Halliburton Labs
Halliburton Labs is the cleantech accelerator of oilfield-services giant Halliburton, based in Houston and launched in 2020. Its water bets cluster on produced water: turning the salty water that flows from oil and gas wells into clean water and lithium. As of 2026, (don't) Waste Water tracks 2 water companies it has backed and rates its water commitment Committed.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Halliburton Labs is the accelerator that oilfield-services giant Halliburton launched in 2020, and the cleanest way to read its water thesis is to remember what its parent does for a living: move, pump and manage the enormous volumes of water that come up a well. The Labs calls itself an energy venture catalyst, which mostly means it trades expertise, lab space and Halliburton's industrial network for a foothold in promising hard-tech startups, occasionally taking equity. Its water bets sit squarely in produced water, the salty, mineral-laden water that surfaces alongside oil and gas and that the industry has spent a century treating as waste.
The two water companies (don't) Waste Water tracks in the portfolio tell one story. XtraLit, an Israeli developer of direct lithium extraction, pulls lithium straight from brines including oilfield produced water, and Halliburton has become a strategic equity partner and joint-venture builder around that idea. Espiku, out of Bend, Oregon, runs low-pressure evaporative cycles that recover both clean water and valuable minerals from the same produced-water streams. The common thread is the oil patch's biggest waste stream becoming a feedstock for clean water and the lithium that batteries need.
That pattern is still widening. In September 2025 Halliburton Labs added Aquafortus, a non-thermal desalination startup pulling fresh water from oilfield brine at a West Texas pilot, to its cohort, a sign the program keeps recruiting around produced water rather than drifting toward generic climate tech. As of 2026 the Labs is an accelerator, not a fund, so it does not write the priced rounds a venture firm does; it pays in access, to Halliburton's engineers, field sites and customers, which for a hardware startup chasing the oil and gas water market can matter more than a cheque.
For a newcomer trying to place Halliburton Labs, that is the frame worth keeping. It is the energy industry treating its own water problem as an opportunity, run by the company with the most produced water to gain from solving it, and the handful of water names it has backed so far all point the same way: less waste water, more clean water and minerals pulled back out of it.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Frequently asked
- What does Halliburton Labs invest in?
- Halliburton Labs backs early-stage hard-tech energy and cleantech startups as an accelerator, trading Halliburton's expertise, facilities and industrial network for a foothold and occasional equity. In water, its focus is produced water: technologies that recover clean water and critical minerals like lithium from the brine that oil and gas wells bring up.
- Is Halliburton Labs a venture capital fund?
- Not in the usual sense. Halliburton Labs is an accelerator, or energy venture catalyst, run by oilfield-services giant Halliburton rather than a fund that writes priced cheques. It gives startups lab space, engineering help and access to Halliburton's customers, and sometimes takes an equity stake, as it did with lithium-extraction company XtraLit.
- Who runs Halliburton Labs?
- Halliburton Labs is led by Managing Director Andres Cabada, a longtime Halliburton executive who joined the company in 2011. He works with Executive Director Susanna Sabbagh on venture development, Director Arpana Verma on scouting and innovation, and Director Chris Bosch on startup success, running each cohort from Houston.
- Which water companies has Halliburton Labs backed?
- Halliburton Labs has backed two water companies tracked by (don't) Waste Water: XtraLit, an Israeli direct-lithium-extraction firm that pulls lithium from brines and oilfield produced water, and Espiku, an Oregon company recovering clean water and minerals from produced water using low-pressure evaporation. In 2025 it also added desalination startup Aquafortus to its cohort.
- Where is Halliburton Labs based?
- Halliburton Labs is based in Houston, Texas, at the headquarters of its parent company Halliburton, where it launched in 2020. The accelerator works with energy and cleantech startups from around the world, but its program, facilities and team are anchored in Houston.