Beneath the Surface

In the mid-1930s, two Pennsylvania men, Harry Ryder and David Scott, formed a company to help oil and gas producers increase production, primarily from the Bradford oil field in Bradford, Pennsylvania. The company was called Ryder Scott, and their expertise revolved around two main products: (1) an early well-appraisal method for oil wells called chip coring, and (2) a production enhancement technique called waterflooding. The company quickly gained a positive reputation and became well-known for increasing production.

Soon thereafter, owners and operators of oil and gas wells sought help from Mr. Ryder and Mr. Scott's company. As the Bradford oil field began to decline in production, it was determined that a move westward (toward the "new" action) was necessary in order to continue to grow the company. They ended up in Wichita Falls, Texas, in order to service the many oil and gas producers in both Oklahoma and Texas. While they opened up some other offices, the significant change was a move to Houston, Texas.

By the time the company moved to Houston in the late '60s, neither Mr. Ryder nor Mr. Scott were still a part of the company. Enter Mr. Raymond V. Cruce, who changed the course of the company by focusing on financial institutions and the "money side" of the oil and gas business. The company changed its focus on the evaluation of oil and gas assets, which is necessary for companies to either find funding for their operations or to disclose (as required by US regulations) their resource base, if they are a publicly traded company. Other offices that remain today were opened in subsequent years in Denver and also Calgary, Canada.

This book tells the story of the people, the work, the locations and the challenges of this important company that started some eighty-five years ago.