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50 years! A page has turned, as we say at the start of a new decade.

And what a page it has been!

In 10 years, despite the sale of Directional Drilling in 2000and Well Testing in 2005, we have virtually trebled our

turnover. We owe this outstanding progress tothe courage and commitment of the men

and women at Geoservices who havenever ceased to expand the horizons

of our company: in size, with morethan 5,000 people in 60 countries;in geographic scope, with newcountries; in technology, withthe renewal of our range ofMud Logging services, and our activities in Well Intervention and Field Surveillance.

This human adventure, which began in 1958, is continuing. Throughout these fifty years, it isthe same genes that have pushed more than 25,000 Geoservices employees to drive everforward: the spirit of adventure, scientific curiosity, technological imagination, rapid reactivityin operations, the passion and the will to satisfy our clients, the ambition always to be the best.

Today, our business is widely renowned in its fields of expertise. Over the last five years, we havebeen going through an unprecedented phase of expansion, which looks like it is going to last.Until our 60th anniversary? Perhaps…

Yes, our will to drive onwards and upwards is stronger than ever. And we would like to proposethat we cross, together, the milestone of one billion dollars in turnover before turning the next

page in our history.

Finally, our motto could have been that of the Olympic Games “Citius, altius, fortius” (faster,higher, stronger).

To all of you, our most heartfelt thanks.

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Geoservicesa brief history…

A handful of men in 1958, a business of 5,000 people in 2008: the history of Geoservices over this half-century is not just one of quantitative growth.After all, in the field of support services to the oil industry, we are stillDavid in the land of Goliath!

It is also the history of the birth andprogressive renaissance of a trade,Mud Logging. In the 1950s, all theprestige lay with the drillers. The geo-logical technicians were consideredhardly more than “sample catchers”who recovered rock cuttings fromthe drilling mud and drew up thevery elementary logs by hand. Therewas no specific training for a tradewhich had not yet been defined.Geoservices would introduce it, establishthe trade’s pedigree, develop itstechnologies and organise trainingfor it. Today, with the FLAIR service, aGeoservices engineer can speak onequal terms with a reservoir engineer.

Between these two points lies thewhole history of a group of audaciousengineers who were the first to intro-duce computers onto the wellsitefor mud logging, who faced up tothe “digital revolution” and sometimestrained its other users. And whorepresented one of the first servicecompanies to have a role in thewhole life of a well, from explorationto production. Now working in threeareas: Mud Logging, Well Interventionand Field Surveillance, Geoservicesis a major actor in a domain thatremains the essential support for oilexploration and production, at a timewhen robotics are constantly pushingback the limits of deep offshore drilling.

1958Creation of Geoservices, followed two years later

by Geoservices Overseas S.A.in Fribourg, Switzerland.

1975Start of Total Drilling Control

1977Start of the Production

business

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e sample catchersI SE WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR CREATING GEOSERVICES COME FROM?

We were young engineers who had met at the Écoledu Pétrole (post-graduate oil university), in Rueil nearParis. We had observed that the field of geology wasthe only one in which there were no service companiesin France. It was true that it was a very sensitive area

that the oil companies liked to keep for themselves. We knew that mud loggingexisted in the United States: we gambled on there being room for a company thatspecialized in this discipline. And then we were young and we wanted to do somethingon our own, and not just continue working for the large oil companies of the time.

IT WAS A BOLD STEP…Yes! With hindsight, I think we had a certain degree of naivety. I myself went intogeology out of a love for travel: the class before ours had gone on a field trip toan oasis! You have to bear in mind that at the time, people didn’t travel verymuch. You needed a spirit of adventure. Moreover, wherever there is oil, thereare interests at stake and therefore conflicts. And Geoservices has had its fairshare of “adventure”, in China, Algeria, Nigeria and Colombia where ClaudeSteinmetz paid for it with his life.

AND TODAY, TO WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE GEOSERVICES’ ENSURING SUCCESS?It is a complete whole: deep solidarity, the team spirit which is forged on the rigsthrough which everyone has passed; the spirit of adventure, inextricably linkedwith our role as prospectors; the spirit of service, essential in our lines of business,the spirit of invention and research which, still today, enables us to proposegroundbreaking innovations; and, undeniably, the quality of our shareholderwho has pushed Geoservices towards more rigorous management.

5Control

7tion

1987Launch of the Advanced

Logging System

1996ISIS, IFP’s commercial subsidiary, acquires

a minority stake in Geoservices

2000Creation of a Marketing

department

2001Partnership alliance with Schlumberger

2002Creation of the FieldSurveillance service

2005

2004FLAIR introduced

Astorg III Fund becomes the majority shareholder. Sale of the Well Testing

business

Three questions forGaston RebillyFounder of GeoservicesChairman & CEO from 1958 to 1990?

Edouard Cochet, co-founder, ManagingDirector for more than 30 years and CEOfrom 1990 to 1995. He was the leading light in the commercial and international developmentof Geoservices.

Olivier Issenmann,co-founder and Technical Director for more

than 20 years, Technical Director from 1990 to 1995. He “fixed” research and innovation

in Geoservices’ genes.

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After the Second World War, as a new world order established itself, the Frenchand British presence in the Middle East started to decline under pressure fromrising American dominance. A direct consequence was that French oil explorationbegan to develop elsewhere, first in mainland France, with limited success, andthen in Algeria, in the Sahara.

Geoservices would be born twoyears after the discovery of theEdjeleh and Hassi Messaoud oilfields and the Hassi r’Mel gasfield in 1956. The Sahara becamethe springboard for Geoservices’great international adventure inthe 1960s: in the Middle East,Japan, Singapore, Canada, etc.,until the explosion in demand foroil exploration work which wouldmark the following decade. ’60s

The

The boom in the Sahara


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ud loggers of the third millennium might find it hard to imagine what the job was like in the early days, when therewould be a “geological technician” out there collecting samples of crushed rock as they came up with the

drilling mud, looking for shows with a UV lamp, washing the cuttings in a sieve, and examining them underthe microscope. Then he would have to write up a description of the rock cuttings, carry out chemical

analyses, and evaluate the percentages of each rock to log lithology by depth on the masterlog. Thislogging during drilling, as opposed to the wireline logging after drilling, invented by the Schlumbergerbrothers in Alsace, was what constituted geological surveillance.

Cuttings were correlated against depth fairly precisely, if empirically, by sending down a shot ofacetylene gas, grains of rice, or small bits of brick into the drill string and measuring the time theytook to come back up, in order to calculate the “lag time”. The lag time is used to estimate the

depth from which the rock samples have travelled. This lag time verification is still practiced as anoccasional check on the calculations made by computer. Because they only had simple instruments

for identifying and analysing gas shows, mud loggers couldn’t expect to make precise evaluations of thefluids found during drilling.

Progressively, the mud logger was to play an increasingly important part in providing the drilling company with crucial information on drillingand mud parameters, pit levels (symptomatic of shows or losses), and rate of penetration. Little by little, the 100% geological task of mudlogging would extend in scope to cover formation evaluation, well optimisation and the surveillance of well safety. With improving choiceand the design of suitable sensors, followed by the digital revolution, the mud logger became a fully-fledged partner and advisor to the drillerand the mud engineer. This explains why all three were often found together discussing events around the coffee pot in the Geoservices logging unit, which thus became the “control tower” for the rig.

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GEOSERVICESThe birth of

GEOLOGICAL SURVEILLANCE

SNPA drilling in Berenx, France, in 1962 - Marcel Eder with a trainee, standing by the driller

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The pre-electronic era: a “Masterlog” in Indian inkThe mud logger’s observations would take the form of a masterlog hand-drawnin Indian ink on tracing paper, for ammonia copying. The masterlog gave an

at-a-glance view of certain drillingparameters, plus, most importantlyof all, the composition of gas shows.All observations and readings werelisted in the “interpretation” column,along with an indication of lithologyby depth.

Tales from the wellhead

“Vigilance is the key to being agood mud logger.” You’ve got to beconstantly on the lookout, ready tosound the alert ifthere’s a fluid showor a change in therate of penetration,and to stop the drill-ing in time when there are signs ofapproaching a reservoir”. At RhourdeEl Baguel n°2, recalls René Coustille,“I stopped the drilling 20 cm abovethe target; we took a core sampleand got the top of the reservoir”.

There is no question of snoozing,especially during a bit change, or even when the drilling stops,

because there’salways a chanceyou’ll get mud flow,a sure sign there’llbe an influx of gas,

oil or water. Along with the unremittingvigilance, the best loggers have anirrepressible curiosity and an almostintuitive feel for what’s going ondown there, thousands of metresunder their feet.

The term came from the United States. For a while,“mud logging” fell out of favour, giving way to thecleaner-sounding “well logging”. That was beforeGeoservices had turned it into a noble art.American delegates at a convention once askeda manager from Total how to say “mud logging”in French. He thought for a moment and answered:“Géoservices”! Similarly, near Murmansk in Russia,“Mud Logging”, which is normally known as “gascoring” in Russian, is also called Geoservices!

Geoservices: the noble art of mud logging

“Vigilance is the keyto being a good

mud logger”

Soulon la Chapelle, France, in July 1960. Joseph Torok, on the left, with Mr. Wartmann and Mr. Grubesi from the client, PREPA


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Amazing Technological progress

FROM DISCONTINUOUS TOCONTINUOUS

The first automated degasser, the GZ1,invented by Geoservices, connectedto the drilling mud return and linked bya Monoflex tube to the gas detector,came along a year after the Prakla. It dispensed with the need to collectgas samples from the degasser in orderto pass them through the detector.

FROM THE VOLUME OF GASTO ITS COMPOSITION

With the first GAL 1 and 2 chromat-ographs, purchased from Gas AnalyticalLogging of Sacramento in 1962,Geoservices entered into the field of gas analysis: methane, ethane,propane, hydrogen, CO2, and so on.However, it was a tricky matter to interpret the information providedby the GAL. From 1963 onwards, theanalyzers that came out of theClamart research centre used conti-nuous plot recorders. In the followingyears, Geoservices put the VMS(“Vacuum Mud Still”) on the market,an instrument for distilling the mud tomake it possible to correlate the

volume of recovered gas to thevolume of distilled mud. This quantify-ing of the gas samples could avoidunnecessarily halting the drilling forup to 24 hours in order to carry outsystematic drill stem tests.

MORE PRECISE AND MORERELIABLE MEASUREMENTS

Originally, the American-producedGeolograph, which measured therate of penetration, was connectedby cable to the drill string via a pulleyat the top of the derrick. The cableoften broke. Interpretation was notimmediate and the depth measure-ment was approximate.

Geoservices’ Speedograph correctedthese defects: coupled with theRotospring, it made it possible tomeasure the drilling speed in realtime. The penetration rate throughthe formation could be read directlyon the Speedograph and the mudlogger traced this directly onto hisMasterlog. In addition, later correlationwith Schlumberger’s Gamma Ray logmade it possible to make a moreprecise adjustment of the depth tothe formation types.

Joseph Torok remembers: “for the first wells,

we had a very simple portable device to detect gas

or oil shows. Then, we had the GZ1, a degasser

placed in the mud return line in order to recover

gas continuously. To measure the drilling rate,

there was the Geolograph, then the Rotospring,

then an electronic system which measured the

depth and the rate of penetration: I was the one

who made the first installation”.

These memories from one of the oldestGeoservices mud loggers are indicative

of the fervour for progress which characterizes the company.

Geoservices fitted outthree of these cara-vans: they were usedin the Paris Basin forwells not far from oneanother. However, theywere quickly replacedby laboratories on “skids”, which were loaded on trucks andsuffered less during transport.

Laboratory caravans

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GasmapA short-lived affairStarting in 1964, Geoservices struck out as a pioneer in surface geochemistry,under the Gasmap brand name: the highly sensitive analysis of samplestaken at a depth of between 50 cm and 1 metre made it possible to detecttraces left by micro-leaks above hydrocarbon reservoirs. This service appearedto offer a useful complement to seismic surveys, which are unable to identifythe presence of hydrocarbons. In partnership with IBM, Geoservices developedsoftware for interpreting the results and improved the technique. A series ofcontracts were signed over five years in Algeria, Spain, France, Canada,Libya, etc. Despite all this, the geochemical prospecting method, which wassubject to some controversy within the industry, would be abandoned at theend of the 1960s: the first wells drilled in the North Sea would draw people’sattention in a completely different direction.

Laboratory busesSAFREP, which drilled in the Basque Country and in theLandes in France, had bought some old Paris buses, withtheir seats replaced by work surfaces and cupboards. Theiradvantage: the large glazed area gave a good view of thedrilling rig.

The Gasmap team takes samples

Analysing samples in the Gasmap laboratory truck

Joseph Torok at the wheel of a laboratory bus in Fontainebleau in 1967


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Starting to do b

When Geoservices started, what could it hope to offer to the oil companies who had theirown teams of geologists, and to the research and exploration companies (known in Franceas “REPs”), subsidiaries of financial institutions that had multiplied under the instigation ofCharles de Gaulle? What made it possible for the founders to succeed in their gamble?

There are three answers: technological progress first of all, a veryearly example of which was the Prakla, one of the first pieces ofapparatus for the automated detection of gases that replacedthe manual successive sampling procedures.

Next, specialization, as opposed to American companies suchas Rotary, Baroid or Core Lab, for whom mud logging was nottheir core business.

Finally, the compounding of experience: each geographicsector called for different solutions and Geoservices was working in the Aquitaine region in France, in Algeria and inLibya. Its geological technicians accumulated experience thatno oil company’s geologist could have. It should also be notedthat mud logging, which follows the rhythm of drilling campaigns,is by nature discontinuous and the oil companies had everyreason to outsource it. This explains why their geologists didn’ttake long to come over to reinforce Geoservices’ teams.

Geoservices: a winning bet

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o business

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Geoservices signed its first contract with Eurafrep and Francarep: it was a geological study of the Aquitaine Basin, for a duration of oneyear. In 1959, another contract was signed with Coparex for a studyof the Paris Basin: these small “REP” companies had limited resourcesand few technical staff. The timing for the arrival of Geoservicescould not have been better! So much so, that Geoservices beganto install geological surveillance units for the exploration wells in theSahara in 1959. On the first of these, for Francarep at Tan Emelel,Gaston Rebilly was the rig geologist for five consecutive months,assisted by his geological technician, Mr. Salmon.

At the same time, other oil companies did not hesitate in calling onGeoservices. From 1960 onwards, SNPA (Société Nationale desPétroles d’Aquitaine) in particular entrusted it with the surveillanceof its sites in the south-west of France. In 1961, it was the turn ofCopesep, Shell France, in the Paris Basin and, in 1962, Essorep, EssoFrance, who was exploring in the Landes region of France.

The Sahara, in the 1960sThe “container camps” were more or less comfortable, with window-fitted air conditioning: some fittedout as laboratories, where two people would be working at all times, and others as living quarters, withrooms for two or for four, and a mess/kitchen. A camp boss dealt with supplies: the quality of the cate-ring varied depending on the company. In general, it was better when the French were the ones doing the drilling. Relief planes brought mail to Hassi Messaoud once or twice a week. A Jeep brought it tothe camp.

This was the lifestyle of the geological technicians, with 12 hours on and 12 hours off, over eight weeksin theory but sometimes up to 12 or 13, before taking two weeks of leave. “Changing the technician wasa problem and relief could be problematic. Over ten years, I spent two Christmases and two New Yearsat home”, recalls Joseph Torok. As for Marcel Eder, another REP renegade, who managed the technicianson rotating shifts, he remembers: “I had to be available 24 hours a day.”


Joining the young Geoservices at the beginningof the 1960s, at the time when mud logging wasbeing born, Pierre Bessière, under the direction ofEdouard Cochet, was one of the main forces drivingGeoservices’ development in Australia, Asia, theMiddle East and in the Soviet Bloc, through the saleof equipment. He played a key role in the deve-lopment of Geoservices in the United States from1984, by having a decisive role in the computeriza-tion of mud logging, and by teaching us toconcentrate on what counted for the Americanoilmen: logs and the data which contribute toassessing formations, and the safety and optimisa-tion of the well. Pierre Bessière died in January2007.

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International horizons in its genes

Working internationally has always been inscribed inGeoservices’ genes. It is true that the very first missions entrustedto the company took place on French territory, in Aquitainewith SNPA, discoverer of Lacq; in the Basque region withSafrep; in the Landes with Essorep; with Copesep, in the ParisBasin; and in Alsace with PREPA. Yet Geoservices was already venturing outside the national borders in the wake of the twooil research and exploration companies that had entrusted itwith its first geological studies: as of 1959, Francarep andEurafrep took Geoservices off on a Saharan adventure.

After North Africa, Geoservices was soon present in Spain withRepsol, in Italy with AGIP and, as of the end of the 1960s, in thefirst wells in the North Sea. At the same time, Australia andsouth-east Asia were developing under the impetus of PierreBessière, together with the Middle East and Japan. An opera-tions base was opened in Singapore, the future starting pointfor expansion in China, and another in Canada, springboardfor the United States.

The network of subsidiaries was now global, managed byGeoservices Overseas S.A., a company created in 1960 andbased in Switzerland. In 1975 it added Geoservices Inc., withthe mission of penetrating the American exploration marketwhich was booming.

The oil crises only accelerated this growth: in Central and SouthAmerica, then in the Gulf of Guinea, accompanied by thecreation of subsidiaries in Brazil, Nigeria, and a joint venture inChina. Trainees at the shale shakers in Nankin, China, in October 1974. In the upper centre of the

photo, one can make out the instructor Daniel Chevarin. The Geoservices Densimud can beseen in the foreground.

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Geoservices’ international development made the problem of recruitmentall the more difficult: the pool of mud loggers from oil companieshad been exhausted, and it was therefore necessary to train newlyhired candidates. According to their skills, naturally, but above allaccording to their personal qualities. In most cases the school, createdin Clamart in 1960, trained these mud loggers of varied origins for thetrade and prepared them for life in the field: the experienced ones trainedthe younger ones, thereby forging bonds between the generationsand among the various nationalities. Usually, after three weeks atthe school, the trainee mud logger would have three weeks of well-site practice at one of the two Geoservices training units on a Gazde France site in the Paris area or in Aquitaine, with SNPA. Graduatesfrom the geology school in Nancy, however, bypassed the schooland were sent straight to the wellsite. Once in the field, the new mudlogger worked in tandem with a senior. Although created to train itsown staff, the school was quickly to become a required stop formany personnel from oil companies and over the years would largelycontribute to Geoservices’ reputation.

Geoservices sold its first mud logging units to China in 1965, andfrom that day on would never cease to offer the country the benefitof its technological innovations. Eighteen years later, duringGeoservices’ 25th anniversary, Edouard Cochet and his counterpartfrom CNOOC, our partner, signed the birth certificate for China FranceBohai Geoservices Company (CFBGC), one of the very first ChineseJVs with a western company. It would benefit from logistics supportand the training centre at Geoservices’ regional headquarters inSingapore, established in 1968. Over the following years, CFBGC, n° 1 in mud logging in China, was to operate offshore and in the

heart of the Tarim desert basin, where it helped to make the first discoveries. At the end of the 1990s, it turned to welltesting and became n° 1 in that field at the turn of the century following the integration of a local well testing andwell intervention company; this integration also opened the doors to wireline services in the Chinese offshore market,in which it has now become the undisputed leader. This exemplary long-term partnership is based on a quality ser-vice which is well known to the Chinese oil companies.

The first Mud Loggingschool

A Joint Venture with China

A mud logging unit ingeniously protected from the sun in Guatemala in 1984


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As a consequence of the Yom Kippur war in 1973, OPECdecreed an oil embargo against those countries whichhad provided their support to Israel. Things would neverbe the same again. What is now known as the “oil crisis”would see the price of oil multiply by 4 and stock markets

fall by 40%. However, oneman’s crisis is another man’sopportunity: the search fornew oil deposits began todevelop in new areas andthere had never been suchstrong demand for skills in oilexploration. The higher theprice of crude rose, the moreattractive appeared theinhospitable North Sea. 1973was also the year in whichGeoservices invested in anew head office, not farfrom the site where Charlesde Gaulle airport would beinaugurated a year later.

Hommede l’internationalHommede l’international

’70sThe

The first oil crisis


eologist by trade, armed with his hammer and his microscope,drawing logs with his Rotring® on tracing paper, the mud logger

of the 1960s was a craftsman analyzing the formations that the drill bit penetrated. Today, the mud logger continues toexamine his samples, but the “craftsman” from Geoservices’beginnings is now feeding real-time data into oil companies’databases from his measurements and analyses.

The transition from the one to the other took place with the digital revolution,with the development of sensors, with the multiplication of mud and drilling

parameters which came to be recorded in real time, and the impressive progressmade in the real-time measurement of hydrocarbon shows. By providing the

speed and power of number-crunching and with the ability, “on-line”, to calculate curvesautomatically by combining signals from all sensors in real time, it revolutionized the mud logger’s trade: it wasonly with the advent of computing that the true weight on the drill bit could be measured. This made it possibleto sound the alarm if the driller ran the risk of damaging the bit, and optimize the drilling by varying theweight, the rotation speed and the mud flow rate, among other parameters. Thus, the mud logger becamenot only the driller’s archivist, he also became his partner and adviser, providing information for drilling optimisation and the prevention of dangerous situations.

It was in the middle of the 1980s that the effects of this technological revolution started to be felt. But theappearance of computing power in the field went back to the very beginning of the 1970s, with the first TexasInstruments electronic calculators, which enabled “d-exponent” calculations to be made without resorting tologarithmic tables, and made it possible to warn the driller when the bit was approaching abnormal pressurezones. Then it was the appearance of scientific desktop computers, working “off-line”, with Hewlett Packard’sHP9810. In around 1975, there came the first HP9820 computers and then the HP9825 and HP9816 with printerand plotter and the “in-house” software associated with them: Drillpack, Logpack and Gaspack… It was atthis time that we began to speak about TDC (Total Drilling Control). An advert of the time stated:“Geoservices TDC tells you exactly where you are, lets you take it easy and warns you of troubles ahead.TDC adds security to the operation”. In short, drilling without problems… and without risks.

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Destined to become one of the most renown-ed managers in Geoservices, Len Foster started his career as a mud logger on a well-site in Mozambique in 1969. It was around1972 that he took on his first managementresponsibilities to head up Geoservices’small office on Stevens Road in Singapore.He became area manager for GeoservicesFar East a few years later, and under hismanagement this entity would become the main supplier of mud logging services inthe region. Strong-willed and audacious, thatwas Len; nothing was impossible for him.He was both feared and respected by ourcompetitors who often found, upon visiting aclient for a new opportunity, that Len hadgot there first and had snapped up thecontract! Len Foster died in April 1999.

Len

Fo

sterThe real revolution, however, was going “on-line”. With

the first HP 1000 system put into service in 1977 forJapex by Philippe Baud and Maurice Leonard, therewas no longer any need to enter data manually: thecomputer was connected directly to the sensorequipment and automatically fed data into the data-

base. From then on, there was a rapid successionwith the Geo 2000 in 1984, Vigilance in 1985, Geo3000 in 1986 and, as of 1987, the Geo 5000, 6000 andGeo 4000 series. These last systems were renamed ALS(Advanced Logging System) in 1988, a name whichis still used today.

The driving force for growth in Asia

y of computing


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TWO TRADES, TWO CULTURES

At the end of drilling, production tests make itpossible to determine the characteristics andthe possible potential of the reservoir. Onceproduction has begun, keeping it runningsmoothly requires numerous tasks for mainte-nance (replacement of tools, removing scale)and optimisation (casing perforation, placingtemporary valves, pressure and temperaturemeasurements) which means bringing in theslickliners.

These two trades naturally differ as to their endresult, and by their tools. Far from the analyzingand calculating instruments of the mud loggers,the well testers are accompanied by somefifty tons of heavy equipment. Geoserviceshas moreover distinguished itself by developinginnovative tools such as the Demeter, one ofthe very first electronic gauges for downholepressure and temperature measurements,and the Vulcan Clean Burner.

They also differ by the time spent on site: whilemud logging is carried out over a durationwhich allows a certain “comfort”, the well testersand the slickliners have a culture of one-off

and urgent intervention. The “call out” (seebox on p. 20) is typical of their trade. Two trades,and therefore two cultures: “when we arrived,it was as if we’d come from another planet!”,recalls Louis Vaissade, whom Geoservices calledupon to set up the Production Department.

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

Coming from Flopetrol, Alain Evenat and LouisVaissade knew the trade, the clients and thekey contacts. In the space of a few months, theyhad to recruit, create a training centre, makecontact with the equipment manufacturersand make themselves known to the clients. All methods employed to get the job done weregood: “I even carried brochures to the Roissycheck-in desk for the flight to Oman, to giveto a Total area manager”, says Alain Evenat.

In the beginning, the Production Departmentrelied on Geoservices engineers alreadyseconded to the offices of oil companiesundertaking exploration work. “These engineersserved as our standard bearers.” Then the firstcontracts came in based on the confidenceinspired by the men that Geoservices hadbegun to provide.

To create a Production Department (well testing and well intervention) within

a mud logging company was a challenge. It wascertainly a good way to balance the reliance on

exploration and development, which is highlycyclical since it is tied to the price of crude, with

production contracts, that run for a much longerduration. However, it was still a challenge as the

businesses are not the same, either in the way theywork, or in terms of their culture.

1977

Mast truck and electric logging truck in Libya

Raymond Elicegui working on a well test for Esso in Parentis, France, in 1980


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n to production

The first well testing contract was signed with Total Indonesia for production testing wells in the Mahakam river delta. A major challenge: we had a few weeks in which to tow a fully equippedbarge to the site, readyto work autonomously in the marshes and in the delta.

“The first time I saw this barge, it wasaground in the port of Singapore”,recalls Alain Evenat. “It was Len Foster,the base manager, who had found it”.All hands were needed to transform itfrom a being the port’s waste tip into avessel capable of carrying some fiftytons of well testing equipment for yearsto come. “I stayed at Le Blanc-Mesnil”,says Louis Vaissade, “while Alain spentover a month ‘submerged’ in Singaporeto direct the work which ran from 8 in themorning to 10 at night”. One evening, ataround 7pm, the work stopped: “theshipyard isn’t paying for our food anymore”, complained the workers. “Whatif I buy you something to eat”, askedAlain Evenat, “will you carry on? I gotmy cash out and went with one of the

men to get supplies. The contract startedon the 1st January and on Christmas Daywe were still connecting the cables”. Afterseveral days of towing, the barge reach-ed Kalimantan on the island of Borneoand work began with the support of theBalikpapan base manager, Jean-RenéCroguennec, who was also our contactfor Total. Named Diah, after the futuremanaging director of Geoprolog(Geoservices in Indonesia), who hadhelped us to import it from Singapore,the barge spent several years doingthe rounds in the delta. For Geoservices,it confirmed the profitability of theProduction Department, and for Total,for whom the barge became a majorreference, it proved that its trust inGeoservices had been well placed.

Balikpapan

The odyssey of the Diah barge

Diah barge in Kalimantan, Indonesia


2050years

of history

From one platform to another, the slickliner rigs up and rigs downhis winch, to install or fish out equipment. His only assistance: thecable tension indicator, his knowledge of the procedures to beundertaken and, sometimes, a diagram of the well completionand its equipment. And most importantly, an intuition which cannotbe learned. Either you have it, or you don’t. These men have it,since their passion is born from the well. Their reputation was ofcrucial importance in winning our first well intervention contracts.

The team of wireliners managed by José Chaffard in Obagi, Nigeria

“Hello, Geoservices, we need to test tomorrow on Obagi”. A call comes in for well testing, and theteam gets going. In a few hours, several trucks of equipment are mobilized: separator, high pressurevalve, flare, burners and gauge tank are loaded. A dozen people are mobilized to rig up the equipment,test the well and rig down the equipment again. Sometimes it is simply a question of reading the pressure

at the bottom of the well. In complex cases, it is by helicopter — or by wide-wheeled truck across thedesert — that a winch or a hydraulic unit is carried. When the well testers or slickliners arrive on site,the equipment is set up immediately. Well intervention work doesn’t leave time for comfort and relieson the equipment and the men being available immediately.

The “call out”

From Production to Well Intervention

Slickline operations on the Acrasia field in the Cooper Basin, South Australia for Stuart Petroleum in 2005


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Slicklining: using your headTry to position mechanical equipment — plugs, sliding sleeves, gauges, etc. — atdepths that can easily reach 5,000 metres, inside a tube only a little more than 10 cmin diameter, using only piano wire with setting or pulling tools at one end that enablethe slickliner to set some items and remove others… To complicate this challenge, it has to be remembered that the well is often dirty, cluttered with debris or deviated,and that the slickliner’s only indicators are the tension and length of the spooled wire.It is easy to understand that this challenge can only be met “using your head”: thereis only one’s intuition, one’s experience and one’s knowledge of the history of the wellto be able to visualize what is happening thousands of metres below and carry outthe manipulations. Among the aces in the trade, Eloi Ader, Serge Leduc and JoChaffard made their mark on Geoservices. They were peerless in applying these skills,which allowed wells to produce under the best conditions.

For more than four years, the Janus barge went from well to well, to optimize production in the Upomanioilfield. The rigging up and start-up of the barge was supervised by Serge Leduc and Eloi Ader, two hardened slickliners whose reputation had been a crucial factor in winning the contract. Equipping a bargein Nigeria at the beginning of the 1980s was, it can be said, no easy matter: equipment usually arrivedlate, when it arrived. Without e-mail or fax, without logistics services, or a purchasing department, ornomenclature; everything was done by catalogue, sent by telex, telephone and courier. Despite all this,the barge was set up in a month and a half locally, and made its way to Warri after a week of chaoticnavigation in the Niger delta, where the mangroves and the customs officials appeared to be in leagueto halt its progress.

Upomani, the slickline adventurebegins with the Janus in Nigeria

n

In 1980, Michel Nadeau and François Lacatte carried out the very first slickline jobs for Esso on Parentislake, France, shortly after this client sold its slickline equipment and activity to Geoservices In 1980, Michel Nadeau and François Lacatte carried out the very first slickline jobs for Esso on Parentislake, France, shortly after this client sold its slickline equipment and activity to Geoservices


2250years

of history

Electromagnetic transmissionForward thinking

Many were sceptical...Like anything new, electromagnetic trans-mission aroused huge scepticism at first. Just likein the early days of geochemical prospecting,there were resounding cries of “it will neverwork”. There were even earnest demonstrationsof how the resistivity of the formation wouldmake the process physically impossible. “Trueenough”, admits Olivier Issenmann, “electroma-gnetic transmission won’t work if the formationis not resistive enough. But that in itself was noreason to drop the idea.”

The method of the time for receiving informationfrom the downhole sensors at surface was touse a pulser to vibrate the mud column. Wewere convinced that electromagnetic trans-mission would be simpler and more reliable.And the “mud pulse” system had a veryserious drawback; it could not be used in theabsence of mud, like when drilling ‘under-balanced’ with compressed air or foam toincrease penetration rate and the chances ofidentifying the presence of hydrocarbons.Despite the climate of scepticism, studies intoelectromagnetic transmission began in 1982,

with the unwavering support of Gaston Rebilly.The R&D department at the time put togethera system comprising a very-low-frequencytransmission antenna in the drill collar with adata retrieval and processing unit at the sur-face. In 1985, after three years of R&D work,the first field applications appeared, using EMMWD (Electromagnetic Measurement WhileDrilling) to guide directional drilling operations.With real-time readings of tool azimuth andinclination, the driller would be able to monitorthe position of the bit and steer it accordingly.

That was just the start of a long career for aprocess which, particularly under the manage-ment of Louis Soulier, would become a widelyrecognized industrial tool, greatly admired byour rivals. One of its many applications wouldbe in well testing with EMROD, a tool rundownhole to send back pressure readings. TheEM MWD business was sold to the Canadiancompany Precision Drilling in 2000. Today, thistechnology is at the heart of the GeoservicesGEM-Line system.

Small but sturdyThe arrival of the first electronic sensors, in the early eighties, markeda major technological turning point. The new devices, fitted near thebottom of the drill string to measure well azimuth and inclination,would have to withstand temperatures of up to 100°C and pressuresup to 5,000 psi.


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n 1985. Geoservices buys Topservices, a French company with expertise in directional drilling, complementary to our EM MWD know-how

1986. First commercial directional drilling contract for Gaz de France in the Paris Basin1989. Startup for Geoservices Directional Drilling in Canada1990. Initial operations in Venezuela and the USA

Early days in directional drilling


2450years

of history

First contract: unbelievable pressure

Geoservices’ first EPF (Early Production Facility) was a spectacularly boldundertaking: a unit producing 30,000 barrels per day on board one of the firstsemi-subs, anchored over the Sul de Pampo field off the coast of Brazil.

In 1984, Geoservices’ managing directorEdouard Cochet took up the daring challengeof the Sul de Pampo project. Deepwater explora-tion pioneers Petrobras had asked us to set upan EPF on a semi-submersible platform. As wellas being the biggest, most complex and mostfar-flung project Geoservices had ever takenon, the schedule was very tight: less than fivemonths to get everything up and running. Inboth volume and complexity, equipment requi-rements were ten times anything we’d everdone before. Did we have the know-how?Would we meet the deadlines?

First of all came the burning issue of submittinga proposal. Petrobras wanted an overall instal-lation plan. “I sketched it all out in a matter ofhours,” recalls Alain Evenat, “and we sent

someone down to the 24h Paris central postoffice to get it off late on the Friday night”. Onmany occasions, this kind of rapid-responsecapability would prove crucially important.Another key factor was wide-scale motivation,exemplified by the work carried out at theconstruction plant in Bayeux, Normandy, whereall the equipment was pre-assembled. This iswhat most impressed our Brazilian client who turn-ed up for a pre-inspection visit on AscensionDay! That didn’t stop us opening up the plantespecially or even getting him to the airport laterin the day to catch a plane to Monaco for theFormula One Grand Prix. All the characteristicGeoservices ingredients were there: rapid res-ponse, motivation, mutual trust (well managedlocally by Serge Leduc), and of course thegreat ability to work under pressure.

EPF: a test piece becomes a masterpiece


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Early Production FacilitiesThe temporary, built to last!An EPF is a temporary production unit set up to provide interim service between the time whenthe well first flows through to completion of the final permanent installation, built to handle production and export operations from then on. The final installation, designed to run for manyyears, requires substantial investment and time to build. It follows that if production can be startedup before the final plant is in place, the resulting revenues will help finance the construction operation. Our job on an EPF project was to set up high-pressure separators (huge cylinders upto two metres in diameter and 15 metres long, for separating gas, oil and water), burners, continuous metering, and oil distribution. Geoservices EPFs have been known to outstay their“temporary” label, and enjoy extended service of two years or more, thus providing Geoserviceswith regular income and an excellent training ground for young engineers. The EPF business usedthe same standard equipment as well testing, and was sold at the same time, to PWS, in 2005.

The Bayeux welders will not forget the Petrobras EPF in a hurry: experiences like sleeping in the workshop for amonth leave indelible memories. Without this kind of dedication, there was no way Geoservices could ever havetaken up the Petrobras challenge in the first place, let alone pulled it off so admirably. The deadlines were that tight!The Bayeux plant, which ceased to be part of Geoservices in the early nineties, was a production and storage centrethat employed a workforce of up to forty people under Jean-Pierre Lavenand, former mechanical engineer with theFrench Merchant Navy, and in charge of maintenance on the Diah barge. The site made things like separators, heaters, winches and manifolds, working with local subcontractors.

The Bayeux production centre


2650years

of history


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Although OPEC set production quotas in 1985, crude oil pricesplummeted from $25 to under $10 per barrel from January to July1986: the economic boom of the 1978-1981 period gave way toan exploration crisis that would last three years. Many companiesshut down or sought mergers, and the rest had no option but tocut down on R&D spending. Geoservices was forced to shedclose to a third of its personnel, but the spirit of innovation remained.A new business, directional drilling, started in 1986 in the Paris Basin,

followed in 1987 by EM MWD(Electromagnetic MeasurementWhile Drilling), which would remainexclusive Geoservices technologyfor years. The first computerizedsystem for the acquisition andinterpretation of drilling data ona PC also appeared on the rigsin 1987. Geo 5000, later renamedALS (Advanced Logging System),would go on to make a consid-erable contribution to Geoservices’growth over the years to come.

Oil Price Collapse

The


2850years

of history

Advanced Logging System: In

HIGH-PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE

In late 1984, a young engineer named Bruno Burban put forwarda new project for a digital data acquisition system running onan IBM PC with a colour screen. Development work would becarried out in the basement at Le Blanc-Mesnil with fellow com-puter enthusiast, Jean-Paul Le Cann. The architecture chosenfor distributing data around the wellsite was also new: networkedPCs interlinked using Netware technology. The system initiallywent under the name of Geo 5000, before becoming ALS(Advanced Logging System). When released commercially in 1987,it enjoyed rapid success despite the depressed oil price thatwas still around that year.

Successive versions of ALS would be developed to addressvaried market needs. Geo 4000, for example, was a scaleddown version for sites not needing sophisticated data distribution.ALS eventually gave way to ALS-2, which would be widely usedin all areas. Indeed, it is still in use in over 90% of Geoservices’mud logging units today.

eoservices introduced the first “on-line” mud logging data processing systemback in the 1970s, running in-house software on an HP 1000 mainframe.

The system was installed in many units, operating alongside the existing analogueinstruments. By 1982, the Technical Department’s quest for a higher-performance successor had led to the Vigilance system, running on a DEC*machine. Though this system was sold abroad, it was never extensivelyused within Geoservices itself. New technologies and equipment, with more promising capabilities, were fast emerging.

*Digital Equipment Corporation G


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m: Information Technology to Serve Mud Logging

ALS first came into use on Total’s North Alwyn platform in the North Sea, 440 km north-east of Aberdeen. Strangeas it might seem, the platform designers had actually forgotten to include space for a mud logging unit, so Totalwas looking for a compact monitoring system. In addition, the rig had two derricks, so the acquisition system wouldhave to monitor two wells at the same time. ALS appeared to be the ideal solution. Because of the distance from theplatform to the Total office in Aberdeen, this contract also saw the start of the first real-time data transmission system,making full use of ALS’s networking capabilities.

North Alwyn first home for ALS

In his 29 years with Geoservices, Chris Banks made a remarkable contribution to the company.He joined in 1969 and served in Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Iran and Europe before becoming a keyfigure in the development of Geoservices’ North Sea operations. Chris died in 1998 at theage of 49.

Chris Banks: one of the NorthSea pioneers


3050years

of history

On 9 December 1998, the Frenchgovernment authorized the French

Radioactive Waste Management Agency(Andra) to build two underground

research laboratories. One of these wasto be at Bure, in north-east France,

at a depth of 500 metres, in a clay bed 150 million years’ old. This was

the culmination of four years of geologicalresearch to which Geoservices

had provided key input; it was a decisionthat would have a binding impact

on France for several centuries into the future.

Impressed by Geoservices’ extensiveknow- how in drilling through permeablerock, Andra approached us in 1993 for a mission involving hydrogeologicalidentification tests on rocks that wereanything but permeable. The missionwould be far removed from our moreusual oil exploration work, because drillingwould pass through highly impermeablehomogeneous formations – shale or granite– that would offer no possibility of leakagefor long-life nuclear waste. Mud loggingexpertise alone would clearly not be sufficient for the task. Geoservices initiallyworked with BRGM*, who had instrumentsfor the continuous analysis of gas in drillingwater brought up from pilot wells 200 to1,100 metres deep. The results would tellus whether the water was fossil water or‘living water’ in contact with the water table.

THE CHALLENGE OF ABSOLUTERIGOUR

Geoservices’ men and women were inthe field by 1994. Subcontractors wouldbe coordinated from the France Baseby Dominique Chaumet, with on-siteassistance from Alain Laurent, a brillianthydrogeologist from Geotherma. Therequirements on this very critical projectwere so exacting that an across-the-

board quality lift would be needed. Forexample, this led to Geoservices supplyinga surface flow-metering system for pum-ping tests that boasted “Rolls-Royce”specifications, monitoring and measuringflowrates from 0.1 to 100 litres per minute!In addition, Geoservices personnelwould have to adopt unprecedentedmethodological rigour, on a completelydifferent scale from that appropriate inoil exploration work. Before each opera-tion, a preliminary report would have tobe drawn up giving full details on thescheduled operation (duration, tools,personnel, etc.) along with a point-by-point quality assurance plan. And acommercial bid would have to be enteredfor each operation. Absolute controlover technical and commercial contractaspects would be crucial. After eachmission, a draft report, followed by afinal report, would be drawn up: from1994 to 1996, Geoservices submittedover one hundred reports, of a qualityand precision unknown in oil exploration,for close examination by the six govern-ment ministries involved in the project.These reports would provide the basis forAndra’s recommendations, and therebyfor the government’s subsequent choice ofthe Bure site for France’s first undergroundlaboratory. Once the decision had gone

through, Geoservices would continuetests at the Bure site from 2000 to 2004,working with IRH-Environnement.

GAUGES FOR LISTENINGTO THE FORMATION

Geoservices actually surpassed Andra’sexpectations: in 1996, it supplied the firstelectromagnetic permanent gauge (EPG),a device that transmits pressure andtemperature data to the surface from a permanent location buried deep inthe ground. With its low-consumptionelectronics, integrated power supplyand total freedom from physical links tothe surface, the EPG proved invaluableto Andra, performing differential pressuremeasurements that would otherwisehave been very difficult to take, withhigh precision, over long periods of time.Geoservices supplied the gauge with aguarantee that it would operate for oneyear, but it gave full satisfaction over aservice life of six years! Up to 2004,Andra bought a further five gauges andthese were installed by Geoservices atthe Bure site. Over a period of ten years,Geoservices pulled off the dual feat offulfilling just about all the challenges setby its client, while hoisting the quality ofits services to unprecedented heights.

Unparalleled quality and precision

* Geological & Mining Research Office


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“In ten years’ work with Geoservices, I always got the support I needed, inevery situation. Every time we dreamed of a solution, Geoservices came upwith the answer. Their operational excellence and quality organization madea big contribution to the successful completion of our operations before andafter construction of the Bure site.”

Jacques Delay, head of the Scientific Department at Andra’s Bure site

Field engineer Marie-Pierre Barrot was one of the pioneers behind this highly successful project.

Andra: a quality watershedfor Geoservices

Quality has been part of the Geoservices genetic make-up from theoutset. Initial certification came in 1992: ISO 9001 for design andISO 9002 for manufacturing and services. In compliance with ISO9001:2000, the emphasis then shifted to the commitment of manag-ement, the added value of processes and continuous improvement,precisely the areas in which Geoservices had proved its capabilitieswith Andra. Geoservices today has 23 certified bases worldwide andhas attained ISO 14 000 environmental management certification forits sites in South America and Italy.

Thierry Bouijoux (left) preparing to run in a downhole pump on a test string

Marie-Pierre Barrot at the Bure site inFrance in 2000, with a technician fromIRH-Environnement

Marie-Pierre Barrot at the Bure site inFrance in 2000, with a technician fromIRH-Environnement


RABI-KOUNGA: THE HIGH FINANCIAL RISKFOR “FIRST OIL”

Under dense tropical forest, at 7:15 am on the16th January 1989, the president of Gabon, El Hadj Omar Bongo was there in person forthe start-up ceremony at the Rabi-Koungafield, of strategic importance to the country.Barely a year had gone by since Shell hadlaunched its initial invitations to bid.Geoservices had entered the winning bid, fora temporary Early Production Facility, EPF1,capable of producing 20,000 barrels per day.On top of all the usual project constraints, anadditional difficulty was that the crude oilcontained paraffin wax and would thereforeneed continuous heating to keep it sufficientlyfluid to flow. Once the contract had beensigned, Shell wanted to add more equipment:a second facility, EPF2, would be built at 8 kmfrom the first, to dispatch crude oil to Gambaand Cap Lopez. Then there were the “acces-sories”, in the form of an intake manifoldconnecting ten wells. At the end of the day,the contract would be three times its initial value!

CONTRACT RENEGOTIATED IN 48 HOURS

That was good news commercially speaking,but it would mean substantial financial risk forGeoservices: our negotiations with Shell wouldhave to ensure profitability of the project whileremaining attractive enough to ensure wewere considered for future invitations to bid.After lengthy discussions, Geoservices offered

to lease the two production facilities and sellall the specific equipment that could not bereused subsequently. Time was short: we hadjust 48 hours before the final decision wouldbe taken in Gabon! Geoservices managerswent out to Gamba to negotiate with Shell.The proposal was accepted, and project designwent ahead in a climate of close cooperation.Then the team learned that the inaugurationdate had already been set. And sincePresident Bongo would be coming out toRabi-Kounga in person to light the flare thatmarked the start of production, nothing couldbe left to chance! Everybody and everythingwas on high alert, ready to cope with theunexpected. There was even a tank of dieselready near the flare, just in case the producedfluids failed to ignite on demand!

SIX MONTHS TO PREPAREA MOBILE PRODUCTION UNIT

Geoservices pulled off the exploit of setting upa temporary mobile production unit in just sixmonths, further demonstrating its capacity for prompt, efficient response to challengingprojects. The Rabi-Kounga field started up onschedule, to the satisfaction of Shell and theGabonese government. Though the initial facilitylease was for three months, the equipmentand operations personnel ended up stayingseveral years in Gabon, with Geoserviceshandling production at the Rabi-Kounga fieldthrough to start-up of the permanent facilitiesbuilt by Shell.

ALS Production

The forerunner of production monitoring

Given the huge success of ALS in mud logging, the next logical step was to extend it to productionservices. Benoît Debray was quick to realize the system’s potential in a field production environment,and the adaptations and improvements that would be needed to synchronize downhole and surface readings. Following conclusive tests carried out in 1988 at the Buffalo field in Angola, “ALS Production” would be fully operational by late 1989, and implemented on a multi-separatorvariant at the Rabi-Kounga and Echira EPFs in Gabon. This is the ancestor of the systems offeredtoday by the Field Surveillance business segment.

Rabi-Kounga contract

Ld

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A line of heaters at Rabi-Kounga, GabonA line of heaters at Rabi-Kounga, Gabon

3250years

of history


AmocoAll-weather partnership

In the late eighties, Geoservices went to Kenya with Amoco to provide mudlogging services for the drilling of an exploration well near Lake Turkana. This well proved to be dry, but despite the disappointing result, Amoco wasso satisfied with the Geoservices operation that it invited the team and itsmud logging unit to follow them out to Madagascar, then to Somalia, to drillother exploration wells. When war broke out in Somalia, the rig was ransacked and the logging unit destroyed. The equipment was lost but happilynobody was hurt and the team was redeployed to other sites. A year later,Amoco wrote out a cheque for $15,000 to reward Geoservices’ loyalty andtheir efforts on the aborted operation. Other Amoco projects would follow,as in the Congo, with development of the Yombo offshore field, where ourquality service would again be hugely appreciated.

Lex started out with Geoservicesin 1969 on the Agip-Shell rigs inthe Adriatic, before moving on toLibya. His organizational and comm-ercial skills soon brought him toLondon, where Edouard Cochet,had asked him to open an officein 1972. But the action in the UKwas offshore, up north off the coastof Scotland, so Lex started up a base in Aberdeen in 1973. Aftera spell in Iran, he took up the newfunction of regional manager forthe Middle East in 1979, based inAbu Dhabi. Then, in 1981, he openedthe West Africa regional office inAbidjan. His responsibilities wereeventually extended to cover theMiddle East and Europe, then in1996, he took charge of the Asia-Pacific region. By the time hebecame head of worldwide opera-tions in 2000, a post he held until2005, Lex had covered all thebusiness segments and all the admin-istrative regions in Geoservices.

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An interesting career

Measuring gauges: miniaturized

electronics downhole

Pressure and temperature read-ings from well tests during theexploration and production phasesare of prime importance for reser-voir engineers. The way these twoparameters vary with depth ortime can tell them a great dealabout the production capacity ofa reservoir, and about possibleinterferences between reservoirs.

When it started production servicesin 1977, Geoservices, like the restof the industry, used the heroicAmerada mechanical gauge. Butthe idea of an electronic systemsoon took shape, and in 1981 the first prototypes of the home-designed Demeter gauge started tobe used downhole. These deviceswere among the very first electro-nic gauges on the world market.This spelled the end of the metalrecording chart engraved by stylus

and read at the surface with theaid of a magnifying glass! Datacould now be retrieved frommemory in a matter of secondswhen the device came back upon surface.

The second challenge was to raisethe gauges’ maximum operatingtemperature. In the nineties, theMQG-X gauge, with a quartz sensorappeared, withstanding bottom-hole temperatures of around 175°C.More recently, military and aero-space technologies have beenharnessed to produce gauges thatresist temperatures of 200°C overlong periods, and this under pres-sures up to 15,000 psi. The new-generation MHT and VHT gauges,introduced in 2006, are very-high-temperature devices that havealready been used successfully inThailand, Argentina and China.

The President of Kenya, Mr Daniel arap Moi, leaving the Geoservices mud logging unit at Lake Turkana in October 1987The President of Kenya, Mr Daniel arap Moi, leaving the Geoservices mud logging unit at Lake Turkana in October 1987

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Reserval Miniaturisation, for faster analysis

50years

of history

Innovation to boost performance

Vulcan BurnersFor a cleaner North Sea

Geoservices has never ceased to innovate in orderto improve the performance of its technology: aseach fresh challenge arises, a solution is developedand then perfected by user feedback for theongoing benefit of all our clients.

Geoservices started using the Vulcan burner in 1978. A burneris used to burn off the fluids produced during a well test.Often mixed with water, gas and mud, the fluids have tobe burned off completely since any discharge into sea is,of course, illegal. Making use of an existing patent,Geoservices would mix the crude oil with air to produce anemulsion that burned with no waste, despite the presenceof mud. Less than ten years later, we had to face tighterNorwegian environmental requirements, especially as regardsthe management of large platforms like Gullfaks and Statfjord.Special technical developments would be needed toadapt the existing equipment. The problem was thatbecause the oil composition constantly changed, therewas little time to prepare the effluent for burning, and partof it inevitably ended up in the sea. Geoservices wouldharness the full force of its innovative capacity to developthe Vulcan Clean Burner, which would equip the NorwegianStatoil and Mobil platforms from 1985 onwards. This high-performance burner was passed by the NorwegianPetroleum Directorate (NPD), responsible for overseeingthe quality of petroleum operations in Norway.

After the Gaslogger, the revolutionary complete “gas chain”using the GZG constant-volume, constant-flow degasser,Geoservices followed up in 1995 with the Reserval; the degasserremained the same but the analyser was much faster due tominiaturisation of some of its components. The new systemused capillary columns with a special coating that impededthe heavy molecules, so that the different hydrocarbons couldbe separated much faster and with smaller gas volumes.

In 1980, Albert Ribstein and Louis Sourice tested a proto-type sensor the size of a CD-ROM fitted on the shaft of the

drilling drawworks, hence the name “drawworks sensor”.Drillers thought it was a joke at first: there was no way sucha tiny device could actually do anything useful. A couple of months later, the sensor was in widespread use for Geoservices mud logging services, at last providing geo-logists with precise, instantaneous measurement of drilling

Drawworks seA revolution for measuring the rate

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Cuttings Flow MeterPartner on record-breakingwellsTotal’s Tierra del Fuego drilling campaign in Argentina in 1995 set a new extended-reach drilling recordof over 10 km for a true vertical depth of 1,656 metres. Operations were greatly facilitated by the CFM(Cuttings Flow Meter), a system that works by weighing the cuttings as they leave the shale shakers.Connected to the logging unit’s data processing system, the volume of cuttings remaining in the well canbe calculated from the average rock density. This real-time monitoring of the condition of the boreholehelps drillers avoid sticking the drill pipe, a crucial issue during horizontal drilling owing to the difficultiesinvolved in removing the cuttings.

“BEST” Reservoir evaluation assistantIn 2002, Geoservices developed a new tool whose name describes itscapabilities: BEST. The system works by instantly closing the well downholeand opening it again after automatically equalizing pressures on eitherside of the valve, a cycle that can be repeated several times. Gaugesrecord the resulting pressure behaviour to provide valuable insights intoreservoir properties and potential.

-e.he e -g

rate; very useful for interpretation purposes. The brainsbehind the sensor took the form of the Z-Unit, released in1978, a neat black box packed with electronics; it coulddetermine the status of drilling automatically, very usefulwhen the logging unit window was not aligned with the drillfloor. A quarter of a century later, today’s drawworks sensorshave changed very little: this innovation certainly stood thetest of time!

ks sensorthe rate of penetration


36

The idea of a high-speed train link between Lyon in France and Turin in Italywas just a dream for some travellers, but not for the French railway company,SNCF, who looked on it as a front-line technological and financial challenge.The project, estimated at €20 billion, was launched in 1994, and a French-Italian consortium called Alpetunnel was formed to manage it.

Alpetunnel would need to carry out technical,economic, legal and financial studies onconstruction of the new high speed railwayline. Its mission was to build a mixed freightand passenger tunnel 52 km long underMount Ambin, nearly 3,000 m high. Drilling surveys would be essential to ensure that tunnelboring could proceed safely. But for geologicalreasons, drilling in this mountainous areawould prove very tricky, with a high risk ofoverpressure and water deposits.

DRILLING FOR TUNNELLING

In 1999, Alpetunnel called in the number-oneexpert in geology and directional drilling:Geoservices. The aim was to carry out cost-effective risk assessment by means of two highaltitude boreholes with horizontal sections atAvrieux and Etache. At an inclination of 50°

from the surface, the first borehole would reacha depth of 1,822.50 m. Geoservices provideddirectional drilling and MWD (MeasurementWhile Drilling) services. Again the technique ofelectromagnetic propagation of data throughthe formation proved highly effective, providingprecision guidance for drilling aligned with thetunnel path. For the first well, Geoservicesapplied its extensive expertise in drilling rig instrumentation and its mud logging teamsproved invaluable for geological analysis ofthe rock formations encountered. We alsosupplied MQG-X gauges to measure pressureand temperature. On completion of its missionwith Alpetunnel and SNCF, Geoservices waswarmly congratulated for its flexibility and pro-fessional demeanour throughout a projectthat had been fraught with administrative,technical and meteorological difficulties.

DriFra

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Oil field geological services fo


On the Banks of the SeineDrilling downtown Paris

At the end of the day, drilling for water is much like drilling for oil.In 1989, a major insurance company was seeking an undergroundsource of water at a constant temperature for heating and coolingbuildings on the banks of the River Seine. Geothermal explorationwork was commissioned from Geotherma, a member of the samegroup as Geoservices, and drilling company COFOR provided thedrilling rig. From then until 1992, the Parisian cityscape featured ahighly atypical derrick overlooking the Seine.

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Drilling a pilot borehole at Etache at an altitude of 2000 m near Modane,France with a Deutag drilling rig in November 2000.

es for civil engineering


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During the oil & gas investment crisis of 1998-1999, Geoservicessaw the arrival of a new management team in May 1999. BrunoBurban and Benoît Debray were both engineers who had joinedGeoservices in the depressed 80s and they had one priority in mind: to minimize the impact of future oil price falls onGeoservices’ business. They would do this by building a balancedbusiness strategy with more emphasis on Well Intervention andField Surveillance, which are much more stable and durablethan drilling-related operations. Also, by developing the FieldSurveillance business segment, we would become our client’sstrategic partner for the entire lifecycle of a field.

The new strategy was implemented in fourmain phases:

• The sale of the Directional Drilling businessin 2000, followed by the sale of the WellTesting business in 2005.

• The purchase of a production loggingand perforating company (Copgo) andan operations & maintenance company(San José) in 2001, followed in 2003 bythe purchase of Welltekindo, the number-one in slickline in south-east Asia, and theopening of the Jakarta Technical Center.

• Signing an alliance with Schlumberger in2001, positioning Geoservices as key mudlogging supplier.

• Adding a Production Monitoring & Optimisa-tion service to consolidate the new FieldSurveillance business segment in 2002.

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Geoservicesin the


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Winter 2004Kharyaga, Nenets Okrug, RussiaLatitude 63° North

ergei is Geoservices’ local contact.He lives in Usinsk, a small townin the Arctic region of Nenets.In his hands are the lives ofthe passengers being takenfrom Usinsk to Kharyaga: fivehours by road in winter, up to

the Total camp.

Kharyaga is at latitude 63° north,inside the Polar Circle. Winters are

harsh and the weather highly unpredictable.The wind can get up suddenly and blow hardfor days on end, bringing temperatures down to-60°C. On the road, visibility is virtually zero. Evenwith the heating full on, the temperature in Sergei’sRange Rover hardly reaches -5°C. It doesn’t bearthinking how fast that would plunge if the carwere to break down in a storm. Without the engine running to keep a minimum ofwarmth, the life expectancy of those RangeRover passengers would shrink fast. The only linkwith the world outside is the satellite phone, an

absolute necessity for keeping in contact withthe camp in the event of an emergency. That’swhat happened in 2004, in the relatively clementbut nonetheless potentially lethal temperature of-24°C, Sergei, Phillip Siratchkov and OleysiaSaukova were saved when they were able toalert the camp by satellite phone.

At the site, going outside is limited to 20 minutesin severe cold and work stops completely whenthe temperature falls below -40°C. Operatorsare clothed in goose-down-quilted worksuitsand gloves, safety boots and lined hoods. Thehard hat has a built-in visor in transparent plastic.It’s not particularly convenient, because it mistsup, but it does keep the wind off your face. It isabsolutely forbidden to touch steel with yourbare hands, because your skin would just stickto the surface. But however tough the conditions,winter is actually the operators’ favourite season:no mosquitoes, and no mud, which means thevehicles don’t get bogged down. And theaurora borealis is a truly unforgettable spectacle.

SPaul Geiss, Larissa Sinkova and Nicolas Talabart crossing the edge of the Arctic Circle in Russia on their return from a site visit in March 2002

Thomas Rebilly, Country Manager for Russiain 2003-2004, at the Geoservices office inMoscow


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Chukotka: a mission unlike any otherThe Chukotka mission, in the Bering Strait, isone of those projects where sheer remotenessrequires the company to place total trust in theoperations team. “‘Remote’ seems too tame aword for it,” recalls Fabrice Ducret. “To get toChukotka, you take a specially charteredTupolev TU 154 plane from Vladivostok toAnadyr, which is already pretty unusual as faras flight destinations go”.

Then it takes another 90 minutes by helicopterto get out to the rig. “There were so many mosquitoes at Anadyr that we’d be constantlyfanning ourselves with the safety instructionleaflets! That was surrealistic enough, but it wasjust a starting point for the real leap into theunknown.”

The well was a long way out to sea: “the seawas magnificent, but terrifying at the sametime, with an unbelievable swell”. Drilling hadto take place between June and September:outside that window, ice and rough seas madework impossible. The minimum time beforebeing relieved was six weeks, but that onlyhappened once! Working relations with the endclient, Sibneft, were excellent, and their geo-logists would spend a lot of time in theGeoservices mud logging unit.

This very special mission was a total success,as project manager Dave Struthers, drillingmanager with Schlumberger IPM, confirmed: “Ihad excellent feedback from my field man-agers, who were highly satisfied with the teamsand equipment supplied by Geoservices on thisproject. Please thank everyone involved in themission on my behalf.” (9 October 2002)

Fabrice Ducret, team leader on the Chukotka mission


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Field surveillance, a new business

Field Surveillance, a new business begun in 2002, has two main components:Operations & Maintenance (O&M), already a well-known existing service, andProduction Monitoring & Optimisation (PM&O), a new high-potential service.These services, aimed at fields already in production, are in line with the company’sstrategic emphasis on increasing the proportion of revenues covered by clients’OPEX (operating expenditure), which is less sensitive to oil price fluctuationsthan CAPEX (capital expenditure).

STIMULATING PRODUCTION AND FIELD PROFITABILITY

Why PM&O? To meet oil companies’ needs for optimising production from their mature fields.How? A well diagnosis is performed by analysing production parameters, and corrective measuresare determined accordingly. Older fields are not equipped with the instrumentation to do this.

HIGH-POTENTIAL OPENINGS

Geoservices is very well positioned for this market, with recognized expertise in well parameter meas-urement, highly skilled personnel and a widespread network of bases to support operations in allcountries where there are wells in production. Everything is there: all we have to do is develop andsell it; that’s a marketing challenge that still has great potential today.

Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela

Las Heras, Argentina


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HSE: Geoservices, always at the forefront on safetyWhen you are working directly above pockets ofgas, the risks are high and the safety requirementscorrespondingly extreme. Geoservices has alwaysbeen at the forefront on safety. The HSE (Health,Safety, Environment) department was set up in 1990to optimize safety and environment managementand oversee compliance with local and internationalregulations. An ambitious audit and training programme was set up, the results of which speakfor themselves: three times fewer accidents than theindustry average.

For its achievements between 1994 and 2004, theNorth Sea District was awarded eleven consecutiveSwords of Honour, the highest distinction from theBritish Safety Council. Over this period, Geoserviceswould capitalise on its experience, holding seminarsand workshops to share its know-how with clients,thus further strengthening its reputation as a leadinginternational expert. In 2004, various operationalbases attained environmental management certifica-tion to ISO 14001, followed by OHSAS 18001 safetycertification in 2007.

Quality: at the heart of our business

Geoservices set up its first quality managementsystems in 1987. ISO 9002 was applied for allservices in 1988, then in early 1990, ISO 9001was selected and implemented for equipmentdesign and manufacture. Today, the head officeand the main operations bases have qualitymanagement systems certified by local authori-ties to 9001:2000 standards.

Health, Safety, Environment & Quality

Lothar Botje receives the eighth Sword of Honour in 2000 on behalf of the North Sea District


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A REAL BREAKTHROUGH

Sure, the mud logger’s image startedto change with the appearance ofthe Speedograph and the Geolograph,which automated depth calculations.But the biggest technological break-through that the business has everseen is undoubtedly FLAIR (FluidLogging Analysis In Real Time), anon-site continuous analysis by massspectrometry that opened the wayto fluid logging. Despite the initialsetup and handling difficulties, thefresh data delivered by the FLAIRtests begun in Italy in 2001 wereenough to convince clients’ geo-chemists that the new technologywould bring unprecedented precisionto gas analysis. Three gases sometimesencountered: hexane, heptane andoctane, the heaviest and most difficultto extract, are now measured in real time. The fluid logging servicealso brought with it an elevation of personnel qualifications, since theFLAIR system can only be operatedby a skilled specialist.

REVOLUTION IN RESERVOIREVALUATION

Even as the well is being drilled,FLAIR data can provide a goodidea of the composition of fluids inthe penetrated rock layers, so thatfluid sampling by more costlymeans can be optimised or evendispensed with. Shell saw theadvantages of this immediatelyand specified FLAIR as a require-ment on all their exploration wells.The service marked a technologicalleap forward that put Geoservicesin a unique position in its market.Clients’ specialists would regularlycome to the Geoservices headoffice to learn more about the sys-tem and study other potentialapplications for it.

Geoservices has always designed its own measuring systems, adopting an innovation-oriented

approach that has earned it its leading position in the market. But market recognition can never be taken for granted: while some oil companies

were very quick to pick up on the advantages of mud logging in the mid-sixties, others were

much slower off the mark.

FLAIR, the culmination of 4

Sachin Sharma, specialist in interpreting FLAIR data, at GEC, Dundee


To enhance the added value to its clients from its FLAIR service, Geoservices set up the GEC(Geoservices Expertise Centre) in Dundee, Scotland in 2005. Specialist personnel at the new centrewould analyse measurements of gases extracted from drilling mud to support the FLAIR engineers at the wellsite and validate their interpretations of the fluids found. They would also be available forcarrying out in-depth studies to special order. GEC services soon expanded to cover other newGeoservices technologies, and in 2007, two new centres were opened; one in Houston, USA andone in Tanggu, China.

GEC: definite added value

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Fluid Logging A new serviceThe fluid logging concept, invented by Geoservices, differs considerably fromclassic mud logging. This new service is in some ways more like electricallogging, but like mud logging it provides the information in real time, duringdrilling operations. Quantitative measurement of the hydrocarbons broughtup in the drilling fluid helps determine the composition of the fluids in thereservoirs drilled. Just a few years ago, this kind of service only existed insome reservoir engineers’ dreams.

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Turning pointNew shareholder, new management methods

With the arrival of the Astorg III investment fund as thenew majority shareholder in 2005, “family-style” financialmanagement would give way to more robust, morestructured processes. The change also brought theopportunity for a hundred or so employees tobecome shareholders in the company. Apart frombeing a sign of the times, the changes were also aresult of the way in which the Astorg III fund made itsinvestment: an LBO* requires the company to freeup cash for repaying the loan that was used to buyit in the first place. So, rigorous monitoring structureswould be needed to identify problems in time todevelop an effective response. For example, underthe new organisation, district managers, assisted bya financial controller, now get precise, reliable,monthly financial reports for the first time.

The life blood of a company, finance is also a preciousmanagement tool, providing managers with indicatorsfor planning, tracking and optimising management,controlling risks and reducing costs. In 2007,Geoservices set up an executive committee that

included three newcomers: Philippe Salle, ManagingDirector; Pierre d’Imbleval, Chief Information Officer;and Bruno Laforge, Vice President, Human Resources.

With operations in more than sixty countries, andextensive cross-invoicing of equipment and servicesbetween different companies, the Geoservicesorganisation is fiscally and financially complex. In2008, the organisation in France was restructuredaround three companies: Geoservices S.A. and twonew companies, Geoservices Equipements andGeoservices Management, in order to consolidateand simplify operations. Geoservices Equipementscomprises three departments: Operations Support & Logistics; Research & Technology; and Sales &Marketing; and has ownership of all equipment andstock. Geoservices Management covers corporatemanagement and the other head office depart-ments. Geoservices S.A. retains ownership of the Le Blanc-Mesnil premises in France and providesservices to our clients worldwide through its variousbranches.

* LBO (Leveraged Buy Out): purchase of majority stake largely through borrowed finance.

2005. Geoservices sells its Well Testing & EPF departmentGeoservices’ Well Testing and EPF business, a very prominentplayer in some of the key episodes of the company’s history,presented two major sources of risk: firstly because of over-dependence on clients’ exploration operations, and secondlybecause Geoservices did not have the critical mass necessaryto compete with the well testing departments of companies likeSchlumberger and Halliburton. In 2005, this department wassold to PowerWell Services, a company founded by formerHalliburton engineers. Ten months later, PowerWell Serviceswas itself bought up by the British company Expro.


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With the turn of the millennium, the new management teamsoon realised that Geoservices needed centralised impetus todrive marketing and development. In March 2000, the SM&D(Sales, Marketing and Development) department was formedin Le Blanc-Mesnil with the mission of remodelling Geoservices’approach to its “products and services” offering, as it wasknown at the time. The new approach would involve a radicalshift in the centre of gravity, away from products and towardservices. The emphasis would swing away from the chromato-graph itself to focus on the value of the information it suppliesto the client. The gauge itself would become secondary to theutility of pressure and temperature measurements. Above andbeyond their value as new technologies, FLAIR and geoNEXTintroduced radically new service concepts. Supported by afully redesigned website and a new collection of service-orientedbrochures, the Communications department would embellish thecompany logo with the baseline, “People, Knowledge &Technology”, which in 2008 evolved to read “PioneeringTechnology Worldwide”.

“People, Knowledge & Technology”The beginnings of marketing


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Sustained innovation for a solid future

Geoservices has always put very strong emphasis on technological development.Even during the worst oil crises of the 80s and 90s, it has always found the resourcesto carry through its ambitious R&D programmes, coming up with an unbrokenseries of symbolic products such as the Gaslogger, Reserval, ALS for mud logging,and the MQG-X downhole gauge for well intervention.

Electromagnetic downhole valvesEnhanced safetyRemember the invasion of Kuwait and the burning wells? Had the wellsbeen fitted with GEM-Valves there would have been no flames and no oilspilled into the Persian Gulf. Geoservices GEM-Valve is a new electromagneticdownhole valve that substantially reduces the risk of well damage underemergency situations such as conflicts. The device lies dormant ataround fifty metres down, and closes electromagnetically if a problem isdetected. This process is safer than conventional hydraulic and electricsystems.

EVER-BETTER DRILLING PRECISION

At the dawn of the 21st century, Geoservicesstepped up the development of new techno-logies, such as Isotope Logging, a major first forgeochemists, giving real-time indications on thethermogenic and bacteriogenic properties of areservoir, and geoNEXT, the successor to ALS.This new data acquisition and processing systemprovides drillers with additional decision-supportingcapabilities. All drilling parameters are analysedto yield very precise results, adopting an event-based rather than an isolated-data informationbase, to anticipate potential interactions andanticipate risks.

REAL-TIME PERFORMANCE

The GEM-Line (Geoservices ElectromagneticLine) marks a major breakthrough in wellintervention, turning slickline into a fully-fledgedcommunications medium, with electromagnetictransmission technology used to send data up tosurface in real time. Field surveillance also benefitsfrom electromagnetic technology, with theGEM-Valve, which shuts down a well safely andavoids the need for traditional and much morecostly intervention (see inset). Then there is gWEB,a powerful Internet-based data distribution systemfor keeping clients fully informed about theirwells anywhere in the world. When tested byTotal, gWEB was found to provide more secureaccess to data than any of the rival systems.

Jean-Luc Le Ru working on a tool in a workshop in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France


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Using the PreVue system with its specific software, a

specialist can predict the approach of an overpressure

zone using a simple laptop connected to the mud

logging unit’s drilling data, thereby increasing the

safety of drilling operations.


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The future is

In the fifty years since Geoservices was founded, the initial handful of personnel has grown into a workforce of 5,000 and the company has gonethrough successive technological and managerialupheavals that have revolutionised business practice.So what, if anything, remains of the initialGeoservices spirit? Do our origins continue to inspirepresent achievement and prepare the way for thefuture?

Company founder and former Chairman, Gaston Rebillydiscusses this with current Managing Director,Philippe Salle.

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e is nourished by the past Gaston Rebilly: Things have changed, obviously.Fifty years ago, when you went on a mission you leftfor a long spell. In the early sixties there was no suchthing as a fax machine, a satellite phone, or evenDHL. Something like the Internet was simply unimagin-able. If the spring broke on a Geolograph, youwere on your own, as Marcel Eder, one of the veryfirst mud loggers, will remember only too well!Geoservices values are rooted in the spirit of thoseearly sites: self-reliance, resourcefulness, trust, free-dom, responsibility, open-mindedness, solidarity, a will to achieve. All these values converged into a single purpose: to do a good job that the clientwould appreciate.

Philippe Salle: Yes, we certainly do things differ-ently today. Response capability has acceleratedgreatly with the advent of new technologies, andthe business is more tightly controlled all round, withlabour legislation, all manner of procedures, andsafety standards. But I think the original pioneeringsprit is still there, even if it is often expressed differentlythrough procedural and technological break-throughs. I see two dimensions. First there’s the senseof duty to the client, and the pioneering spirit heremeans a strong reluctance to say “no”. That’s agreat strength, provided of course it is managedproperly. Not so very long ago, the Geoservices unit

was the rig’s information centre, and we would be so involved in the project that it was perfectlynatural for the client to ask us favours, and perfectlyunthinkable for us to turn them down. That kind of willingness and availability is still there, but again,it has to be managed properly, consistent with goodeconomics. Rigorous management has become anecessity.

The sense of duty goes hand in hand with a cultureof excellence that has been handed down intactsince the early days. This is very clear in the qualityof our procedures: we are one of very few oilfieldservice companies to hold OHSAS (OccupationalHealth and Safety Assessment Series) certification.The market recognizes this excellence: we’ve earnedthe British Safety Council’s Sword of Honour eleventimes, and that’s the ultimate safety award. Thesecond dimension is innovation.

Gaston Rebilly: That’s right: innovation has been acentral feature of Geoservices’ development fromthe very beginning. When we offered our servicesto oil companies who had their own teams of geo-logists, they would ask us what we had that theydid not have already. So we bought a German instrument, the Prakla, a distant ancestor of the FLAIR,which performed automated continuous detection

of hydrocarbons, at a time when in France we onlyhad manual processes based on successive sampling.We even went as far as setting up a chromatographonsite that we had rented… from a competitor! Thenin 1963 we started making our own chromatographsat the R&D centre we opened in 1960, under OlivierIssenmann. Geoservices has been consistently inno-vating ever since.

Philippe Salle: The spirit of innovation lives on rightenough! In our core Mud Logging business werecently released the FLAIR system, followed byIsotope Logging in 2008, a system that one of ourinternational clients has requested exclusive rights tofor one year. Then in our Well Intervention businesswe’re launching GEM-Line, and there will be amajor Field Surveillance innovation coming out in2009. What we’re doing is focusing more and moresharply on market segments with a high potential forinnovation, achieving technological breakthroughs thatoffer the client high added value. Technologicalbreakthrough is one the three levers in our strategy,along with international network reach and serviceexcellence. This is how we intend to reach our goalof world n° 1 in Well Intervention and n° 2 in FieldSurveillance; it will also enable us to balance ourturnover with the CAPEX revenues we make withour leading business of Mud Logging.

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This book tells the story of the Geoservices adventure over the last half-century by spotlighting some of the people and events that have markedits history. In preparing the book, we drew extensively from the first-handaccounts and photos of many Geoservices people, who deserve our heart-felt thanks. We are especially grateful to Paul Geiss, whose encyclopaedicmemory and boundless enthusiasm proved invaluable. From start to finish,the task of putting this book together was guided by the Geoservices spiritof resourcefulness, solidarity and efficiency.

Obviously it was not possible to mention everyone who has contributed toshaping the company over this period, or go into any real detail about theirachievements. Those whose names do not appear in these pages shouldknow that their common experiences are not forgotten by those with whomthey were shared.

Our thanks also go out to all the wives, husbands and partners whose presence, patience and support have also greatly contributed to the devel-opment of our company.

Among the many people who lent their photographs, we would particularly like to thank: A.L. Leca, Fabrice Ducret, Jacky Betton, Jean-Luc Baudic,John Hanson, Joseph Torok, Marcel Eder, Marie-Pierre Barrot, Olivier Issenmann, Paul Geiss, Roland Vighetto and Thomas Rebilly, whose photosappear in this work.

Photo credits: Geoservices, Geotherma, Isabella Vincenti, SevenOrients (Peter Livermore).Illustrations: Christophe Clément • Texts: Philippe Blanchard, Paul Geiss and Keith Ross

Layout and production:

Coordination: Keith Ross, for Geoservices Communications Department

This document is printed on Ecolabel certified paper, from paper mills certified to ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, using timber from sustainable forests. Printed at Edips, certified to the Imprim’Vert ecological label

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50 years! a page has turned, philippe salle

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