Third-Party Review and Assessment Services
A&A's Independent Review and Assessment of Reserves, Production Forecasts, Field Development Plans, and CCS/CCUS, EOR/IOR, and Investment-Grade Technical Work — Worldwide
Assign your company's technical due-diligence and independent-review challenges to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team put decades of hands-on industry experience to work validating — or challenging — the technical basis behind your next major investment decision.
U.S. upstream M&A activity reached $38 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone — the highest quarterly total in two years — and topped $60 billion over the trailing six months, anchored by Devon Energy's $25.4 billion acquisition of Coterra Energy. Every one of those transactions, and every CCS/CCUS, EOR/IOR, or field development sanction decision behind it, depends on a reserves, production, or cost estimate that someone other than the party who prepared it needs to independently validate before capital moves. That is A&A's Third-Party Review and Assessment practice: A&A conducts third-party review and assessment studies for some of the world's largest oil & gas operating companies, which rely on A&A for accurate, reliable, and unbiased review of their CCS/CCUS, oil & gas field development plans, reserves, production rates and costs, and other proprietary information and data.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering and geoscience consulting firm. Confidence in the accuracy of A&A's work has been earned over more than three decades of third-party studies validating the ethical treatment of client information and data, and the accuracy and quality of A&A's analysis on every project. In 2015, A&A marked its 25th anniversary of providing state-of-the-art consulting and customized training services to the worldwide oil & gas industry — an occasion World Oil magazine's editors marked with an interview of Dr. Sam Avasthi in the magazine's "Innovative Thinkers" column — and by 2026, that record spans more than 36 years of continuous consulting practice. A&A holds no equity, technology, or service-provider stake in any project it reviews — A&A's review and assessment opinions are formed strictly from the technical record, not from a stake in the outcome.
A&A's third-party review and assessment expertise spans reserves and resource estimate review, field development plan and project review, EOR/IOR and CCS/CCUS project review, and investment and transaction technical due diligence. If your company needs an independent, confidential review of technical work already performed in-house or by another consulting or service company, please contact us — the high-level, seasoned consultants and subject-matter experts (SMEs) of the A&A Consulting Team, and collaborators, are available to help your company, around the world.
1. Reserves and Resource Estimate Review
• Reserves Audit and Certification Support: independent review of proved, probable, and possible reserves estimates against SPE-PRMS and applicable SEC reporting standards
• Production Forecast Review: independently validating decline-curve, type-curve, and reservoir-simulation-based production forecasts
• Resource Assessment Review: independent review of contingent and prospective resource estimates for exploration and appraisal assets
2. Field Development Plan (FDP) and Project Review
• FDP Technical Review: independent review of a field development plan's subsurface, well, and facilities technical basis
• Cost and Schedule Estimate Review: reviewing CAPEX/OPEX and project-schedule estimates for realism and completeness
• Project Sanction (FID) Readiness Review: an independent go/no-go technical check ahead of a project's Final Investment Decision
3. EOR/IOR and CCS/CCUS Project Review
• EOR/IOR Project Review: independent technical review of chemical, gas, thermal, or hybrid EOR/IOR project designs and performance forecasts
• CCS/CCUS Project Review: independent review of CO2 storage-site characterization, injection design, and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) plans
4. Investment and Transaction Technical Due Diligence
• M&A Technical Due Diligence: independent technical due diligence supporting an acquisition, divestiture, or joint-venture transaction, on either the buy-side or the sell-side
• Lender and Investor Technical Due Diligence: independent technical opinions supporting reserves-based lending, project finance, and investor decisions
Related A&A Service: For open-ended research and analysis projects that go beyond reviewing an existing estimate — building new technical analysis from proprietary or public-domain data — please see A&A's Research and Analysis Services page.
Related A&A Service: A third-party review's findings can become the technical foundation for a subsequent dispute — for A&A's litigation support, expert witness, and arbitration consulting services, please see A&A's Legal Consulting page.
Related A&A Service: For a comprehensive, ground-up technical assessment of a field — rather than a review of an estimate someone else has already prepared — please see A&A's Full Field Review (FFR) and Acquisition/Divestiture Technical Due Diligence page.
Related A&A Service: This page is one of four services under A&A's advisory practice — for A&A's full advisory service directory, please see A&A's Advisory Services page.
Software and Technical Tools
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team are expert users of the industry-standard software and technical tools used to independently reproduce and validate the technical work under review, including:
• Reservoir Simulation: Eclipse and CMG, for independently checking simulation-based reserves, production, and EOR/IOR performance forecasts
• Decline-Curve and Production Analysis Software: OFM and MOSAIC, for validating production history matches and forecasts
• Reserves and Economics Modeling: Aries and PHDWin, for independently reproducing reserves, cash-flow, and valuation estimates
• Geomodeling and Mapping: Petrel and Petra, for validating the static and structural model behind a reserves or FDP estimate
Deliverables
The high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team deliver decision-grade independent review reports, including, but not limited to:
• A reserves or resource estimate independent review report referencing SPE-PRMS and applicable SEC standards
• An FDP technical review memorandum with a go/no-go or conditional-sanction recommendation
• An M&A or lending technical due-diligence report
• A CCS/CCUS or EOR/IOR project review report
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between Third-Party Review and Research and Analysis Services?
Third-Party Review and Assessment validates or challenges technical work — a reserves estimate, an FDP, a project design — that has already been prepared by your team or by another consultant. Research and Analysis Services builds new technical analysis from primary or public-domain data on an open-ended question, rather than reviewing an existing estimate. Many engagements involve both.
Does A&A review reserves estimates for SEC reporting purposes?
A&A's reserves and resource estimate review is conducted against SPE-PRMS and applicable SEC reporting standards; clients should confirm with their own securities counsel whether a specific filing requires review by a qualified reserves auditor meeting particular regulatory criteria.
How does A&A handle the confidentiality of our proprietary data?
A&A treats all client information and data as strictly confidential, governed by a non-disclosure agreement executed before any proprietary data is shared. A&A's third-party review engagements for some of the world's largest oil & gas operating companies depend on that confidentiality being absolute.
Can A&A be engaged on either side of a transaction?
Yes. A&A performs technical due diligence on both the buy-side and the sell-side of M&A transactions, and for lenders and investors evaluating a reserves-based lending or project-finance decision. A&A screens every engagement for conflicts before accepting it.
Can a third-party review lead to litigation or arbitration support?
Sometimes. When a third-party review surfaces a material discrepancy that becomes the subject of a dispute, A&A's Legal Consulting practice can provide the resulting litigation support, expert witness, or arbitration consulting services, subject to A&A's standard conflicts screening.
Before making your company's next major CCS/CCUS, field development, EOR/IOR, or investment decision, let the A&A Consulting Team's high-level, seasoned consultants independently review and assess the technical work it rests on. Please contact us for a confidential proposal for your company's third-party review and assessment project.
