The Austin-based MaverickX is operating its first satellite production facility in Pleasanton.
Maverick X
Co-founder Eric Herrera discovered and optimized a bacteria from the Arctic that he’s using to cultivate faster, safer and more sustainable extraction of critical metals from oil and gas. Herrera is pictured in the former MaverickX lab in San Antonio.
James Lewis/Contributor
An Austin-based biochemical company has moved into the “backyard” of the oil and gas industry it’s aiming to serve.
MaverickX, which got its start in San Antonio, has started operations at a $5 million production facility in Pleasanton, in the Eagle Ford Shale.
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The company produces a nontoxic chemical called PetroX that it says provides a faster, safer and more sustainable way for critical mineral extraction in oil and gas.
“Our target market right now is our backyard,” co-founder and chief operating officer Jesse Evans said.
Co-founder Eric Herrera discovered a bacterium in the North Pole in 2022 that contains a peptide capable of dissolving rock, which was the catalyst for starting MaverickX. The pair started with a small-scale lab in San Antonio to optimize and scale production of PetroX before relocating to Austin at the end of last year. Their work earned Evans and Herrera a spot on the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 Green Energy & Technology list.
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Getting the Pleasanton facility up and running was a fairly easy process, Evans said, since the company’s manufacturing process takes a “plug-and-play” approach. “We repurpose off-the-shelf equipment, so that we’re able to move fast and scale up manufacturing.”
Herrera said that meant retrofitting brewery equipment to produce the bacteria that is transformed into a yellow chemical with a fluorescent green glow when exposed to ultraviolet light.
This first satellite facility is just the beginning for the company, which plans to expand to other oil basins such as the Permian in Texas and the Bakken Formation in North Dakota. The goal is to have customers in all the major oil-producing basins in the country.
“We have a really healthy pipeline across the entire U.S.,” Evans said. “The big focus is here in Texas. We have dozens of clients right now in Eagle Ford, from operators to distributors to oil fuel services companies.”
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Evans said its customers are experimenting with the chemical in their labs and in the field while MaverickX continuing to run its own experiments.
MaverickX has found success in PetroX’s ability to effectively work in a way that is nonhazardous, fast-acting and more cost-efficient than legacy chemicals, Evans said. He also emphasized the safety of the chemical compound, pointing out that toxic chemicals have been linked to some oil field deaths.
PetroX also can solve longstanding problems specific to the industry, like barium sulfate scale, a mineral deposit that builds up in systems, affecting the flow in oil field and gas production operations, he said.
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“There’s really no chemical that can treat that,” Evans said. “The alternative to using our chemical would be a more expensive physical process to remove that scale.”
Evans said the Pleasanton facility also opens up the opportunity to explore expanding the business. Evans explained the Eagle Ford Shale site is located next to a saltwater disposal site. The company is in the research and development phase of cleaning the water to repurpose it for its manufacturing process.
“The ability to recycle the water is a big problem in oil and gas,” Evans said. “We hope to be able to reuse that and help be part of the solution.”
It’s an issue that the Permian Basin faces as well. The Pleasanton operation can be used to develop and prove the company’s ability to solve the problem before growing to address water issues and other areas, he said.
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MaverickX is in the process of commissioning two large reactor that would aid in the production of PetroX, while having conversations with vendors to secure larger reactors. The company has the designs and plant ready to incorporate the reactors — now, it’s just about identifying the right partners for that equipment, he said.
“We have the best problem right now,” Evans said. “We have more demand than we have current capacity in the facility to produce. That’s why we’re expanding.”
When the facility is at full capacity by the end of the year, it is projected to employ 10 people at the plant and produce about 14 million liters annually.
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