Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP announced it advised Wabash Valley Resources, LLC (WVR) in connection with closing a $1.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO).  The loan will be used to finance the restart and conversion of WVR’s West Terre Haute, Indiana coal gasification facility.

The $2.6 billion project will restart and repurpose a coal gasification plant idled since 2016 to produce 500,000 metric tons of anhydrous ammonia per year by using coal from a nearby Southern Indiana mine and petcoke as feedstock. WVR will be Indiana’s first industrial-scale producer of anhydrous ammonia fertilizer and the project will strengthen domestic supply chains, lower costs for farmers and consumers, and strengthen national food security by producing cost-competitive ammonia for the Eastern Corn Belt while creating hundreds of American jobs.

The Hunton team was led by corporate partner Phil Haines and included Kathleen Dill and Field Daniel on corporate matters, Doug Dua on agency finance matters and Tammy Brennig, Andrew Blasio and Taylor Arndt on finance matters. Kerry McGrath and Samuel Brown also supported WVR with federal permitting, including the U.S. EPA-issued Class VI UIC permits and the associated administrative permit appeal to the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board. Hunton has worked with WVR since its original acquisition of the West Terre Haute coal gasification plant in 2016.