CGG (company)

Veritas Energy Services, a geophysical services company, was established in 1974 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with the purchase of a Rafael Cruz owned firm Rafael B. Cruz and Associates Ltd. by David B. Robson.

Meanwhile, Digital Consultants Inc. had been established in Houston, Texas in 1965. In 1969, Digital Consultants reincorporated as Digicon Inc. (DGC), becoming a public company on the American Stock Exchange.

In 1996, Veritas DGC was formed from the merger of Veritas and Digicon.

The company became CGGVeritas through its merger with the North American company Veritas in 2007.

CGGVeritas acquired Norwegian company Wavefield Inseis in December 2008.[7]

In September 2012, CGGVeritas acquired Fugro's Geoscience Division for €1.2 billion,[8] and changed back its name to CGG

In 2020, the group's net loss reached $442m due to oil crisis which followed the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to $69m in 2019, while turnover fell 35% to $886m. For 2021, CGG expected more optimistic outcome due to vaccination and the rebound in oil prices.[9]

CGG develops geoscience technology to find natural resources and manage those resources sustainably. The organization focuses on the development process of oil & gas, the lifecycle of minerals & mining, and the monitoring and evaluation of geothermal developments.

Minerals and Mining: CGG supports mineral exploration through global geological predictions and plate kinematic studies, satellite-derived surface material alteration targeting, provision of geophysical equipment, and the development and provision of modeling software.[10] [11]

Geothermal: CGG evaluates and monitors geothermal developments to gain insight across asset life cycle by utilizing data & analytics, resource assessments, reservoir characterization, and production & monitoring.[12]

CGG utilizes analytics and earth monitoring to understand human impact on environment. CGG focuses on critical environmental insight (on land, ocean, or atmosphere) through remote sensing, machine learning analytics, data analysis & interpretation, and high performance computing (HPC).[13]

Some of the environmental projects in which CGG has worked on include conducting microplastics pollution surveys as part of study for an effort to create a Plastic Free zone at Yr Wydffa (Snowdon). [14]

CGG's Equipment business, Sercel, offers systems, sensors and sources for seismic acquisition and downhole monitoring.[4] Oilfield service companies and geophysical contractors use the equipment for monitoring subsurface characteristics on onshore, offshore, downhole and seabed activities.

CGG has had data acquisition capabilities to conduct geophysical surveys, both on the ground (Land division) and at sea (Marine division).

In a move to focus on geophysical services, it got rid of those divisions, ending in 2019 by the sale of its last vessels to Shearwater Geoservices.[15]

The Geology, Geophysics & Reservoir Division provides seismic and geophysical services for characterizing the subsurface, and monitoring hydrocarbon reservoirs. Services include Land and Marine Seismic Acquisition, Geophysical Processing and Imaging, and Reservoir Characterization.