Wood Mackenzie
From AltData.wiki, The Alternative Data Encyclopedia
Wood Mackenzie is a global research and consultancy group providing data, analytics, and advice to the energy, chemicals, renewables, metals, and mining industries. Founded in Edinburgh in 1923 as a stockbroking firm, the company is today headquartered in Edinburgh with more than 30 offices worldwide and approximately 2,500 employees.[1][2][4].
Wood Mackenzie was acquired by Verisk Analytics in 2015 in a deal valued at $2.8 billion and taken private by Veritas Capital in 2023 in a transaction valued at $3.1 billion. Its flagship Lens platform delivers asset-level data across upstream oil and gas, power and renewables, metals and mining, gas and LNG, hydrogen, carbon, and emissions markets, with API access through Lens Direct.[1][2]
What It Does
The company combines proprietary datasets, market forecasting models, and analyst research covering the full energy transition supply chain. Coverage areas include upstream oil and gas, gas and LNG, power and renewables, emissions and carbon management, energy transition scenarios, oils and chemicals, commodity trading analytics, supply chain analytics, and macroeconomic research.[1]
Alongside subscription research platforms, Wood Mackenzie provides bespoke consulting services for strategic, commercial, and operational decisions in energy and natural resources, and publishes market insights, blogs, podcasts, and reports through its store and media channels.[1]
Data and Methodology
Wood Mackenzie describes its approach as connected intelligence linking assets, markets, policy, and prices in a single view, supported by more than 2,600 market experts and data scientists. Proprietary valuation models span upstream assets, hydrogen projects, and carbon markets, while its Lens Subsurface product combines technical and commercial data with AI-based modelling for capital allocation decisions.[1]
In 2026 the company acquired LandGate, adding parcel-level intelligence across more than 150 million U.S. land records together with transmission line and substation mapping. According to Wood Mackenzie estimates cited at the time of the deal, data centers are forecast to account for roughly 68% of total U.S. load growth through 2030, and U.S. power generation investment is projected to reach $1.36 trillion through 2035.[3]
Products
The Lens platform family includes modules for Power & Renewables, Hydrogen, Upstream, Subsurface, Gas & LNG, Metals & Mining, Carbon, Emissions, and Energy Transition Scenarios, with Lens Direct providing API integration of Wood Mackenzie data into client systems. Other platforms cover Commodity Trading Analytics, Power Trading Analytics, Supply Chain Analytics (previously PowerAdvocate), and corporate strategy services.[1]
The company also sells individual online reports by sector — including power and renewables, upstream, midstream, downstream refining, LNG, coal, metals, chemicals, and petrochemicals — as well as wallmaps, and runs conferences and webinars such as its CCUS conference in Houston.[1]
History
Founded in Edinburgh in 1923 as a stockbroker, Wood Mackenzie launched its first industry research offering, the North Sea Service, in 1973. The firm passed through a series of financial-sector owners — Hill Samuel (1986), County NatWest (1987), Bankers Trust (1997), and Deutsche Bank (1999) — before a management and employee buy-out backed by the Bank of Scotland in 2001, later refinancings involving Candover (2005), Charterhouse Capital Partners (2009), and Hellman & Friedman (2012).[2]
Between 2007 and 2014 it built coal and metals teams through acquisitions of Hill & Associates, Barlow Jonker, and Brook Hunt. Under Verisk ownership from 2015, it absorbed Deloitte's Petroleum Services Group, PCI Chemicals, Infield Systems, Greentech Media (2016), MAKE (2017), Roskill, PowerAdvocate, and Genscape (2019). In February 2023 Veritas Capital took the company private in a $3.1 billion deal, and in June 2026 Wood Mackenzie and Veritas Capital acquired land and grid-intelligence provider LandGate.[2][3]
Buyers and Use Cases
Customers include energy companies, utilities, investors, and governments that use Wood Mackenzie research for capital allocation, asset valuation, trading strategy, supply chain cost analysis, and scenario planning around decarbonisation. The LandGate acquisition targets developers and institutional investors screening sites, predicting permitting friction, and identifying co-location opportunities for data centers alongside high-voltage transmission corridors.[1][3]