ION Geophysical Corporation today announced that it has entered into an agreement to increase to 100% its ownership of ocean bottom seismic (OBS) acquisition company OceanGeo B.V. ION acquired 30% of OceanGeo in February 2013 and increased its ownership to 70% in January 2014.
In a separate statement, OceanGeo today announced that it has been awarded a contract by a major European oil & gas company to acquire a substantial 3D ocean bottom seismic survey offshore Republic of Congo. Acquisition is expected to start in third quarter 2014.
Colin Hulme , OceanGeo’s Chief Executive Officer, commented, “ We are extremely pleased to announce this award. OceanGeo has a proven track record of successfully acquiring ocean bottom seismic data, safely and efficiently. Since 2008, our crew has been operating offshore Brazil and Trinidad & Tobago, delivering superior reservoir understanding for our E&P clients. This award is in keeping with our strategy of deploying our crew into the West African region. With the full support of ION, we are well positioned to compete and thrive in the growing ocean bottom seismic market and are truly excited about our future.”
As for the ION’s acquisition, Brian Hanson , ION’s President and CEO, commented , “The OBS segment is the fastest-growing seismic market segment today, commanding an estimated 13% of E&P company marine seismic spend, up from about 6% in 2006. Our increase in ownership of OceanGeo is indicative of our full commitment to the OBS market and is in keeping with our strategy of leveraging our key technologies, such as our Calypso® next generation VSO acquisition system, to deliver solutions to oil & gas companies. With the addition of OceanGeo services, we now offer a fully-integrated OBS solution that includes survey planning and design, data acquisition using Calypso, and data processing, interpretation and reservoir services through our GX Technology group. An integrated solution means efficient, seamless delivery of these technologies, services and expertise to oil and gas companies seeking higher quality OBS data for reservoir development and production.”