News

October 21, 2008

Taking the Seismic World Beyond 3D: The Premium Seismic Companies

By David Bamford

One alternative to investing in oil & gas companies and their assets, promises and aspirations is to “follow the cash” and invest in the oil field service sector. The cash you’d be following, according to some estimates, could be as much as US$250 billion per year, all flowing into service company coffers. I was thinking recently about the phases of progress in the seismic technology arena, which is an area which on its own rakes in around US$10 billion to US$12 billion per year in business, depending on exactly what’s included under this umbrella.

I wondered whether we could describe these phases as the drillers do their offshore rigs, and if so I guess they are up to fifth generation by now. My thinking on seismic was: First Generation = 2D; Second Generation = 3D; Third Generation = 4D; I have skipped across several technology leaps here, but I’m trying to define phases that when they were introduced produced a quantum shift in the exploration for and exploitation of oil and gas, and for which oil & gas companies were prepared to pay a...