Baker Hughes Inc.’s (BHI) $5.5 billion acquisition of BJ Services Co. (BJS) will result in $75 million in savings next year, starting with the reduction of redundant corporate costs, a Baker Hughes executive said Monday.

 ”Initial cost savings will occur in some of the corporate overhead,” said Chief Financial Officer Peter Ragauss in a conference call with investors. Other cost savings will come from the consolidation of property and regional offices that have been operating separately, he said.

 ”It will be a rolling cost savings that increases over time,” Ragauss said.

 The merger of the two oil field service companies, the first big oil patch deal since the price of commodities began tumbling in mid-2008, will be gradual, Baker Hughes Chief Executive Chad Deaton said.

 ”BJ is going to operate as BJ,” Deaton said. “They’ve got their facilities, their bases. Over time these things will move together,” he said.

 The deal, the executives said, was prompted by the need to offer oil companies a more comprehensive set of services when tackling major projects, in order to compete with larger service companies like Schlumberger Ltd (SLB) and Halliburton Co. (HAL).

 The “predominant benefit is going to be overseas,” where most of these major projects are, said BJ Services chief executive Bill Stewart.

 Baker Hughes expects the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share in 2011. The company predicts a “modest” increase in rig count, CEO Deaton said.