"New Oil" is trending! Oil companies are rushing in!

Attention! "New Oil" is trending! International oil companies are rapidly moving to secure positions. In recent years, with the vigorous development of the global new energy industry and continuous policy support for clean energy from governments worldwide, lithium—the core material for new energy vehicles and energy storage systems, hailed as "white oil"—has seen its market scale expand significantly. According to data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), lithium demand for batteries is projected to increase tenfold between 2020 and 2030. Currently, oil majors are accelerating their entry into the lithium sector, sparking a strategic "positioning race" centered on "white oil." Come explore this trend with Youbao! What layout strategies have major oil companies adopted in recent years? As one of the world’s largest petrochemical companies, ExxonMobil launched its first lithium production project in southwestern Arkansas in 2023 and drilled its inaugural lithium well. The company plans to achieve commercial production by 2027 and become a leading global supplier of lithium metal by 2030—providing lithium resources for over one million electric vehicles annually. It is currently evaluating lithium resources worldwide to expand its footprint. In contrast, Occidental Petroleum and Saudi Aramco are focusing on the more advanced Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology. In June 2024, Occidental announced a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway Energy (BHE) to develop geothermal brine resources in California using DLE technology developed by its subsidiary TerraLithium, supplying critical raw materials for new energy vehicles and other industries. In the same year, Saudi Aramco announced successful lithium extraction from saline water produced in its oilfields and plans to commercialize DLE technology, targeting commercial production by 2027. Beyond oil companies, Schlumberger—the global leader in oilfield services—has also long targeted the lithium sector. In 2022, Schlumberger announced a collaboration with water treatment provider Gradiant to enable sustainable production of battery-grade lithium compounds. These strategic moves signal that traditional energy enterprises are actively transforming. On one hand, they leverage technical expertise accumulated in the oil-and-gas sector—such as brine treatment and drilling technologies; on the other, they apply innovative technologies to open new growth avenues in lithium resource development. This transformation will not only reshape these companies’ business portfolios but may also redefine the global lithium supply chain. Transitioning from black oil to lithium resource development—dubbed "white oil"— energy enterprises across the globe are joining this race. PetroChina is also proactively entering the lithium resource arena, aiming to seize the initiative amid the energy transition wave. In 2022, Southwest Oil & Gas Field successfully extracted industrial-grade lithium carbonate independently from produced water at its gas fields—a breakthrough in its battery-related ventures and a milestone in associated resource utilization. As of May 27, 2025, China’s first pilot facility for comprehensive utilization and compliant treatment of associated resources from gas field water—the Southwest Oil & Gas Field Weiyuan Pilot Facility, capable of treating 100 cubic meters of gas field water per day—has operated continuously for over six months, processing more than 12,000 cubic meters of gas field water and successfully producing lithium carbonate, potassium chloride, and sodium bromide.

In-depth Research Report on Saudi Arabia’s Ecological Policies and the Green Transformation of Oil Extraction

In the Arabian Peninsula—where freshwater is extremely scarce and there are virtually no perennial surface rivers—freshwater is regarded as a more strategically vital and scarcer resource than oil. Early oil extraction activities, especially secondary oil recovery operations involving water injection to maintain reservoir pressure, heavily relied on pumping groundwater from aquifers. This practice inflicted irreversible damage upon Saudi Arabia’s already fragile groundwater systems. Deep causal analysis reveals that continued depletion of precious fossil groundwater by oilfield operations would directly jeopardize the nation’s water security, agricultural sustainability, and long-term social stability. Accordingly, freshwater substitution and ultra-efficient water recycling have become Saudi Aramco’s most critical internal ecological initiatives, guided by the core principle of "reducing dependency and achieving closed-loop circulation." ● Historical foresight and ongoing expansion of seawater injection technology: To completely eliminate dependence on groundwater, Saudi Aramco invested heavily as early as the late 1970s to construct the Qurayyah Seawater Treatment Plant—the world’s largest oilfield water-injection facility. This plant treats seawater from the Arabian Gulf to a high standard and delivers it via an extensive pipeline network to hundreds of inland injection wells, directly injecting it into underground reservoirs to displace crude oil. Relying solely on this single facility, Saudi Aramco has saved over 160 billion gallons of precious groundwater annually since 1978. Currently, Saudi Arabia continues expanding this approach in aging oilfields—for instance, the groundwater protection project underway in the Abqaiq region, which upon completion is expected to replace 76% of the region’s water injection volume with seawater. ● Produced water treatment and revolutionary Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD): During oil and gas production, formation water co-produced with crude oil is termed "produced water." It is the largest-volume and most challenging liquid byproduct from oilfields, containing extremely high concentrations of salts, suspended solids, emulsified oil, and toxic heavy metals from geological formations. Saudi Aramco not only deploys advanced multi-stage wastewater treatment systems—from API gravity separation and hydrocyclone separation to membrane filtration—in strict compliance with its rigorous engineering standard SAES-A-012, but has also achieved revolutionary technological breakthroughs in recent years. Through a strategic partnership with the National Energy Services Re-organization Company (NESR), Saudi Aramco successfully developed and deployed its proprietary, patented Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) technology. The disruptive nature of this technology lies in its complete elimination of conventional disposal routes such as high-pressure deep-well reinjection or marine discharge. By means of extreme desalination and physicochemical separation, the ZLD system transforms highly saline, hazardous wastewater into high-quality industrial water, directly reused for crude oil desalting wash water, shale gas hydraulic fracturing fluid (frac-water), and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) water injection. Even more valuable from a circular economy perspective, the highly concentrated mineral residue remaining after ZLD treatment is not disposed of as waste. Instead, it is further processed into drilling mud additives, subjected to salt recovery, and even evaluated for carbon dioxide mineralization sequestration (CO₂ sequestration via mineralization) and potentially strategic lithium extraction.

NESR and Aramco Sign Agreement to Deliver the Region's First Direct Lithium Extraction Project

Oct 8, 2026

NESR and Aramco have partnered to develop Saudi Arabia's first Direct Lithium Extraction project, targeting 2,000 tons of annual battery-grade lithium carbonate production by late 2027. This $200 million initiative aims to meet growing global energy transition demands.

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NESR and Aramco Sign Agreement to Deliver the Region's First Direct Lithium Extraction Project

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