Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, state of North Dakota partner to develop clean-energy projects

Sumitomo Corporation of Americas announced Sept. 6 its partnership with the state of North Dakota to evaluate and develop businesses within the energy-transition market, with the intent to accelerate decarbonization in the state and even beyond.

North Dakota is a leader in various industries nationwide, including energy, agriculture, advanced manufacturing and technology. Even more, with a stable tax and regulatory environment and a variety of economic-development programs available, North Dakota boasts an ideal ecosystem for developing new business.

“We are excited to get to work with the great state of North Dakota and its innovative leadership team,” said Tomonori Wada, president and CEO of Sumitomo Corporation of Americas. “The local government is motivated to drive innovation and make change in the energy-transition market and has created a favorable environment to nurture this kind of innovation. Our shared values and goals for carbon neutrality positions this partnership as a promising recipe for success.”

SCOA’s business-development team brings financial power, a large network of global resources and a deep bench of expertise throughout various industries to this partnership. The agreement, made official through a signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two parties, is nonbinding and solely for the purpose of facilitating joint collaboration and development of projects within the state of North Dakota.

“We’re committed to partnering with the private sector to grow and diversify our economy, and SCOA is well-positioned to help North Dakota create the infrastructure necessary to support clean-energy initiatives,” said North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. “This partnership has great potential to enhance our research and development, evaluation and business modeling in this sector, and to accelerate our progress as we continue to develop clean-energy sources and move toward carbon neutrality by 2030.”

Both parties will study wide varieties of possibilities covering sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply-chain development, carbon capture and storage or carbon capture utilization and storage (CCS/CCUS) project development, hydrogen/ammonia supply-chain development, geothermal utilization, carbon-intensity measurement and agriculture optimization, and digital transformation. While these areas are of critical interest, the team is not limiting their efforts and is open to other applicable industries and opportunities.

The MOU proposes an initial period of 10 to 12 months where the respective parties will set key goals and milestones, identify opportunities, evaluate the market and develop initial strategies based on feasibility studies.

Established in 1952 and headquartered in New York City, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas has eight offices in major U.S. cities. SCOA is the largest subsidiary of Sumitomo Corp., one of the world’s leading traders of goods and services.