Dan Doyle

Dan Doyle studied English writing and geology at the University of Pittsburgh. After graduating, he started an oil and gas production company, raising money and drilling in Northwest Pennsylvania’s ancient oil fields. Restless for something bigger, Doyle moved the company to Coleman County, Texas, and drilled until a prolonged downturn forced him out. He ended up at New York University’s graduate film school, making a movie there that played at Sundance. After a decade of kicking around in the movie business, growing weary of distracted producers, he started a grip and lighting rental business in Pittsburgh. That company became the seed for Reliance Well Services, his frac company. What started with three trucks grew to two hundred. Doyle currently runs that business alongside another start-up (Arena, in 2023) that is drilling for oil in the storied Powder River Basin of Eastern Wyoming.