In 1974, Bob co-founded a small consulting firm, Sneider and Meckel Associates Inc., which assembled a technical team of geologists, a geophysicist, a log analyst, and a reservoir engineer. For the next seven years, they took on exciting and challenging projects, some of which resulted in the discovery of more than a dozen new fields, including Canadian Hunter’s huge Elmworth Field in the Alberta Basin, and significant redevelopment opportunities in older fields in the Anadarko Basin.

Bob was never one to shy away from forming a new group to accomplish tasks that required unusual combinations of talent. In 1981, he founded Robert M. Sneider Exploration Inc., a move that simultaneously opened new international areas and took him back to his roots, the detailed evaluation of the new potential of old fields. The new company acquired marginally producing properties and significantly increased production by improving reservoir recovery methods, using sound geologic principles, and calibrating well logs to rock types. He was also a partner and co-founder of Richardson, Sangree, and Sneider, a geosciences and engineering consulting group, and a partner and co-founder of PetroTech Associates, a company that specialized in the characterization of reservoir and seal rocks.

Bob pioneered the integration of information from geology, petrophysics, and engineering to solve geologic problems. Based on this approach, his organizations helped build two financially successful oil and gas companies—Canadian Hunter Exploration Limited and Greenhill Petroleum Company. He personally organized and led multidisciplinary teams that led to the discovery of several billion barrels of oil (equivalent) in new fields and in “hidden” reserves in existing fields throughout the world.

In addition, he sought, acquired, and rejuvenated 46 economically marginal fields in the United States in partnership with various companies. He recognized that these fields still had large reserves just waiting to be identified. Using his multidisciplinary approach, more than 600 million barrels of new reserves were acquired from these fields.

By nature, Bob was an outstanding teacher. He felt it was his responsibility to share his observations and insights with