Charles Russell Speechlys has acted as legal adviser to the management team led by Bruno Burban and Benoit Debray (former CEO and COO of Geoservices SA), on their investment alongside Blue Water Energy (BWE), a private equity firm that invests exclusively in the energy sector, in Excellence Logging, a new oil field service company.

Bruno Burban leads Excellence Logging’s management team as CEO and has over 30 years’ experience in the oil field service sector, latterly as CEO and Chairman of Geoservices.

At the time of its acquisition by Schlumberger in 2010, Geoservices operated a mud-logging, well intervention and field surveillance business spanning 55 countries with over 5,000 employees.

Bruno and Benoit have worked closely with BWE to formulate a value creation strategy for Excellence Logging which is tailored to today’s oil and gas business context. The cornerstone of this strategy is rooted in technological development and geographical deployment.

With support from BWE, Excellence Logging is launching an extensive product development program and will also target further acquisitions, in addition to the acquisitions of DHI Services, GeoRS and Wilog International which have already completed, to expand its footprint, targeting over $100 million in revenue by 2017.

Commenting on the transaction, Malcolm MacDougall, head of Private Equity at Charles Russell Speechlys, said:

"We are delighted to have advised Bruno, Benoit and the team on their investment alongside Blue Water Energy in this new business and we are looking forward to working with the business as it pursues an active expansion strategy.”

The Charles Russell Speechlys team was led by Partner and head of Private Equity Malcolm MacDougall, and included Private Equity Associate Richard Coleman and Tax Associate Robert Birchall in London, as well as teams led by Partner Victor Regnard in Luxembourg and Partner Thibaut Caharel in Paris.