Q. What is the official name of your company?
A. CGG. In Alaska we operate under CGG Services (U.S.) Inc.
Q. What is your company’s primary business activity?
A. CGG is a fully integrated Geoscience company. We provide leading geological, geophysical and reservoir capabilities to our broad base of customers who are primarily from the global oil and gas industry. Through our three complementary business divisions of Equipment, Acquisition and Geology, Geophysics & Reservoir (GGR), we bring value across all aspects of natural resource exploration and exploitation.
Our primary business activities in Alaska are seismic acquisition and subsurface imaging. We also have a significant multi-client business in Alaska with seismic and non-seismic data available for license.
Q. What do you most want people to know about your company?
A. We have been committed to Alaska and working in Alaska for over 30 years and have the most advanced technology in the geoscience industry.
Q. Where is your company located?
A. CGG has a seismic acquisition office in Anchorage, Alaska and some of our other business activities for Alaska are based out of our Calgary, Canada and Houston, USA offices.
CGG has over 70 locations globally.
Q. What year was the company founded and by whom?
A. CGG was founded in 1931 in France by Conrad Schlumberger.
Q. Are there important projects the company is currently a part of or has done recently in Alaska?
A. CGG has a land seismic crew operating for the full winter season. In 2012 our multi-client group conducted its first multi-client seismic program, known as Tabasco, on the North Slope after conducting proprietary surveys there for over a decade. To acquire this high-density, high-productivity vibroseis survey, we deployed some of our latest high-end acquisition technologies for the first time on the tundra and generated a dataset of the highest quality. The multi-client team is planning for more programs in the area.
Q. How many employees does your company have?
A. Worldwide, we have 9,800. In Alaska, CGG employs up to 200 people during the peak acquisition season.
Q. Describe the equipment your company uses and are there any new equipment purchases planned?
A. Most of the equipment we deploy in Alaska is for our acquisition division. This includes geophysical equipment such as recording systems, sensors and cables which are manufactured by our equipment division, Sercel, a global leader in geophysical equipment. CGG is expanding the use of wireless nodes using Sercel’s UNITE cable-free system. CGG Airborne has flown many proprietary and multi-client projects in Alaska and will have potential field systems flying there this year.
Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations or locations?
A. CGG is continually looking at opportunities to expand in different markets around the world. For instance, CGG recently opened a data processing center in Myanmar which it hopes to expand as the local market develops. With past experience of performing land seismic operations there and an offshore survey currently underway we are building a local presence to be ready for the expected upturn in the exploration sector.
Q. Is the company changing any of its services or products?
A. In 2013, CGG completed the acquisition of Fugro’s Geoscience division. The addition of a number of new activities and technologies, including Jason software, Airborne and Robertson, significantly enhanced our geoscience capabilities and we expanded into new markets such as airborne geophysics, marine gravity, electromagnetic and Data Management Services. Locally, this acquisition brought many new capabilities to CGG and also added into CGG’s existing Alaska portfolio multi-client gravity and magnetic data, satellite images and geologic and basin studies.
Also as part of the transaction, Fugro and CGG formed the Seabed GeoSolutions joint venture that focuses on the seismic acquisition of Shallow Water, and Ocean Bottom Nodes/Cables surveys. In 2012 CGG performed a Shallow Water acquisition project on the North Slope using Ocean Bottom Cables.
Q. What is your company’s main strength or its edge over the competition?
A. Our people, technology, and safety culture leveraging our global experience and local knowledge offering a full range of onshore, offshore and airborne Geophysical & geological services.
Q. What new markets, clients or projects did your company attract in the last year?
A. CGG conducted the first Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM) pilot survey in Alaska for a client on the North Slope. The pilot’s objectives were to test different source and receiver depths, and to validate the method for monitoring purposes.
Q. What is the most challenging work/contract the company has undertaken?
A. Our multi-client Tabasco seismic program conducted in 2012 covered 130 square miles. This program mobilized the integrated technologies from different CGG businesses in terms of seismic equipment, land data acquisition, subsurface imaging and reservoir characterization and resulted in a high-quality dataset never seen before in this area, all the while preserving the delicate Arctic environment and complying with stringent environmental regulations
Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work your company undertakes?
A. Having the expertise and experience to overcome the challenges of working in the Arctic with respect to weather conditions, remoteness, and general logistics in a very fragile ecosystem is something CGG is proud to be great at.
Q. What do you see as your company’s biggest challenge in the next five years?
A. Maintaining our market and technology leadership while continuing to improve on our safety, sustainability, and social license initiatives.
Q. What is the address of your company’s Web site?
A. www.cgg.com
