By the Arkansas Delta Informer Staff

Lewisville, Ark. – Feb. 22, 2026– After announcing strategic deals to secure strong leasehold positions in the Smackover Formation in south Arkansas, the nation’s largest oil and gas conglomerates are planning to spend potentially billions of dollars to exploit lithium resources in the region in 2026.

In just a few months, Columbia and Lafayette are set to become the heart of the American energy shift as ExxonMobil and Chevron start early-stage development of their respective lithium projects this summer, based on the company’s recently announced capital spending plans and securities filings.

According to a highly regarded study published in late 2024 by the US Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment’s Office of the State Geologist, an estimated 5-19 million tons of lithium reserves are located beneath the geological play in southwestern Arkansas. If commercially recoverable, this amount of lithium could meet the projected 2030 global demand for lithium in car batteries nine times over. 

“Our research was able to estimate total lithium present in the southwestern portion of the Smackover in Arkansas for the first time.  We estimate there is enough dissolved lithium present in that region to replace U.S. imports of lithium and more,” said Katherine Knierim, a hydrologist and the study’s principal researcher.   

Global demand for lithium, a vital mineral for battery manufacturing, has risen significantly in recent years. This trend is expected to continue as the shift from fossil fuels to electric and hybrid vehicles accelerates, underscoring the mineral’s growing importance to advances in energy technology, USGS officials said.

A New Era of Energy Leadership

While the historic Smackover Formation has been defined by its oil and gas production, the lithium-rich brine, which is a concentrated mix of water and dissolved oilfield salts, is now drawing unprecedented capital.

According to industry experts, ExxonMobil has established a dominant position by acquiring brine rights to over 300,000 net acres in the formation since early 2023. In April, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission approved Saltwerx, an ExxonMobil subsidiary, to develop a 56,000-acre lithium production facility in the area. Meanwhile, state oil and gas regulators dismissed a claim by rival oil giant Occidental (OXY), which argued that it owned mineral rights in the region and intended to produce lithium.

According to ExxonMobil, Saltwerz plans to begin producing lithium in 2027 and forecasts it can generate $27 million in annual profit from producing 165,000 barrels of lithium brine daily.

ExxonMobil’s chief U.S. competitor, Chevron, officially joined the lithium race in June 2025, securing approximately 125,000 net acres situated across Northeast Texas and Southwest Arkansas.

This combined leasehold of nearly half a million acres positions these industry titans to control a significant portion of the estimated 5 million to 19 million tons of lithium reserves—enough to meet global demand for EV batteries many times over.

Spending Plans: Billions on the Table

The financial commitment to the region from nation’s two largest, publicly traded oil conglomerates is staggering. Industry experts and corporate filings suggest that early-stage development could exceed billions.

ExxonMobil has already committed approximately $20 billion toward lower-emission investments through 2030, a budget that explicitly includes its lithium operations in Arkansas. The company aims to produce enough lithium by 2030 to supply more than 1 million electric vehicles annually. Overall, the Spring, Texas oil giant’s capital spending in 2026 is expected in the range of $27 billion to $29 billion.

Chevron’s capex for drilling and extracting lithium in Northeast Texas and Southwest is equally ambitious. By acquiring assets from TerraVolta Resources and Houston-based  Energy and Minerals Group a year ago, Chevron said it is leveraging its “scale and speed” approach to establish a commercial-scale domestic lithium business.

 While exact spending for its Arkansas footprint hasn’t been disclosed, the company has characterized the move as a “strategic investment” to maintain U.S. energy leadership. This also marks the Houston-based oil giant’s first step toward establishing a commercial-scale, domestic lithium business.

“This acquisition represents a strategic investment to support energy manufacturing and expand U.S.-based critical mineral supplies,” Jeff Gustavson, president of Chevron New Energies, said after the TerraVolta-EMG deal last summer.

 “Establishing domestic and resilient lithium supply chains is essential not only to maintaining U.S. energy leadership but also to meeting the growing demand from customers. This opportunity builds on many of Chevron’s strengths, including subsurface resource development and value chain integration.”

Technology and the Delta Economy

Both companies plan to utilize Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE), a technology that separates lithium from subsurface saltwater before reinjecting the brine back into the ground. This method is faster, more efficient, and has a smaller environmental footprint than traditional mining.

For local communities in Lafayette and Columbia Counties, the influx of capital is expected to be “life-changing”.

• Job Creation: Construction and operations are projected to create hundreds of high-paying jobs.
• Regulatory Milestone: The Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission recently approved a 2.5% royalty rate for lithium projects, providing the regulatory certainty needed to unlock these massive developments.

As Chevron and ExxonMobil advance their appraisal wells and pilot projects toward a target of first commercial production in 2028, no economic projections have been provided for the historic South Arkansas oil patch.

However, some state policymakers and economy watchers in Arkansas believe the Smackover Formation lithium development could surpass the economic growth and development arc of the Fayetteville Shale Play in northeast Arkansas.

From 2005 to 2011, the Sam Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville estimated that oil and gas operators spent about $12.7 billion in leasing land and mineral rights, drilling, and other activities, and were responsible for total economic activity of about $20 billion in the state of Arkansas.  The natural gas play also created approximately 22,000 jobs and generated about $2 billion in state and local tax revenue during the same period, according to the study.

ExxonMobil Ties

This is also not the nation’s largest oil giant’s first rodeo in Arkansas. In the early 2000s, ExxonMobil played a major role in the exploration and development of the Fayetteville Shale through its affiliate, XTO Energy. In 2010, XTO Energy first acquired Fayetteville Shale lease assets for $650 million amid the state’s nine-county shale boom.

In late 2022, however, the nation’s largest publicly traded energy company sold off its remaining Fayetteville Shale assets for an undisclosed sum. That deal, with Oklahoma City-based Flywheel Energy, included about 5,000 natural gas wells and pipeline and processing properties spanning about 381,000 acres across counties in northeast and central Arkansas.

Earlier in 2018, Flywheel, backed by West Coast private equity firm Kayne Private Energy, acquired the Arkansas assets of Fayetteville Shale leader Southwestern Energy Co. for nearly $1.9 billion. The deal included 716 million cubic feet of natural gas production from 4,033 wells across more than 900,000 net acres, along with an integrated midstream gathering system with over 2,000 miles of pipelines and more than 50 compressor stations, all located in central Arkansas.