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By Andy Home, Senior Metals Columnist, Reuters News

Hello Power Up readers! Lithium may be the new oil but the price has fallen sharply this year as the electric vehicle (EV) revolution stutters. Operators such as Chile’s SQM are feeling the bottom-line squeeze, the world’s second-largest producer reporting a slump in third-quarter earnings. Weaker prices, however, have only spurred more companies to join the great lithium rush. Exxon Mobil unveiled its lithium strategy earlier this week and in today’s edition we look at how it intends to become a leading supplier by 2030, using a new technology billed as the next big thing for lithium production.

Australia’s lithium drama, meanwhile, continues as bankers look at innovative ways to stop local mining magnates using blocking stakes to thwart overseas takeovers of junior companies. They’ve done so twice already and are now threatening another potential deal.

Elsewhere in the news, Indonesia walks a green tightrope, Europe introduces methane emissions limits on fossil fuel imports and why the United Arab Emirates may have a trump card to play when it hosts COP28 later this month.

Today’s top headlines:

• Chile’s SQM misses forecasts as profit slumps on lithium prices

• Aussie miner Fortescue sets up platform to fund green energy projects

• Bullish IEA, OPEC oil demand forecasts at odds with gains in Asia’s ports

A portable direct lithium extraction plant in Louisiana. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder

Exxon Mobil unveiled its lithium strategy earlier this week, planning to supply lithium for well over a million electric vehicles (EV) per year and become a leading supplier of the metal by 2030. But how exactly is it going to do it? Ernest Scheyder talked to Patrick Howarth, Exxon’s global product manager for lithium, on the side-lines of the Benchmark Week 2023 strategic minerals conference in Los Angeles to find out more.

The plan is to use direct lithium extraction (DLE), a new technology yet to be deployed at commercial scale. And if you want to know more about DLE, you should start with an insight piece Ernie wrote back in June on what is billed as the next big lithium production breakthrough.

Gina Rinehart poses Port Hedland. Hancock Prospecting/Handout via REUTERS

Australia sits on massive deposits of lithium, making it an attractive target for those looking to buy into junior mining assets. However, local magnates such as Gina Rinehart, the country’s richest person, and Chris Ellison have already thwarted two takeover deals and are threatening another.

Melanie Burton in Melbourne looks at how they’re using home advantage by building blocking stakes to deter takeovers of Australian companies. However, bankers are getting innovative and Chilean lithium giant SQM’s two-pronged bid for Azure Minerals is a possible template for stopping the local interlopers.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo. REUTERS/Leah Millis

Indonesia’s state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) has spelt out its green investment plans to the country’s parliament. As Fransiska Nangoy and Bernadette Christina report from Jakarta, there will be no phase-out of coal but rather a “phase-down” as the country tries to wean itself off its dominant power source. Indonesia is walking a tightrope on its coal-green mix as it tries to win over the U.S. to a free trade agreement (FTA) on critical minerals.

The country is the world’s largest producer of nickel, a key input into EV batteries, but it needs an FTA to qualify for the generous EV subsidies included in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. As Trevor Hunnicutt and Ernest Scheyder examine, Indonesia’s American Dream depends on the green credentials of the country’s metal sector and the power that feeds it.   

The Dominion Cove Point LNG terminal in Maryland. REUTERS/Gary Cameron

European Union law-makers this week hammered out a new law to place methane emission restrictions on fossil fuel imports by 2030, Kate Abnett reports from Brussels. As Europe pivots away from Russia, the U.S. has emerged as the region’s largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe, but one with a heavy methane footprint.

My colleague Gavin Maguire takes an in-depth dive into the ramifications of Europe’s game-changing methane standard and how the U.S. gas sector needs to clean up its act.

Germany’s Siemens Energy has become the latest wind turbine producer to re-think its strategy after taking a 4.6 billion euro ($5 billion) annual net loss. The Siemens Gamesa wind turbine business was once considered the future growth driver for Siemens Energy but, as Christoph Steitz and Alexander Hübner report, it has become a millstone around the group’s neck after deeper-than-expected quality issues were disclosed in June.

“As the world’s biggest buyer of natural gas, the EU is strategically leveraging its economic influence to drive global reductions in methane emissions.”

Flavia Sollazzo, Senior Director, EU Energy Transition at EDF Europe, on Europe’s proposed emissions limits on imports.

 Reuters Graphics

In a fortnight the United Arab Emirates will host the 28th Conference of the Parties, the world’s key climate gathering. It’s going to be a tough gig for the hosts after the United Nations highlighted the lack of progress in meeting carbon reduction goals in 2030. The best bet will be to focus on the glaring global imbalances in green financing.

As Reuters Breaking Views columnist George Hay writes in a preview of the upcoming COP28, rich countries have made the bulk of the investment in renewables with developing countries lagging way behind. The core problem is one of cash. Which is where the hosts may have a trump card to play.

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