Charging into the lithium business

Key takeaways:

We’re planning to become a major supplier of lithium, a key material for electric vehicle batteries.
We’re making this happen because of our expertise in geoscience, engineering and chemical processing. Not to mention our ability to deliver large projects.
Our people make the difference – from geoscientists to lab technicians to engineering and project experts, we bring unique skills to the table.

Article

3 min read

• May 28, 2024

Meet a few of our people making it happen:

Ashley Palomino

“The Environmental Expert,” an eight-year ExxonMobil veteran, has been spending a lot of time in the dense forests and scenic rolling hills of southwest Arkansas. She’s a “boots on the ground” resource who focuses on environmental and development stewardship, working with regulators, regional suppliers and the community throughout the lifecycle of a project. “I'm passionate about the environment and deploying new technologies and solutions,” she said. “Lithium could be a game-changer, and we’re all in this together.”

Scarlet Castro

“The Geoscience Guru” is interested in what lies underground. In this case, lithium-rich brines. She leads a team of reservoir engineers and geologists who are using skills refined in the oil and gas business to find the brines in the subsurface. They’re also figuring out effective and low-cost ways to get them out of the ground. “We’re using all the tools in our toolbox and charting new territory,” said Castro, a sixteen-year veteran of ExxonMobil.

Remi Loiseau

“The Big Picture Planner” knows big projects. In his seventeen years at ExxonMobil, he’s traveled the world developing complex projects and is now laser-focused on southwest Arkansas. His scope is broad – from picking the right location for our first lithium venture to meeting with stakeholders in the government and community, all while building a new team with talent from our legacy businesses. “We looked across the board to our subsurface and drilling skills, our project development skills, our technology skills, our operational skills and brought them all together,” he said. “Through this integration, we bring something unique to the lithium business.”

Patrick Howarth

“The Business Leader” heads our lithium business and wants to make a big impact in a new industry. His team is developing lithium projects in North America, leveraging technology to produce it in a better way. Our method of lithium production – tapping lithium-rich brines thousands of feet underground – will have less environmental impact than current methods like hard-rock mining. “We have the expertise, technology and drive to make this happen,” said Patrick, a nineteen-year veteran of ExxonMobil.

Sanket Desai

“The Master of Molecules” has spent seventeen years solving problems for ExxonMobil – of the chemical engineering kind. And lithium is no different. We’re using the same formula – breaking down the problem into pieces and applying fundamentals. Sanket’s team is working on developing technologies to extract lithium from the deep brines, purify it and convert it to finished products. “We own the skillsets to solve this problem,” he said. “We’re the right people at the right time.” Learn more about ExxonMobil’s lithium plan.