Seismic Acquisition Industry Showing Small Signs of Improvement

A recent study published by Kimberlite Oilfield Research based on interviews with 104 oil & gas operators worldwide indicates the seismic acquisition industry remains depressed but the worse appears to be behind us and some small signs of improvement are beginning to emerge.

The North America land market remains depressed with no signs of significant improvement for 2018. The North America land market is principally dominated by multi-client seismic data licensing and the North America oil & gas operators are using empirical analytics and manufacturing style drilling and completion efficiencies to drive results.

Internationally, approximately 41% of the oil & gas operators interviewed report plans to increase expenditures in 2018 for seismic acquisition. This represents a significant improvement versus that of 2016 in which virtually no international oil & gas operators were reporting plans to increase investments in seismic acquisition.

Approximately 7% of marine seismic expenditures are planned for production/4D initiatives while 58% of marine seismic expenditures are for exploration related activities. Multi-client data licensing, however, comprises approximately 80% of the marine seismic acquisition efforts while proprietary acquisition only comprises approximately 20% of the market.

Among the offshore oil & gas operators who have purchased marine seismic in the past year, 70% of them report plans to purchase additional seismic in 2018.

CGG remains the market share leader worldwide for marine seismic multi-client data licensing followed by Schlumberger, PGS and TGS.