The brine Arkansas already produces
Southern Arkansas has produced oil, natural gas and bromine, a chemical used in flame retardants, from the Smackover Formation, a layer of rock about 10,000 feet underground, for close to a century. Every barrel that comes up is mixed with brine, salty water trapped in that rock, and the brine also carries dissolved lithium, the light metal used in electric vehicle batteries. In October 2024 the United States Geological Survey used a computer model trained on brine chemistry and geology, rather than new drilling, to estimate the lithium for the first time. It puts 5 to 19 million tons of lithium in place beneath southwest Arkansas. That is not a forecast of how much can be mined. The agency states it has not yet assessed how much current extraction methods can actually recover. Even the low end is more than 9 times the lithium projected to be needed worldwide for electric vehicle batteries by 2030. More than 25% of the lithium used in the United States is imported, and Arkansas operators already brought about 5,000 tons of lithium to the surface as a waste byproduct in 2022, without extracting it.
Our research was able to estimate total lithium present in the southwestern portion of the Smackover in Arkansas for the first time.
Katherine Knierim, hydrologist and principal researcher at the United States Geological Survey. Source 1.
A well being drilled for lithium, not an old one reused
ExxonMobil bought rights to 120,000 acres in southern Arkansas in early 2023, and in November that year it announced it was drilling its first lithium well there, a new well rather than an old oil well being reused. The company pumps the same brine to the surface using conventional oil and gas drilling, separates the lithium on site using a method called direct lithium extraction, converts it into battery grade material, and pumps the leftover saltwater back underground. ExxonMobil is targeting first production in 2027, and its goal for 2030 is enough lithium to supply well over 1 million electric vehicles a year.
South Arkansas is our state's all-around energy capital, producing oil, natural gas, and now thanks to investments like ExxonMobil's and their combination of skills and scale, lithium.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas. Source 2.
The venture that already has a buyer
A separate venture, Smackover Lithium, owned 55% by Standard Lithium and 45% by Equinor, is further along commercially with its South West Arkansas project, on different acreage from ExxonMobil. In March 2026 it signed a 10 year offtake agreement, a contract to sell future output, with the trading company Trafigura for 8,000 tons of lithium carbonate a year, more than 40% of the offtake volume the project is targeting. Equinor says phase 1 is designed to produce 22,500 tons of battery grade lithium carbonate a year, and a second phase would bring total planned output to 45,000 tons a year. In January 2025 the Department of Energy finalized a 225 million dollar grant to help build the phase 1 plant, moving it toward a final investment decision.
The 8,000 and 22,500 ton figures are from source 3. The 45,000 ton total planned across both phases is from source 5. Phase 2 has no confirmed start date, and the 8,000 ton contract runs 10 years from the start of commercial production.
Show the numbers
| Trafigura contract | 8,000 |
| Phase 1 capacity | 22,500 |
| Total planned | 45,000 |
What Arkansas changed for landowners and jobs
On May 28, 2025, the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission approved an extra 2.5% compensation rate on the lithium carbonate produced, on top of the brine fee already set by law, for the company SWA Lithium LLC. The rate covers the Reynolds Brine Production Unit, more than 20,000 acres in south Arkansas, based on the same October 2024 survey behind the 5 to 19 million ton estimate. Equinor says the phase 1 grant supports up to 300 construction jobs while the plant is built and up to 100 permanent jobs once it runs, 3 times as many temporary jobs as jobs that last.
Equinor states these are ceilings, up to 300 construction jobs while the plant is built and up to 100 permanent jobs once it runs.
Show the numbers
| Construction jobs | 300 |
| Permanent jobs | 100 |
The Commission's approval of SWA's proposal as fair and equitable compensation signifies a huge step forward for Arkansas's lithium industry.
Shane Khoury, secretary of the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment. Source 4.