects to announce a third-party carbon capture deal under a long-term agreement “later.”

In parallel with the Louisiana negotiations, the duo are “anticipating” entering a marketing and distribution agreement that would see Yara offtake green ammonia produced by the 2.2GW Neom project in Saudi Arabia.

Yara could purchase and sell volumes of ammonia that Air Products does not distribute as green hydrogen to Europe, as the industrial gas firm looks to de-risk the world’s largest hydrogen plant, which is due online in 2027.

To date, Air Products, which is currently the sole offtaker for Neom, has only one buyer for 45% of the project’s green hydrogen output from 2030.

Yara CEO Svein Tore Holsether said the two projects were a “strong strategic fit” with the company’s “flexible nitrogen system”, which looks to diversify energy sources while providing “profitable decarbonisation.”

Eduardo Menezes, CEO of Air Products, added that the firm was pleased to be working with Yara as it looked to “maximise value” from Louisiana and Neom.