History to build on
Ryder Scott Company was founded in Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1937 by Harry M. Ryder, an engineer, and partner David Scott Jr.
Ryder Scott Company began operations in Bradford, PA, in 1937. Formerly an oil producer in the early to mid 1930s, the later venture was the first engineering firm and research laboratory in the world devoted to solving waterflood problems. Harry M. Ryder and David Scott Jr. formed the partnership after being asked for technical assistance by producers who had noticed the success of Ryder Scott-engineered waterfloods in the Bradford field.
The firm originated several techniques. Donald T. May, the first employee, pioneered chip-coring analysis to provide accurate petrophysical data from a single plug of sand. Ryder, an electrical engineer, developed selective shooting. That well-completion technique focused on selecting correctly sized and placed nitroglycerin shots to perforate and stimulate the producing formation.
The firm continued to implement the best techniques under total engineering control to slow the production decline in the Bradford area during the 1940s. Ryder Scott used selective plugging in water intakes. The firm recommended improvements in core acquisition, logging, completion practices, injection waters and pressures, well spacing and oilfield equipment.
With the Bradford area's inevitable decline in the 1950s, Ryder Scott moved to Wichita Falls, TX, to design successful secondary recovery projects. In the late 1960s, Ryder Scott acquired Robert W. Harrison & Co., moved to Houston and transitioned from waterflood design to evaluation engineering.
Today, Ryder Scott Company bears little resemblance to the core-analysis laboratory of the 1930s.
However, the firm still retains the principles of its founders -- that oil and gas projects be evaluated and engineered to the highest professional and ethical standards.