Chevron 'excited' about Smackover lithium possibility, subsurface testing next

• BY LIZ SWAINE | Staff writer
• https://www.shreveportbossieradvocate.com/business/chevron-making-p...

The nation’s second largest petroleum company recently jumped into local lithium with a 125,000-acre leasehold position in the Smackover geologic formation in northeast Texas and southwest Arkansas.

At least one industry report says Smackover may contain enough of the element to power 50 million EVs.

This lithium play is a first for Chevron, Kristen Ghattas, Chevron’s head of carbon capture storage and lithium told The Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate. “You’ll start to see activity in the not-too-distant future.”

Chevron is one of the last to invest, and follows Exxon/Mobil, Equinor, Occidental and now, General Motors. 

“One of the things we're really excited about is the market demand is there. Demand for lithium has been growing and is forecasted to continue to grow significantly, something like 400% by 2040,” she said.

With estimates of a direct lithium extraction plant costing upwards of one billion dollars, Ghattas said Chevron is well positioned.

“We bring that scale, we bring that longevity, we bring the capabilities, and that's something that we can develop over time, if the market supports it.”

“Chevron is really well positioned to leverage our experience here. That's one of the things we're most excited about, right? We have the experience around subsurface characterization, drilling wells, developing large scale capital projects, in this case, to process the brine water.”

First is determining exactly what they have. Ghattas said initial steps are exploration, understanding the subsurface and doing characterization work at the subsurface.

That subsurface characterization will allow Chevron to identify drill testing sites based on reservoir potential, the degree of porosity and seismic correlation. Shreveport mineral consultant Skip Peel said in the Smackover, the higher the porosity and permeability, the better.

As that work is being done, Ghattas said, they will also be “evaluating technologies you're familiar with, direct lithium extraction. It's a new form of technology, and it's really just evaluating which technology we want to use and testing and trialing. And eventually it's demonstration units, and eventually it's a phased scale up based on market demand.”

Ghattas said it is too early to identify the type of direct lithium extraction plant they will use or a timeline for building one. She said they will want to determine first which technology fits the subsurface and the lithium concentrations.

She admitted that Chevron is excited about the possibility and the potential. “This is a great opportunity for us to develop a US-based lithium supply chain, and that's something that doesn't really exist today.”

Though the outlook for lithium’s growth is strong, companies are also looking at battery technologies other than lithium.

Chad Baker, the CEO and president of Shreveport’s Ascentek company, told the Advocate last week that their battery division is focusing on sodium ion technology. Ghattas admitted there are always challenges.

“There's always market risk, and that's something that we evaluate at this stage of the process as well. Substitution. Can it be substituted? You know, how much risk do we see in that? So we'll continue to evaluate that as we go. But currently, we see strong demand for lithium, and we believe it'll continue.”

Ghattas said ending federal credits for electric vehicles in the U.S. could definitely have an impact on EV growth. “But I think from a macro perspective, it doesn't move the needle for us right now when we’re talking about direct lithium extraction, DLE.”

"It's early days, but, you know, we're excited about the opportunity."