Ryder Scott Company Petroleum Consultants September-November 1998, Vol. 1, No. 1, Story 7

Newsletter

What is Ryder Scott Co.?

Ryder Scott Co. Petroleum Engineers is one of the largest, oldest and most respected reservoir-evaluation consulting firms in the petroleum industry. The company performs more than 1,000 consulting studies a year for oil and gas producers -- both major and independent -- investors, banks, governmental agencies and accounting and law firms.

Ryder Scott offices are in the 1100 Louisiana Building in Houston

Combining capable judgement with the latest computer technology, the company has earned worldwide recognition for its reliable predictions of the performance of complex oil and gas reservoirs. Ryder Scott has issued reports on more than 200,000 wells or producing entities in North America. The firm has also evaluated hundreds of international oil and gas properties involving thousands of wells.

Ryder Scott evaluates projects in various stages of exploration, development and production. The firm’s studies range from basin evaluations of frontier plays to designing redevelopment programs for mature fields. Over the years, Ryder Scott has recruited and assembled very high quality geoscientists and engineers -- seasoned by years of experience and highly respected for successfully tackling the toughest reservoir-evaluation challenges in the world.

Our geophysicists, petrophysicists, geologists, reservoir engineers and modelers work within their areas of expertise, combining their skills in close-knit, integrated teams. That synergistic, multidisciplinary approach facilitates the most precise, dependable scientific estimates possible of oil and gas reserves.

Over the years, energy companies, financial institutions, governments and others have come to rely on Ryder Scott independent certifications. The Ryder Scott report carries with it the assurances so essential in serious assessments of risks associated with buying, selling or evaluating petroleum properties or financing oilfield projects. The firm also analyzes project economics and generates computer-aided cash-flow projections after carefully estimating historical and future production and reviewing contractual arrangements and other client information.

Ryder Scott is by far the most widely used consulting firm for preparing year-end reserve estimates in accordance with U.S. SEC guidelines. In ongoing reviews of annual reports by Arthur Andersen, oil companies continually list Ryder Scott as their consultant of record by a 2-to-1 margin over the nearest competitor.

With 110 employees and more than 60 professional engineers and geoscientists, the firm has the capability to complete any type of consulting services on time and within budget. The Houston-based firm has branch offices in Calgary and Denver.

History

Ryder Scott Company Petroleum Engineers was founded in Bradford, Pennsylvania, in 1937 by Harry M. Ryder, an engineer, and partner David Scott Jr. The two originated chip-coring analysis and developed many of the most scientific laboratory methods of that time to test wells.

Consultants Ryder and Scott also developed selective-shooting practices involving core and log correlation and innovative well-placement methods. Rather than centering the fifth well in a "five spot" pattern, they located it in the center of the oil concentration as determined by core analyses from the other wells.

Ryder Scott’s reputation grew, as it became known for expertise in designing waterflood and secondary-recovery projects. Oil producers in the waterflooding areas of Pennsylvania began to seek advice from Ryder Scott.

The firm responded by designing redevelopments under complete engineering control. New wells were chip cored and selectively shot. New production wells were strategically placed after studying the sand conditions at each new location. Data for each sand layer was obtained from chip-core analysis.

In some cases, Ryder Scott-designed redevelopments recovered as much oil as the original developments, even though the operators believed the fields were depleted or the wells were "watered out."

By 1946, the year Ryder retired, the firm had grown to 60 employees. It had clients in several areas of the United States and was involved in some projects overseas.

In 1955, the firm relocated to Wichita Falls, TX, and continued to prosper there. Besides meeting the increased demand for waterflood design in Texas and elsewhere domestically, Ryder Scott went overseas and provided technical assistance in waterflooding to Argentina in the mid 1960s.

In 1967, the firm moved to Houston and acquired Robert W. Harrison & Co., a consulting company highly respected for its capabilities in reservoir evaluation. The "marriage" of the two provided the right balance of skills and the newer, larger firm was able to offer a full range of services -- from classical reservoir engineering to full field-development studies. By 1970, Ryder Scott had engineered about 700 waterfloods for almost 300 operators, but the demand for reserve-estimation work grew faster and soon became the mainstay of the firm.

As Ryder Scott’s clientele increased, the firm opened a Denver office in 1978 and a Calgary office in 1995. Over the last 30 years, Ryder Scott has completed several landmark projects.

The most recent one was the 1997 evaluation of the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserves for the U.S. Department of Energy. Ryder Scott spent more than 40,000 hours analyzing the billion-barrel producer and generated a three-volume reserves report. The work papers and maps filled five CD-ROMs.

After presentation of the report, government interests in the field sold for $3.65 billion, the largest federal divestiture in U.S. history.

Geophysics

The Ryder Scott geophysics group analyzes seismic data for oil and gas projects in all stages of maturity from exploration to development to secondary and tertiary recovery. The firm interprets that data to aid in the development of full-scale geological models and volumetric estimates of oil and gas in place.

To investigate structural and stratigraphic reservoirs, Ryder Scott geophysicists carefully delineate the geology of faults, reefs, salt domes, anticlines and sand channels. To get the best possible geological picture, the geophysicists analyze and correlate well and seismic data.

Where well control is limited, geophysical interpretations enable Ryder Scott to project the extensions of hydrocarbon accumulations away from the bore holes. The geophysics group is familiar with the latest Geoquest and Landmark workstation technology and uses a wide variety of interpretation techniques including amplitude analysis, attribute analysis, stratigraphy studies, structural mapping and modeling, AVO analysis, inversion analysis, velocity analysis and forward modeling.

"The group has developed techniques
for ... identifying some of the most
challenging lithology and porosity
systems in the world."

Geology

Ryder Scott performs geological analyses of fields and regions world-wide -- from basin evaluations to production geology. The firm uses stratigraphic and structural analyses and the latest computer-mapping programs and techniques to help unravel structurally complex geology. The firm generates isopach and structure maps to better understand depositional environments and to define subsurface traps. Reservoir characteristics typically mapped include net and gross reservoir thickness, water saturation, porosity and pore volume.

To produce a geologic model, Ryder Scott matches core and log data with the seismic stratigraphy and projects extensions of stratigraphic sections in unexplored areas. Ryder Scott integrates geological studies with geophysics, petrophysics and fluid properties to estimate the volumes of oil and gas in place.

Petrophysics

The Ryder Scott petrophysics group analyzes clastic and carbonate lithologies in a wide range of depositional environments. The group performs well-log analysis and correlations and core analysis and integrates those interpretations with well-test, geophysics and geology data.

The petrophysicists build crossplots for determining lithologies, porosity and permeability distributions, water-resistivity values, water saturations and shale parameters. Ultimately, the group has developed techniques for deter-mining fluid-transport properties and identifying potential hydrocarbons in some of the most challenging lithology and porosity systems in the world.

Petroleum Engineering

The Ryder Scott engineering group is highly experienced in all phases of reservoir analysis, reserves determination and characterization, field development and reservoir management. The firm has optimized recovery for a variety of oilfield projects, including steam and water floods, developmening and drilling, enhanced recovery and coal-bed methane. Performance studies range from simple decline-curve analysis to material-balance studies to sophisticated modeling that simulates the behavior of complex reservoirs.

Incorporating historical data and detailed fluid descriptions, those simulations range from black-oil to fully compositional formulations. Reservoir-management recommendations may involve stimulation techniques, additional well locations, facilities upgrading, horizontal drilling and enhanced recovery through the injection of water, steam, gas, carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

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