Ryder Scott Company, L.P. is an independent petroleum engineering consultancy with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and branches in Denver and Calgary. Founded in 1937, it evaluates and engineers oil and gas projects for operators, financial institutions, investors and government bodies, and its work spans the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors together with carbon and emissions advisory.
From waterfloods to evaluation engineering
The firm was established in Bradford, Pennsylvania, by Harry M. Ryder and David Scott Jr. to solve waterflood problems, and introduced techniques such as advanced reservoir analysis and precision perforation that changed production practice in the Bradford field. It moved to Wichita Falls, Texas, in the 1950s to work on secondary recovery projects, then relocated to Houston in the late 1960s and shifted its emphasis towards evaluation engineering. Guadalupe (Guale) Ramirez has been chairman and chief executive since 1 April 2023, having joined the firm in 1981 and worked as a petroleum engineer on basin evaluations worldwide; Herman Acuña, who joined in 1997, is president and oversees management consulting and the Sustainable Energy Division. Dean Rietz held the chairman and chief executive role from 2019 to 2023.
Upstream evaluation
Upstream work covers reserves and resources certification, reservoir engineering and simulation, economic valuation, geoscience, enhanced oil recovery, gas storage studies, support for government licensing bids and financial advisory. The firm also licenses Specialized Oilfield Software and publishes Reservoir Solutions freeware, both with installation guidance for users, and its reserves conference has become a fixture in the industry calendar: the twentieth edition, held in 2024, covered reserves and resources, integrated technical studies, sustainability and advisory services.
Midstream, downstream and sustainability
A second practice handles integrated midstream and downstream assignments, including asset valuation, technical feasibility studies, development and facilities planning, cost and schedule risk assessment, and due diligence with health, safety and environmental review. The sustainability group works on carbon capture, utilisation and storage, geothermal, helium and lithium brine evaluations, greenhouse gas evaluation, emissions forecasting, geological permanence reporting, independent project validation and emissions reduction strategy. Regulatory developments are tracked for clients as well: when the US Securities and Exchange Commission adopted new climate-related disclosure rules on 6 March 2024, Ryder Scott set out its response services for the change, and it has promoted access to the Spanish translation of the SPE Petroleum Resources Management System application guidelines, released in November 2024.
Advisory, training and technical support
- Expert witness work and expert roles in conflict resolution and litigation.
- Third-party expert opinions and management advisory.
- Regulatory compliance support and assistance on mergers and acquisitions.
- Newsletters, price charts and forecasts published for industry use.
- An annual reserves conference with a registration page and an online gallery of past events.
Recent international work
On 17 August 2026 Ryder Scott announced a strategic alliance with U3 Explore, L.L.C. and Entra Consulting, L.L.C. covering Venezuela's oil and gas sector. The firm also works with Lumina Geophysical in Mexico, pairing geophysical data with reservoir analysis for operators in that market, and it sponsors petroleum engineering education, including the SPE PetroBowl Latin American and Caribbean regional competition held in Rio de Janeiro, where senior vice president Deji Adeyeye served as a judge. Beyond client reporting, the company supports industry education on reserves definitions, and its website carries a global experience section documenting assignments across producing regions. Technical and regulatory commentary is distributed through newsletters, and the site publishes price charts and forecasts alongside separate ESG and careers sections and a directory of the firm's energy experts by discipline.
Contact
General enquiries use [email protected]. The firm's site was updated in September 2026 and continues to publish news, technical commentary and conference material.