Forbes Piece: Oil Major ExxonMobil Reveals Plans To Be A Lithium Major, Too

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 15: ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods speaks during the APEC CEO Summit at Moscone West on November 15, 2023 in San Francisco, California. The APEC summit is being held in San Francisco and runs through November 17. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The Biden administration’s hopes for establishing ample domestic sources and supply chains for one of the array of critical energy minerals required to power renewables and electric vehicles got a boost recently from a seemingly unlikely source, Houston-based ExxonMobilXOM. The nation’s largest major oil company announced the commencement of a project that, if successful, will also make it a major supplier of domestically produced lithium, a metal needed mainly as a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, but also for other applications relevant to the energy transition.

The project involves drilling vertical wells into a deep underground saltwater resource called the Smackover in Southeastern Arkansas. Once completed, the wells will bring the water to the surface where ExxonMobil will deploy a direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology to remove the metal from the brine.

The DLE process will be able to extract up to 90% of the lithium resource, which compares to roughly 50% recovered through the traditional process of using enormous evaporation surface ponds. In its release, the company points out that the process produces lower emissions and requires less land footprint than hard rock mining. Obviously, there are the added environmental and energy security benefits of supplying a domestic resource as opposed to importing it from distant lands through supply chains largely controlled by China.

“This project is a win-win-win,” Dan Ammann, President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions, said. “It’s a perfect example of how ExxonMobil can enhance North American energy security, expand supplies of a critical industrial material, and enable the continued reduction of emissions associated with transportation, which is essential to meeting society’s net-zero goals.”