Historic Palestine

MAGNUM
DRILLING
SERVICES, INC.
Barry Bryant knows firsthand, the meaning of
Plato’s famous quotation: “Necessity is the mother
of invention.”
In 1995, Bryant had an epiphany for a
process that would speed the drilling process,
and changed careers to form a business to do
just that.
Holding a management position with Baker
Hughes, he decided to leave corporate America
behind and take his idea to market. He founded
Magnum Drilling Services, Inc., in the Rocky
Mountain area, doing directional drilling
from the back of his pick-up truck. It was
not long until he opened an office in Minden,
Louisiana, and began providing downhole
mud motors to increase the speed and bit
power of the gas and oil drilling applications.
Not long after that, Magnum became the first
company to introduce mud motors to the East
Texas oilpatch.
On September 11, 2001, Bryant was meeting
with his brother-in-law and sister, Ben and Jo
Ellan Walley in Minden, Louisiana, to offer Ben a
position with Magnum as the growth had made it
necessary to bring in some management in East
Texas. After careful thought Ben accepted the job
of operations manager for Magnum and Ben and
Jo Ellan moved to Lake Palestine from the coast
of Alabama. Ben had an engineering background
as well as management but the oil industry was
completely new to him. Several months later after
getting settled in their new home Jo Ellan began
working for Magnum also, as its comptroller,
coming from a long background in accounting
and comptroller positions.
In 2003, Magnum manufactured its first mud
motor in its shop on Route 645, just outside of
Palestine. It now has its motor manufacturing
facility in Conroe, Texas, and maintains an
entire fleet of motors.
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Where it began.
Bryant’s expertise and innovative techniques
have continued to grow the company for the
past fifteen years, making it a single source
solution for cost-effective drilling. Today,
Magnum offers oilpatch rentals, including
downhill motors and Magnadrift, as well as
consulting services in the United States and
Central America.
In July 2001, when there was opportunity for
the Teledrift service in East Texas, Magnum
purchased the East Texas and North Louisiana
distributorship. Magnum became well-known
for its twenty-four hour service and the Teledrift
distributorship in the coming years.
In early 2009 when the oil industry took
a downturn, Magnum was at the forefront
of developing its own survey tool, the
“Magnadrift,” which currently has a patent
pending. Magnadrift is designed to speed
drilling by providing almost instantaneous
surface recording of hole deviations without
making round trips or running wire lines. The
unit, operated by rig personnel, is a user
friendly device measuring well-bore angle in
one-half degree or one-degree increments and
relaying the information to an electronic
recording device on the drill floor via telemetry.
Magnadrift can be used for a survey at many
6 8 ✦ H I S T O R I C P A L E S T I N E