Roddy Qualls, owner of Roddy Qualls Environmental Drilling LLC in Fort Worth, Texas, has been directly involved with the drilling business since 1990. Prior to that, he obtained a degree in petroleum technology from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. From there, he entered the oil business and worked with well site technology and mud logging among other things. Then the oil business slowed way down and he decided to seek opportunity elsewhere. He started by purchasing a used rig, hiring a driller and taking on mostly geotechnical projects. “Then the environmental started getting very hot, so we moved over into the environmental industry and we’ve been going ever since,” Qualls says.
He started what he calls RQ Drilling, for short, in 2012. The company does mainly environmental drilling with the help of one hollow-stem drilling rig and two Geoprobe rigs. They serve Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and Kansas, specializing in hollow-stem auger, air rotary and direct-push drilling methods. Qualls says around 90 percent of his work comes from environmental consultants representing banks and land owners, and he’s quick to point out that he doesn’t do it alone. His wife Lorraine, vice president of the company, handles all of the business management end that he doesn’t, and he says he has loyal employees that have been with him for 20 years.