John W. Wallace
Chairman and CEO

John W. Wallace is chairman and CEO of DeGolyer and MacNaughton. Joining the firm in 1983, he specializes in reservoir simulation and has performed a variety of studies on major oil and gas reservoirs around the globe.

Wallace graduated from Texas A&M University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering. Wallace is a registered professional engineer in Texas and a member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers, the Board of the Dallas Wildcat Committee, and the National Petroleum Council.

Geographical Experience

• Algeria
• Angola
• Brazil
• China
• Colombia
• Ghana
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq
• Kuwait
• Libya
• Mexico
• Nigeria
• Norway
• Oman
• Russia
• Turkmenistan
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Yemen

Topical Areas of Expertise

• Compositional reservoir modeling
• Fracture reservoir modeling
• Gas-cycling reservoir modeling
• Nodal analysis
• Black oil reservoir modeling
• Project management
• Prospective resources assessments

Major Projects

Wallace has vast experience using black oil, compositional, and dual porosity reservoir models. Wallace has modeled such surface facilities as pipeline networks and gas processing plants and his expertise extends to the analysis of reservoir rock, fluid, multiphase vertical flow, pressure-transient data, and reservoir economics.

He has directed and actively participated in equity-determination studies of major producing fields in Africa and Europe. He has assisted in presenting experts’ decisions in equity studies and has participated in arbitration hearings. In a recent multi-billion-dollar project, Wallace used a compositional reservoir model in conjunction with the surface network model to determine the optimal number of wells, pipeline network, and compression needed for the client to maintain gas sales profiles many years.

In 2014, D&M was hired by the National Hydrocarbon Commission in Mexico (CNH) to serve as a technical advisor during Round Zero and Round One licensing efforts. In Round Zero, a multidisciplinary group of D&M professionals assisted CNH with an assessment to determine which exploration areas and fields should be retained by Pemex and which ones should be returned to the government. D&M developed a scoring system that was adopted by CNH in the evaluation and ranking of hundreds of exploration and development plans. After this initial process, CNH engaged D&M as technical advisor during Round One to assess the potential value of dozens of onshore and offshore oil and gas fields and exploration blocks in different basins in preparation for the first licensing round for the country. In this advisory capacity, D&M helped CNH identify which assets it should offer for auction, based on our evaluation of potential recovery, and we helped CNH establish the minimum work commitments they should require of the successful bidders. Wallace led the team that completed these assignments for CNH.