Geoservices was founded in France in 1958 by Gaston Rebilly, an entrepreneur who noticed a potential market for providing geological services in the country. Within two years he had been joined by Olivier Issenmann and Edouard Cochet who completed the corporate management team that would stay in place for the next 37 years. During the first years of its existence, based in offices in Paris, the small team worked mainly on geological synthetic studies, aerial photo interpretation, field surveys and micropalaeontology.

 Development of Mud Logging

The founders soon observed that a new service, known as " Mud Logging " showed potential for real growth, and in the early ‘60s they began to concentrate resources on developing this service. The first forays abroad were to Morocco, Algeria, Spain, Libya, Italy, the North Sea, Australia and West Africa. In the late '60s, the company was operating in the Middle East around the Gulf, and had begun operations in Japan. It opened operations bases in Singapore for Southeast Asia and in Calgary for its North American operations. In 1975, a North American subsidiary, Geoservices Inc. was created in the U.S.A. and, from 1980, enlargement of activities in Latin America led to the creation of a regional base in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 Booming times

The high level of growth in the late 60s and 70s caused the company to relocate from Paris to larger premises outside Paris in 1973, close to a new airport still under construction: Roissy Charles de Gaulle. In 1977 the company opened its Production Department, offering well testing, wire line, measuring and sampling services. For almost the next decade, before the oil price collapse of 1985-87, the level of activity remained high enough for the company to diversify several times; opening departments in 1984 for drilling fluids, in 1985 for directional drilling and in 1987 for mud treatment.

 Changing times

Geoservices remained an independent company, wholly owned by just a few individuals until October 1995, when new capital was injected by the first external investors. In 2000, one of the first major steps in a new business strategy was taken by selling off the Directional Drilling business. Another major step in this strategy was taken in 2005, when the Well Testing business was sold. Both of these strategic sales were made to enable the company to concentrate all of its research and development resources on its core businesses: Mud Logging, Well Intervention and Field Surveillance services.

 New majority shareholder

In 2005, the majority shareholding changed hands for the first time when the Astorg III financial fund took a 52% stake by way of a leveraged buy out. This led to a general tightening of financial management and exposure to risk and, in 2006, the first real management participation in the company’s share capital (9%). In 2007, several top management changes took place to support an ambitious expansion programme over the coming five years.
View “A Memorable Half-century” the book printed in 2008 to commemorate Geoservices 50 years of existence.
Unloading a mud logging unit in the 1960s A Geoservices exhibition stand in the 1970s
The Prakla, an automated gas sampling apparatus from the 1960s A laboratory caravan, the precursor of the mud logging unit