On June 4 Occidental Petroleum and BHE Renewables announced their joint venture to extract high-purity lithium from Berkshire’s geothermal facility in California. Together, they plan to revolutionize commercial lithium production by installing TerraLithium’s Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology. This partnership marks a significant step in the advancement of sustainable energy solutions.
We shall deep dive into the JV details and explore the technology in the next paragraphs:
Oxy-BHE Synergy Leading the Future of Sustainable Lithium Extraction
The collaboration aims to leverage the strengths of both companies. Occidental will bring its expertise in chemical engineering and large-scale operations while BHE Renewables will contribute its knowledge of renewable energy and environmental sustainability.
Alicia Knapp, President and CEO of BHE Renewables has further assured that,
“This joint venture with TerraLithium represents a significant advancement in BHE Renewables’ commitment to pursuing commercial lithium production that is environmentally safe, commercially viable, and leads to good outcomes for the Imperial Valley community.”
She further envisions making Imperial Valley a global leader in lithium production.
After successfully demonstrating the technology, BHE Renewables will construct, own, and operate commercial lithium production facilities in California’s Imperial Valley. The joint venture also plans to license the technology and set up commercial lithium production facilities outside the Imperial Valley.
Oxy’s TerraLithium Acquisition Sparks Lithium Revolution
The demand for EVs and consumer electronics propels the lithium market. It is projected to soar from $22.2 billion to $89.9 billion by 2030. Conventional lithium production methods, like evaporation ponds, pose significant environmental concerns. Moreover, production facilities are heavily concentrated in Australia, Chile, and China.
From the company’s climate report, we discovered that Oxy’s acquisition of TerraLithium in 2022, now a wholly owned subsidiary, is a game-changer.
formed through a partnership with All-American Lithium in 2019, TerraLithium boasts patented technologies capable of cost-effectively extracting trace lithium from waste brines, ensuring ultra-high-purity lithium while minimizing environmental impacts. By acquiring the remaining interests, Oxy harnesses its expertise in chemical plant operations and brine management, promoting sustainable lithium production and securing strategic domestic lithium sources. TerraLithium’s demonstration plant in Brawley, California, near the Salton Sea, is slated to commence operations in 2024.
Jeff Alvarez, President and General Manager of TerraLithium being extremely optimistic about the merger, commented,
“Creating a secure, reliable, and domestic supply of high-purity lithium products to help meet growing global lithium demand is essential for the energy transition. The partnership with BHE Renewables will enable the joint venture to accelerate the development of our Direct Lithium Extraction and associated technologies and advance them toward commercial lithium production.”
TheTerraLithium Technology Advantage
TerraLithium owns patented Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies that transform any lithium-containing brine into a superior and responsibly sourced lithium supply. It leverages Oxy’s expertise in subsurface and chemical engineering, coupled with a track record in technology scale-up, pilot project development, and global commercialization.
This lithium extraction process promises higher efficiency and lower environmental impact than traditional methods. It minimizes water usage and reduces carbon emissions.
Notably, BHE operates 10 geothermal power plants in California, processing 50,000 gallons of lithium-rich brine every minute and generating 345 MW of clean energy.
This sustainable technology is set to meet the growing demand for lithium, crucial for EV batteries and renewable energy storage. Thus, aligning with both companies’ commitments to environmental stewardship to a low-carbon future.
Oxy’s Commitment to Net Zero goals
Oxy is committed to being part of the climate change solutions and developed the Net-Zero Strategy in alignment with the Paris Agreement. Being the largest oil and gas producers in the U.S., they have established key operations in the Permian and DJ basins and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.
Furthermore, their subsidiary, Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, spearheads innovative technologies and business strategies that drive economic growth while curbing emissions. They are committed to global carbon management to propel a transition towards a lower-carbon future.
Additionally, it attracted significant new investments into low-carbon projects like DAC, carbon sequestration hubs, hydrogen, and notably, lithium.
source: Occidental
Warren Buffet’s Bold Lithium Bet
In 2021, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. launched a groundbreaking plan to extract lithium from the superhot geothermal brines beneath California’s Salton Sea. It was believed to be a process that had never been explored before.
Here’s the image of it:
source: BHE
In 2022, they launched a demonstration project with this innovative technology. The strategic JV with Occidental is an extension of this plan. BHE Petroleum notes that if these demo projects succeed then construction of the first commercial plant could start as early as 2024. As already explained before it would essentially provide an environmentally responsible domestic source of lithium. Most significantly, all energy used in this lithium production process would be 100% renewable.
BHE Renewables is making strides in lithium production research in California’s Imperial Valley. Lithium, a crucial mineral for lithium-ion batteries used in cellphones, laptops, and EVs, dominates the brine processed at BHE Renewables’ geothermal facilities.
Will this JV Spark a Lithium Boom in the Future?
The demand for lithium is surging with the rise of EVs and renewable energy storage solutions. Technically the joint venture aims to capture a significant share of this expanding market. Furthermore, TerraLithium’s efficient and eco-friendly extraction process positions it as a competitive player in the industry.
Looking ahead, Occidental and BHE Renewables plan to scale up TerraLithium’s deployment. They are exploring opportunities to implement this technology at various sites. The goal is to enhance the supply chain for lithium, ensuring a stable and sustainable source for future energy needs.
Global oil giants are entering the electrification sector as the US and EU promote higher EV adoption and reduced fossil fuel dependency. Subsequently, Exxon Mobil aims to commence lithium production from sub-surface wells by 2027. Meanwhile, European oil leaders BP and Shell have directed investments toward EV charging stations as integral components of their energy transition strategies.
Last but not least, Richard Jackson, President, of US Onshore Resources and Carbon Management, Operations at Occidental has expressed himself that:
“By leveraging Occidental’s expertise in managing and processing brine in our oil and gas and chemicals businesses, combined with BHE Renewables’ deep knowledge in geothermal operations, we are uniquely positioned to advance a more sustainable form of lithium production. We look forward to working with BHE Renewables to demonstrate how DLE technology can produce a critical mineral that society needs to further net zero goals.”
All said and done, the partnership between Occidental and BHE Renewables signifies a major leap forward in lithium extraction technology and a transition to a greener future.
The post Occidental Petroleum and BHE Renewables JV to Revolutionize Lithium Extraction appeared first on Carbon Credits.
For most businesses, the emissions that matter most sit outside their own walls. Scope 3 emissions, everything generated across your value chain, from the suppliers who make your inputs to the customers who use your products, typically make up the majority of a company’s total carbon footprint. Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), those value-chain emissions now have to be measured and disclosed with a rigour that spend-based estimates alone struggle to satisfy. This guide sets out how to improve Scope 3 data accuracy for CSRD: the calculation methods open to you, how to move from estimates to verified supplier data, and how to govern that data so it holds up to audit.
A carbon credit is a commitment that extends well into the future. The tonne of CO₂ compensated for today from a nature-based carbon project must remain out of the atmosphere for good, which means the forest behind the credit has to remain standing long after the transaction is complete. For any buyer, this raises a defining question: What ensures that the forest endures?
What replaced the cheap REDD credit on the boardroom slide deck, and why procurement is leading the rewrite.
Three years ago, a corporate slide showing a portfolio of cheap REDD+ credits could carry a board meeting. The number was big, the price was low, and the press release wrote itself. Today, that same slide gets sent back with questions. The questions are uncomfortable, the answers are unclear, and your general counsel is suddenly in the room.
Conventional carbon offsets are not dead. The voluntary carbon market retired 202 million tonnes in 2025, and the Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing survey published in January 2026 confirmed that interest from corporate buyers remains substantial. What changed is the credibility threshold. The integrity floor has risen, the disclosure scrutiny has tightened, and the buyer profile has shifted. This article tracks what changed, what sophisticated buyers now ask before signing, and what serious corporates are putting on the board slide instead.
What boards used to buy, and why it stopped working
The 2020 to 2022 model was simple: buy a large tranche of avoidance credits at low single-digit prices, retire them against the company footprint, announce the carbon-neutral claim, and move on. Most of those credits came from REDD+ projects, renewable energy installations in countries where the renewable energy was already economic, or methane projects with thin documentation.
Several things broke that model. Academic research published in 2023, including a widely cited Science paper, found that the majority of REDD+ credits issued under the most common methodologies did not represent additional reductions when tested against rigorous counterfactuals. The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative published its Claims Code of Practice, which sets requirements for what companies can credibly claim from credit use. The European Union finalised its Green Claims Directive, restricting how companies can describe products as climate-neutral. France’s Décret 2022-539 already restricts carbon neutrality advertising. California’s AB 1305 imposes disclosure requirements on any company making net-zero or carbon-neutral claims while doing business in the state.
The collective effect: the cheap credit no longer buys the announcement, and the announcement now carries litigation risk.
The integrity reset: ICVCM, VCMI, and what changed
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market published the Core Carbon Principles in 2023 and began assessing methodologies against them in 2024. The first methodologies received the CCP label later that year. The point of the label is to give corporate buyers a defensible quality screen they can cite in disclosure.
The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative complements this on the demand side. Its Claims Code of Practice defines what a buyer can say (Silver, Gold, or Platinum claims, with associated requirements) based on the quality of credits used and the underlying decarbonisation strategy. Together, CCP and VCMI build a quality stack: CCP on the supply, VCMI on the claim, with the science-based target sitting underneath both.
The reset is not a ban on offsets. It is a ratchet. Credits that meet the new bar continue to clear; credits that do not, do not. The Morgan Stanley survey found that 61% of current buyers like the CCP label concept but that supply of labelled credits remains limited. That supply constraint is now visible in pricing.
What sophisticated buyers ask before they sign
The questions on the procurement scorecard have changed. A 2022 buyer might have asked about price, vintage, and project type. A 2026 buyer asks five different questions before any of those.
- What does the counterfactual look like, and who validated it.
- What is the permanence regime, and what is the buffer pool exposure.
- What is the leakage risk, and how is it mitigated.
- What rating has the project received from the independent ratings agencies (Sylvera, BeZero, Calyx Global), and what was the rationale.
- What is the documentation discipline that survives an audit four years from now when the procurement team that signed the contract has moved on.
If the vendor cannot answer those five questions on a first call, the conversation ends. Conversely, if the vendor can answer them with documented specificity, the conversation often expands beyond a single transaction toward a multi-year engagement.
Where this leaves your near-term commitments
You probably have near-term commitments that pre-date the integrity reset. Public targets to be carbon neutral by 2025 or 2030. Product-level claims that ran in last year’s marketing. Disclosed reduction trajectories that assumed continued access to cheap credits.
You have three workable paths. The first is to re-baseline your strategy, replacing the most exposed credits with higher-quality alternatives and adjusting the public language to match what you can defend. The second is to shift the underlying spend from offsetting outside your value chain to investing inside your value chain, where reductions count against Scope 3 directly and the audit trail is cleaner. The third is to keep the strategy and absorb the risk, which is increasingly the most expensive option once you price in litigation, restatement, and reputational exposure.
Most serious buyers are choosing the second path. It moves the carbon spend from a compliance cost to a procurement and resilience investment, and it removes the central failure point of the legacy model: the disconnect between where the emissions occurred and where the reductions sat. Nature-based supply chain investments, structured under the GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Standard and aligned to the SBTi FLAG Guidance, are the asset class that fits this brief. They generate inventory-grade reductions, they produce audit-grade documentation, and they survive the new claim restrictions because the carbon math sits inside the value chain that the disclosure already covers.
If you are reassessing a carbon strategy under the new integrity bar, or rebuilding a board narrative that has to survive a more skeptical audience, the carbon and sustainability experts at Carbon Credit Capital can help. The Dual-Value Model gives you a defensible alternative to legacy offset purchases, with the documentation and operational integration that survives the procurement scorecard and the audit. Schedule a consultation.
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