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Sep 05, 2010
Schlumberger Names Kibsgaard Chief Operating Officer Feb 08, 2010
By David Wethe
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Schlumberger Ltd., the world’s largest oilfield-services provider, said that its board has appointed Paal Kibsgaard chief operating officer, effective immediately.
Kibsgaard, who began his career at Exxon Mobil Corp. in 1992 and joined Schlumberger five years later, will be responsible for daily management of all worldwide operations, the company, based in Houston and Paris, said in statement today.
The move is expected to give Chief Executive Officer Andrew Gould, 63, more time to work on big-picture issues including potential mergers and acquisitions, said Bill Herbert, an analyst at Simmons & Co. in Houston. Herbert said the company may be grooming Kibsgaard to take over as CEO.
“It allows Andrew’s heir and the potential future CEO to get some seasoning in a more visible and more all-encompassing position within Schlumberger,” said Herbert, who rates the shares at “overweight” and owns none.
Stephen Harris, a Schlumberger spokesman, declined to comment on whether Kibsgaard, 42, would take over as CEO. Kibsgaard was most recently president of the reservoir characterization product group, which uses modeling to help determine the best production methods.
Gould said in the statement he has “complete confidence” in Kibsgaard’s ability to expand the company’s operations.
Over the past year, Gould spent a lot of time studying who would succeed him, Herbert said.
“He wants to allow sufficient time to groom somebody to step into that role,” he said. “Paal is relatively unknown to the street, relatively unknown to investors, although he has basically been running Schlumberger’s main engine of value here for a while.”
To contact the reporter on this story: David Wethe in Houston at dwethe@bloomberg.net.
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