The Oil Industry’s Lithium Experiment Still Needs a Few More Years To Prove Out

As several commercial-scale projects are gearing up in the US, developers expect the next few years to reveal whether lithium extraction from brines can become a big business.

August 1, 2026  By Trent Jacobs Journal of Petroleum Technology

Source: Smackover Lithium.

In recent years, several of the oil and gas industry’s largest companies have decided to expand their portfolios to become lithium producers.

In the US, where ramping up lithium production is increasingly seen as a domestic supply-chain priority, they have collectively spent or committed hundreds of millions of dollars to extract the battery metal from oilfield brines using technologies and lessons borrowed from the upstream industry.

It is, however, early days. Whether those projects can generate consistent returns, or achieve meaningful scale, remains a key question.

According to Wambui Mutoru, the answer should come within the next 3 to 5 years.

“These projects have to be proved, and they are not there yet. But they are on the cusp of becoming commercially viable,” she said.

Mutoru is the asset manager for Equinor’s Southwest Arkansas lithium project, which is one of the most closely watched efforts to commercialize direct lithium extraction (DLE) from subsurface brine.

The first phase of the development, a joint venture with Standard Lithium, was expected to reach a final investment decision (FID) last year but is now targeting approval by the end of this year.

Mutoru’s comment about the future of this emerging business came while speaking on an expert panel at the recent Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC) in Houston where she outlined the Arkansas project, along with earlier-stage developments in Texas.

Equinor’s focus is on the Smackover Formation, a long-spent oil field that is now attracting industry investment for its large and most highly concentrated lithium-brine deposits known in the US.

The white powder Equinor and others are looking to produce is a key feedstock used to make cathodes, which in turn are used to make the lithium-ion batteries found in electric vehicles, smartphones, military drones, and in industrial-sized battery storage systems that support strained grid networks and renewable energy projects.

The US government is eager to see these new lithium projects succeed to wean the country off its dependence on China, which holds a dominating position in the global critical-minerals market. A 2025 analysis by the Center for Climate and Security found that the US imports nearly three-quarters of its lithium-ion batteries from China.

To reduce what it considers to be vulnerabilities in critical-mineral supply chains, the US government is providing financial support through a growing number of programs focused on domestic mining, processing, and battery manufacturing.

In addition to a $225 million grant awarded by the US Department of Energy to support Equinor’s Arkansas project, the US Department of Defense announced in July that it plans to purchase up to $300 million of battery-grade lithium carbonate over the next 5 years.