What Mcdaniel & Associates does

McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd. is a privately held Calgary-based petroleum evaluation and advisory firm founded in 1955 by Rod McDaniel, employing roughly 80 dedicated professionals of which approximately 60 are subject-matter experts and around 30 focus directly on oil and gas reserves evaluation and studies. The firm prepares third-party reserve reports compliant with SPE-PRMS, SEC, COGEH, and NI 51-101 standards for annual securities reporting, M&A transaction support, and reserves-based lending, and conducts buy-side advisory covering onshore and offshore conventional and unconventional assets in more than 80 countries across all major hydrocarbon basins.

The firm's technology stack consists of three proprietary assets: the McDaniel Database, a curated repository covering all wells in key North American plays (Montney, Duvernay, Viking, Cardium, ND Bakken, SAGD) with multi-billion cell 3D geology models and manually updated professional data; RITA, a Resource Inventory Tracking Agent for 3D well forecasting and recovery-factor calculation; and EVA, a cloud-based analytics platform delivered through sister company Turing Analytics that integrates public, operator, and exclusive datasets for A&D, completion design, and field development decisions. Machine learning is integrated with engineered geoscience features rather than used as a standalone black box, supporting development optimization across multivariate unconventional plays.

Commercial activity spans five revenue streams — Reserves & Resources Evaluation, Energy Advisory, Carbon Advisory (CCS feasibility, subsurface analysis, regulatory), International Division, and a quarterly Commodity Price Forecast product distributed in PDF, Excel, ValNav, and Mosaic formats. Customers are primarily upstream petroleum operators (independent and senior producers), supplemented by banking institutions, private equity and pension funds, midstream companies, and government agencies. Pricing is engagement-based (multi-year contracts), with engagements structured around asset complexity and reporting requirements rather than standardized tiers. Named engagements include reserves evaluations for Tethys Petroleum (84,844 Mboe, $474M NPV), Hemisphere Energy (15.2 MMboe, $316M NPV10 BT), and Lycos Energy (8,272 Mboe, $138.6M NPV10 BT) for fiscal year 2025 reporting.

Name

Mcdaniel & Associates

Legal name

McDaniel & Associates Consultants Ltd.

Website

https://mcdan.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1955

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

McDaniel & Associates is a Calgary-based petroleum evaluation and advisory firm (founded 1955, ~80 professionals) providing NI 51-101/SEC/SPE-PRMS reserve certifications, energy and carbon (CCS) advisory, ML-enabled field development analytics, and international A&D due diligence to upstream operators, banks, PE, and pension funds.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Petroleum Engineering Consulting

NAICS

Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Environmental Consulting Services (54162)

SIC

Oil & Gas Field Services, Nec (1389), Oil & Gas Field Exploration Services (1382)

akta.pro primary industry

Inspection, Integrity & Testing Services (NDT, Well Integrity, Corrosion, QA/QC) (EUALABAO)

akta.pro secondary industries

Capital Markets Advisory (IPO Readiness, SPAC, ECM/DCM Advisory) (BPAHAOAL), Oil & Gas Facilities Asset Management (Refining/Terminals/LNG) (EUAEAMAG)

Keywords

• Oil gas reserves evaluation
• Petroleum engineering consulting
• Reserve certification services
• Energy advisory services
• Carbon capture consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Calgary

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Reserve Evaluations and Certifications: Third-party reserve reports and certifications for annual securities reporting, M&A transactions, and debt financing. McDaniel prepares NI 51-101, SPE-PRMS, SEC and COGEH compliant evaluations.
2. Energy Advisory Services: Consulting services related to acquisitions and divestitures, government regulations and policy, and development optimization using machine learning and multi-variate analysis.
3. Carbon Advisory: CCS feasibility studies, due diligence, market analysis, project management and regulatory consulting in the carbon capture and storage space.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

McDaniel & Associates is a petroleum evaluation and advisory firm providing third-party reserve certifications and consulting services to upstream oil and gas companies, private equity, pension funds, banking institutions, midstream companies, and government agencies. Core offerings include SPE-PRMS, SEC, COGEH and NI 51-101 compliant reserves and resources evaluations, energy advisory for acquisitions and divestitures, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) advisory. These professional services are supported by proprietary technology products including the EVA cloud-based analytics platform, the RITA well-tracking software, and the McDaniel Database of curated geological and well data, along with quarterly commodity price forecasts.

Product overview

McDaniel & Associates is a petroleum evaluation and advisory firm offering a unified portfolio of proprietary technology products and professional consulting services. The core technology stack includes EVA (cloud-based analytics platform), RITA (Resource Inventory Tracking Agent for 3D well forecasting), and the McDaniel Database (comprehensive basin-wide geological models and curated well data). These technology products are complemented by professional services including Reserves & Resources Evaluation (third-party reserve certifications), Energy Advisory (transactional and strategic consulting), Carbon Advisory (CCS feasibility and project support), and International Division services. The company serves upstream petroleum companies, private equity, pension funds, banking institutions, midstream companies, and government agencies globally. Price forecasts are also a key product offering, with quarterly updates available in multiple formats.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• EVA (Energy Visualization Analytics) Cloud-based analytics platform that combines public data, operator data, and exclusive datasets interpreted by McDaniel Research professionals to enable rapid analysis for acquisitions and divestitures, completion design, and field development optimization for energy operators, investors, and advisors.
• RITA (Resource Inventory Tracking Agent) Proprietary well-tracking software that enables professionals to forecast well locations in three dimensions and calculate recovery factors instantly, bringing new sophistication to oil and gas volumetrics and improving workflow efficiency.
• Commodity Price Forecasts Quarterly crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas products price forecasts prepared for marketplace use based on detailed review of current commodity price and market information, available in multiple data formats.
• McDaniel Database Comprehensive proprietary database combining curated public data, play data covering all wells globally, and manually updated professional data, including basin-wide engineering evaluations and geological models on 100% of wells in Montney, Duvernay, Viking, Cardium, ND Bakken and SAGD plays.
• Reserves & Resources Evaluation Third-party reserve reports and certifications compliant with SPE-PRMS, SEC, COGEH, and NI 51-101 standards, including mechanical updates, evaluations, audits, reviews, and Competent Persons Reports for annual securities reporting, reserves certifications, debt financing, and M&A deal support.
• Energy Advisory Consulting and research services for acquisitions and divestitures, major capital project decisions, and government regulations and policy in the oil and gas and energy space, including transactional advisory, due diligence, competitor analysis, government policy and royalties advisory, and resource potential studies.
• Carbon Advisory Research and consulting services related to feasibility studies, due diligence, market analysis, project management, and regulations in carbon capture and storage (CCS), including CCS feasibility studies with subsurface analysis, geomodelling, dynamic plume simulation, risk assessment workshops, regulatory approvals, and MMV plans.
• International Division International reserve evaluation and advisory services with experience spanning 80+ countries, including SPE-PRMS, SEC, and COGEH/NI 51-101 compliant reserve evaluations, Competent Persons Reports, exploration appraisals, M&A support, licensing/bid round advising, due diligence, and field development support.

Quantifiable outcome

• Clients operating over 90% of Duvernay production and over 50% of Montney production rely on McDaniel evaluations

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Turing AnalyticscoreTechnology or IntegrationMcDaniel collaborates with its sister company Turing Analytics, which houses the McDaniel Research Department. This partnership enables McDaniel to leverage advanced research and data initiatives, with the McDaniel Research team specializing in ingesting and quality-control of public data, ensuring completeness, accuracy, and reliability.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Wood Mackenzie: Wood Mackenzie is a global energy research and consultancy providing upstream intelligence, A&D advisory, and commercial insight across the oil & gas value chain. While not a reserves evaluator, it overlaps with McDaniel's Energy Advisory and A&D services and competes for upstream advisory wallet, particularly with PE and financial clients.

Emerging players

• Energy Aspects: Energy Aspects is an independent energy research provider covering oil, gas, products, and carbon markets with strong forecasting and analytics capabilities. It competes with McDaniel's commodity price forecast product for the same upstream, trading, and finance client wallet.
• Rystad Energy: Rystad Energy is a Norway-based independent energy research and analytics firm with rapidly growing upstream data and advisory offerings. It represents an emerging competitive threat to McDaniel's EVA-style analytics proposition and is increasingly used by PE clients for reserves and A&D benchmarking.
• Welligence Energy Analytics: Welligence is a Houston/London-based energy data and analytics platform providing upstream asset intelligence and A&D insights. As an AI-enabled challenger, it competes with McDaniel's EVA platform for data-driven A&D and portfolio analytics, particularly with PE and pension fund clients.

Direct peers

• Ryder Scott Company: Rider Scott is a Houston-based petroleum reserves evaluator and consultant providing third-party reserve audits, resource assessments, and advisory services to upstream operators worldwide. It is the most directly comparable independent firm to McDaniel in scope of services, regulatory frameworks covered (SPE-PRMS/SEC), and client base.
• Sproule: Sproule is a Calgary-based petroleum consulting and reserves evaluation firm serving upstream clients across Canada and internationally. It is one of McDaniel's closest Canadian direct competitors in reserves certification, with overlapping expertise in WCSB unconventional plays and similar regulatory framework coverage (NI 51-101, COGEH).
• DeGolyer & MacNaughton: DeGolyer & MacNaughton is a Dallas-based petroleum consulting firm providing reserves evaluations, geoscience, and engineering advisory to oil & gas clients globally. It competes head-to-head with McDaniel on third-party reserves certifications and CPR reports, with comparable global reach and standards-based delivery.
• Netherland, Sewell & Associates: Netherland, Sewell & Associates is a Dallas-based petroleum engineering firm specializing in reserves and resource evaluations, geoscience, and economic analysis for the upstream industry. It directly competes with McDaniel on reserves certifications, A&D advisory, and reservoir engineering services for global clients.
• GLJ Petroleum Consultants: GLJ Petroleum Consultants is a Calgary-based independent reserves evaluation and advisory firm with deep Canadian basin coverage and international reach. It competes directly with McDaniel in Western Canadian reserves reports, A&D advisory, and international reserves evaluations, sharing the same regulatory framework exposure.

Others

• TGS (upstream data and analytics): TGS is a global provider of subsurface geoscience data and analytics to the upstream oil & gas industry. While not a reserves evaluator, TGS supplies much of the underlying well, seismic, and production data that McDaniel's analysts curate and incorporate into McDaniel Database and EVA.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mcdaniel & Associates