Standard Lithium Targets Year-End Decision on $1.45 Billion Arkansas Lithium Project as Exxon and Chevron Stake Smackover Land

America makes a little over 1% of the world's lithium, mostly at Albemarle's Silver Peak mine in Nevada. China dominates refining, as it does for many other critical minerals.

A formation under southern Arkansas and East Texas is the main bet to change that. Oil has come out of the Smackover for a century. The brine in its underground aquifer carries unusually high lithium concentrations.

"It's a geologic freak with its very high lithium concentrations," Standard Lithium CEO David Park told Fortune. "We believe that our lands alone have the potential for over 150,000 tons per year of production."

The numbers behind the push

Global lithium demand has jumped more than 400% this decade, to over 1.5 million metric tons a year. It could approach 4 million tons by 2035. Electric vehicles, utility-scale and data center storage, and robotics are driving it.

That is the market the Smackover players want into. The scale gap is large. Standard's first phase is 22,500 tonnes a year, about 1.5% of current global demand. Even Park's 150,000-ton ceiling would be roughly a tenth.

Standard Lithium's South West Arkansas project

Standard Lithium (TSXV, NYSE-A: SLI) is targeting a final investment decision by year-end on its South West Arkansas project, known as SWA. Capital cost is $1.45 billion.

Standard owns 55% of the Smackover Lithium joint venture and operates it. Norwegian oil producer Equinor owns 45%. The partners want to start construction early in 2027 and begin production in 2029, subject to the investment decision and financing.

The first stage is designed to produce 22,500 tonnes a year of battery-grade lithium carbonate over a modelled 20-year life. SWA hosts 1.18 million measured and indicated tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) at an average 442 milligrams per litre, according to a September 2025 resource estimate.

Standard's second asset is the earlier-stage Franklin project in Texas. Its preliminary economic assessment, filed Oct. 20, outlines capacity of up to 70,000 tonnes of LCE a year over 20 years, averaging about 65,000. Initial production could come in the early 2030s.

"The majority of our focus now is on getting SWA over the finish line to a final investment decision and construction," Jesse Edmondson, Standard's vice president of government affairs, told The Northern Miner. "We really see this project as a catalyst for the whole region, where others will follow."

BMO Capital Markets analyst Raj Ray wrote in a recent note that Standard is "well positioned to be an early mover" in the region. He added that Equinor's oil and gas subsurface expertise should complement the work.

The challengers and Big Oil

Austin-based EnergyX, led by Teague Egan, 38, is the main rival. A 250-ton pilot plant came online earlier this year. EnergyX could break ground on its 15,000-ton Project Lonestar commercial facility by the end of 2027.

ExxonMobil established its Smackover position three years ago. It now holds more than 400,000 net acres, the largest in the formation, and plans to start building a pilot project next year.

Chevron announced a 125,000-acre position last year.

Why oil companies fit this job

The U.S. lacks the hard-rock deposits and economically viable evaporation ponds that Australia, Chile, Argentina and China rely on. The Smackover instead needs direct lithium extraction, or DLE.

Operators drill wells much like oil and gas producers. They pump out the brine, pull the lithium and return more than 90% of the brine underground. No hydraulic fracturing is needed, which limits seismicity concerns.

Evaporation ponds can take two years to extract lithium. DLE takes about two days. Most of its cost lands up front, in wells and the processing facility, which is why the final investment decision and the financing behind it matter.

What comes next

Standard has not yet made its investment decision, and construction has not started. Production at SWA is not planned until 2029, and Franklin is further out. EnergyX's commercial plant is still a groundbreaking target, not a build under way. Exxon's pilot is slated for next year.

The near-term marker is Standard and Equinor's year-end decision on a $1.45 billion project that would be the first large-scale lithium producer in the formation.