When did you join IFP?

I qualified and went off to spend two years teaching at IUT, a university institute of technology in Caracas, Venezuela, for my military service. I enjoyed it, and decided to spend another two years doing the same thing in Senegal after my PhD in applied physical chemistry at IFP.

I moved back to France in 1980, and IFP took me on as a Research Engineer at the Reservoir Engineering Division. I have been working with polymers ever since.

Why did you decide to start your own company?

The time was right. Crude prices are sky high, so industrial firms are very keen on enhancing and optimizing oil and gas production.

French oil and gas companies, as an aside, are doing very well; they are among the crude-oil extraction and development world leaders.

Then, when I started telling people about my plans, Nicolas Blin and Jérôme Bouillot, two technicians here, told me they were willing to go for it too. They are Poweltec employees and shareholders now.

What area are you working in?

My associates and I founded a service company to improve well and reservoir production using polymer-based technology.

The three main areas we work in are:
- preventing water influx in wells,
- preventing sand influx in wells,
- enhanced oil recovery.

Poweltec polymers meet ecotoxicity standards (which is not usually the case with other service companies in our business).

What are “spin-offs” all about?

IFP introduced its spin-off policy in July 2005 to encourage employees to start their own companies. In practice, employees get time off and access to IFP resources to prepare their new business venture – which obviously has to tie in with the technology and expertise that IFP develops. IFP has spent decades honing the expertise we are using at Poweltec, but it had not planned to channel it towards industrial outlets.

Technology transfer can also involve an employee passing on IFP-developed expertise to an existing company.

What did you like about the spin-off drive? How did IFP help?

I wanted to start my own company, but I wanted to stay in touch with IFP. I have been working for IFP for 30 years, and it has given me a lot – both personally and professionally. And I didn’t really fancy the idea of jumping in the deep end all by myself without a life belt! IFP’s spin-off scheme provided support in a number of ways while founding Poweltec.

- The Industrial Development business unit, which is in charge of tailoring and rolling out IFP’s spin-off policy, provided advice and support throughout.

- Fellow scientists from the Exploration-Production Technology business unit and the Reservoir Engineering Division followed up on the spin-off project.

- IFP’s functional divisions also got involved (the Legal Division drafted Poweltec’s by-laws, shareholder pact and registration forms; the Budget Division were there to put the business plan together; the Real-Estate Department helped us find and fit out the facilities).

- The Human Resources Division was also involved: we signed an agreement whereby we could come back to IFP if the project folded during the first four years in business (the law gives you two years in these cases). They also gave the three founders loans on trust, which we used to buy stakes in Poweltec.

- Isis Développement, a fully-owned IFP spin-off subsidiary, bought a sizeable stake in Poweltec.

What’s in it for IFP? It is losing three experienced employees…

First of all, Poweltec is one of the channels that IFP is using to harness its polymer technology and expertise in industry. Meaning that it will find an outlet for its know-how. Then, all things going to plan, industrial outlets will create wealth and jobs. Lastly, spin-offs round off IFP’s research and development outset scheme quite nicely.

Where is your company now? And where do you want it to be a few years from now?

One month after we officially started doing business, we had firm orders covering one-third of our annual sales forecast.

Our goal, to start with, is to tap as much as possible of our development potential with French firms. I am thinking of leading oil and gas companies (laboratory services, preventing sand influx in gas-storage wells), and SNF (a world-leading polymer manufacturer). Naturally, once we cement our domestic presence, we will start venturing into international markets.

+ Industrial partnerships > Employee spin-offs

+ Industrial partnerships > Industrial partners > IFP's portfolio > Poweltec