It is possible - but highly unlikely IMO. The rhetoric that...

It is possible - but highly unlikely IMO.

The rhetoric that Vulcan uses is that this is very much a "European lithium resource for European customers". Case in point is Vulcan choosing to develop their own sorbents to avoid relying on markets where the politics can adversely impact trade and supply chain security.

I don't see a lot of alignment in the values corporately between Vulcan & Aramco nor does Aramco provide any political sway or technical expertise specifically for European conditions. Sure - they have the balance sheet strength and if Vulcan was expanding into Saudi Arabia - they would be the logical partner.

Total and PRL just parted ways on the green hydrogen project in Western Australia - my guess is due to how attractive the US has made investing in Nth America via the IRA. Woodside have followed suit by parking their local Australian hydrogen projects in favour of the US expansion first. Northvolt have similarly paused their German gigafactory ambitions in favour of the US.

So, there is a lot of pressure on the EU next week when they announce the CRM & Net Zero Acts to level the playing field and as per Francis' tweet a few days ago - having geothermal prioritised for support will be very important to attract the interest of a major O&G to want to invest in the project.

I don't know if it will be Total, but I can just see a significant amount of synergies, particularly to underpin the future France expansion plans. However, I equally think BP & Shell could be in the mix.

Fingers crossed for March 14 next week Vulcan is named a European Project of Common Interest,