Enquirer Consulting Group

Buyer Map: Aquafortus

Prepared for Iris Jancik | Aquafortus | October 2026

As of Oct 6, 2026. Counts from a public list of US business locations, dated in the notes at the foot

This page maps the US sites that produce the hard brines your homepage names, in its three industries. Oil and gas comes first, with Texas and New Mexico shown on their own because the Permian Basin sits across both. Then come semiconductor plants, named on your homepage, and battery plants, named in your news, for industrial wastewater, and last metal ore mines. Each group is sized from a public count of business locations by staff size, and each lists the roles that usually sign for water treatment at a site. It says nothing about which of them Aquafortus is already talking to.

Oil and gas producer locations, 10 or more staff

1,300

United States, 2023. Crude oil and natural gas producers together.

Of those, in Texas and New Mexico

570

The two states the Permian Basin spans.

Semiconductor and device plants, 10 or more staff

420

United States, 2023. Wafer fabs are a smaller part of this group.

Metal ore mines, 10 or more staff

140

United States, 2023. Coal mines and stone quarries are not in this count.

Locations by staff size

US business locations in each group, by the number of people working there, mid-March 2023.

Industry codes are our closest match to each group, not your definitions. One company with ten sites counts ten times. A producer location is an office or field base with paid staff, not a well, so the count of wells and water volumes behind each one is not shown here.
Group	All locations	Under 10 staff	10 to 49 staff	50 to 249 staff	250+ staff
Crude oil producers	3,900	3,100	580	170	about 40
Natural gas producers	1,300	870	350	110	about 20
Semiconductor and device plants	820	400	220	120	about 80
Battery plants	330	130	about 80	about 80	about 40
Metal ore mines	340	200	about 60	about 40	about 50

Oil and gas in the Permian states, 10 or more staff

Producer locations with 10 or more people, in the two states the Permian Basin spans.

State counts cover the whole state, not only the basin. Other producing states come from the same file and can be added on request.
Group	Texas	New Mexico	Both
Crude oil producers	340	about 40	380
Natural gas producers	170	about 20	190

Who signs off

The roles that usually sign for brine and wastewater treatment at a site. Titles vary by company, and at the smaller sites one person often holds several of them.

Group	Roles
Oil and gas producers	VP of operations, VP or director of completions, produced water or water resources manager, facilities engineering manager, EHS or regulatory lead; the owner or head of operations at the smaller producers
Semiconductor and battery plants	Site or plant manager, facilities or utilities director, water or wastewater engineering manager, EHS director, director of sustainability
Metal ore mines	General manager of the mine, VP of operations, process or metallurgy manager, water or tailings manager, director of environment or sustainability

What no public count reaches

Three questions this page cannot answer from a count, said in words rather than shown as numbers.

Battery recyclers and the wider run of advanced manufacturing. Your homepage names both, but no public count separates them. Recyclers sit inside broad metal recovery and waste codes, and advanced manufacturing is not a code at all, so neither is shown as a number. They are found company by company in the named version.

Produced water midstream and disposal operators. In the Permian much of the water leaves the producer's hands and goes to these operators, who sit inside broad oil field service codes rather than the producer rows above. They are found company by company in the named version.

Which sites already face a disposal limit or a zero liquid discharge rule. No public list says which plants or producers are short of disposal capacity, so the rows above count every site in the group.

Three openings

Where the counts point.

Permian producers, worked from Texas.

Texas and New Mexico hold about 570 of the 1,300 US oil and gas producer locations with 10 or more staff. Your homepage names the Permian, where disposal options are tightening, and your news names Texas as where you are growing, so a list starts there and stays within reach of a site visit.

The larger semiconductor, device and battery plants.

About 320 semiconductor, device and battery plants in the US have 50 or more staff. Your homepage says semiconductor fabs often need zero liquid discharge, and your news names battery manufacturing wastewater as a focus. A plant that size has its own facilities and EHS leads, so the person who signs for the brine can be found by name.

Metal mines, a short list.

There are about 140 metal ore mines in the US with 10 or more staff, and about 50 with 250 or more. A group that small can be read mine by mine for where water limits production, which is the case your homepage makes for mining.

Denominators, definitions and sources

Location counts are establishments in the federal annual count of business establishments by industry, 2023, national and state files, all legal forms. An establishment is one physical location with paid employees. Staff is paid employees at the location in the mid-March 2023 pay period.
Industry codes: 211120 crude petroleum extraction; 211130 natural gas extraction; 334413 semiconductor and related device manufacturing, which also covers device and solar cell makers, not only wafer fabs; 33591 battery manufacturing; 2122 metal ore mining. Coal mining, stone and sand quarrying and oil field service companies are not counted.
The files withhold a few of the largest size cells for confidentiality. Where they do, the withheld locations are recovered as the group total less the published cells, only where every withheld cell falls in one column, so each row still adds up to its total. The state counts with 10 or more staff are the state total less the two smallest size cells, which are published in every row used.
The groups are the three industries your homepage names, with battery plants from your news, and the Permian is the basin your homepage names. Built from public registries, counts banded deliberately. Figures of 100 and over are rounded to two significant figures, figures from 10 to 99 to the nearest ten.

The named version of this page, the actual companies inside a row, is built one row at a time. If you want to walk through a row together, pick a time at cal.com/ecg. Prepared by Ben Beattie, ben@enquirerconsulting.com.

Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com