Hunton Andrews Kurth and Reed Smith Advise Wabash Valley Resources in Connection with Sale of 20% interest to Nikola Corporation

Hunton Andrews Kurth and Reed Smith advised Wabash Valley Resources (WVR) in connection with sale of 20% interest to Nikola Corporation (Nikola). Nikola will invest $50 million in cash and stock in exchange for a 20% equity interest in the clean hydrogen project being developed in West Terre Haute, Indiana. The project plans to use solid waste byproducts such as petroleum coke combined with biomass to produce clean, sustainable hydrogen for transportation fuel and base-load electricity generation while capturing CO2 emissions for permanent underground sequestration. Once completed, the project is expected to be one of the largest carbon capture and clean hydrogen production projects in the United States. The focus is to produce zero-carbon intensity hydrogen with the potential to develop negative carbon intensity hydrogen in the future.

WVR acquired a world-scale gasification plant in 2016, with plans to convert it to a hydrogen production plant and carbon capture and sequestration project. Recently selected to receive funding from the Department of Energy as part of the Carbon Storage Program, the program's objective is the advancement, development and validation of technologies that enable safe cost-effective, and permanent geologic storage of carbon dioxide. 

Nikola, founded in 2015, is globally transforming the transportation industry. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Nikola is a designer and manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and hydrogen-electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station infrastructure.

The Hunton Andrews Kurth team was led by corporate partner Phil Haines.

The Reed Smith team was led by partners Todd Culwell and Efren Acosta.