Exclusive-Schlumberger names new executives to energy transition business - memo

By Liz Hampton

(Reuters) -Top oilfield services firm Schlumberger NV on Monday named new executives to energy transition units, according to a memo seen by Reuters, a move that signals its growing commitment to lower carbon businesses.

Sebastian Pages, formerly in the Well Construction group, was appointed as New Energy finance director. Kahina Abdeli-Galinier, previously the marketing director for Digital & Integration, was named Emissions Business Director to "build and manage a new business to methane emissions for oil and gas operations of our customers," the memo said.

A Schlumberger spokesman did not comment on the appointments.

The company on Monday separately named Samuel Leupold to its board of directors, assigning him seats on its finance and New Energy and innovation committees. Leupold currently is chairman of Wind Energy at Green Investment Group, owned by Macquarie Group, and previously was chief executive of Ørsted Wind Power.

"This addition adds some serious heft to Schlumberger's sustainability and Energy Transition goals," wrote James West, a senior managing director for Evercore ISI in a note.

Schlumberger New Energy was formed to advance technologies that could help lower emissions and develop clean fuel sources. That unit, headed by former technology chief Ashok Belani, has pushed into hydrogen, carbon capture and sequestration, geothermal power and lithium extraction.

Pages will report to Belani, as well as Chief Financial Officer Stephane Biguet, and is based in Houston. Abdeli-Galinier will report to Demosthenis Pafitis, Schlumberger's chief technology officer, and work out of London.

Other oil and gas companies have also launched businesses to search for profit from energy transition ventures and lower-carbon fuels. Occidental Petroleum and Exxon Mobil have begun carbon capture and storage services while pipeline operator Kinder Morgan has launched a unit to broaden low-carbon projects already in development.

(Reporting by Liz HamptonEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Marguerita Choy)