Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
www.OHMsurveys.com
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OHMsurveys.com
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The T echnology Centre
Offshore T echnology Park
Claymore Drive
Bridge of Don
Aberdeen
AB23 8GD
Resist drilling Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Value proposition
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping’s remote
sensing technology can detect the presence and
extent of hydrocarbon accumulations before they are
drilled.This developing application could signiﬁcantly
reduce the risk of drilling dry holes and reduce the
scope of appraisal drilling programmes.
At OHM, we believe the opportunity exists to
transform the way companies explore for oil and gas.
Our vision is to create value for our clients by
signiﬁcantly lowering the risk of their exploration 
and appraisal drilling programmes.
By working with clients closely we are able to 
identify the prospects most likely to deliver
discoveries and then reduce the number of 
wells the client must drill to delineate them.
Contents
1 Highlights
2 Chairman’s Statement
4 Chief Executive’s Review
9 Board of directors
11 Directors’ Report
13 Remuneration Report
16 Corporate Governance Report
18 Independent Auditors’ Report
19 Consolidated proﬁt 
and loss account
20 Consolidated balance sheet
21 Company balance sheet
22 Cash ﬂow statement
23 Notes to the accounts
32 Shareholder information
Resist drilling 1 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Results for year ended 31 August 2004
Highlights
£4.7mturnover
T urnover up19 1 % on last year
£404,02 1 pre-tax proﬁt
NewHQestablished in Aberdeen
Increased
adoption ofCSEMI
*
by industry 
Successful placing 
and admission to 
AiM
†
raising a net£9.9m
* Controlled Source ElectroMagnetic Imaging
† Alternative Investment Market  2 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
This ﬁnancial year has represented a watershed
for your Company.Our ﬁnancial performance 
was pleasing,with proﬁt after tax of £365,879
compared to a loss of £367,220 the previous year .
In March, we successfully completed the placing of shares
and admission to the Alternative Investment Market in 
London and raised £9.9 million of new money, net of 
costs, to ﬁnance the expected growth in demand for 
our services and technology in what we see as a market
with huge potential.
In June, we extended our contract with a major client,
keeping our ﬁrst crew active in many of the deep water
basins of the Atlantic coasts. I am particularly pleased 
that last year’s work for this crew was completed with 
an outstanding record for health and safety.
Following investment of funds raised in the placing,
we mobilised our second crew in August.The vessel is
equipped with our latest source and receivers and will
initially test, on behalf of a consortium of oil companies,
the validity of our concepts in shallow waters in the
North Sea.
It is then expected to work for various clients in 
Norway and the West Coast of Africa.
We are also investing in additional capacity beyond 
this second crew.
We have made signiﬁcant progress in our integrated 3D
modelling and data processing, gaining several contracts
to reprocess data acquired by others.
At a recent major conference in Paris the presentation 
of our technology and new processing techniques
created a lot of interest amongst potential industry
clients, giving us comfort that Controlled Source
ElectroMagnetic Imaging (CSEMI) will gain industry
acceptance at an accelerating pace.
A cornerstone of our strategy remains the defence of
our existing intellectual property and pursuit of an 
active research and development programme designed 
to maintain our position as industry leader in CSEMI 
and data processing. As part of this effort we maintain
strong links with the University of Southampton.
With new ofﬁces in Aberdeen, management, research,
operations and marketing personnel are able to work
together.That and the strengthening of all teams lay 
the foundation for progress in the future.
Over the past year, oil and gas prices have been very 
ﬁrm through a combination of high demand, reﬁning
capacity constraint especially in the US and lack of
progress in the industry’s ability to access the Middle
East’s hydrocarbon potential.
The lack of recent world class discoveries has led 
to growing concerns over potential future supply
shortfalls. Coupled with many companies’ failure to
replace production, continuing reserve downgrades 
and accelerating depletion of old ﬁelds, the possibility 
of high energy prices for some time to come is very real.
Despite this, the oil and gas companies still appear to run
their planning at prices which are signiﬁcantly lower than
ﬁve or even ten years averages, let alone futures prices.
This may be due to the memory of several periods of low
oil prices in the past and their impact on the industry or,
possibly, to a lack of access to world class opportunities.
In this context, we believe that our company has the
capacity to provide the industry with the technology 
and its application which could change the economic
model of exploration and appraisal offshore by providing
a powerful risk management tool as signiﬁcant as 3D
seismic was in the 1980s.This would allow an increase 
in activity levels even at prudent pricing models.
In line with good corporate governance for listed
companies, we have recently appointed two independent
non-executive directors to the Board: Keith Lough,
formerly Finance Director of British Energy and Lasmo,
and Gary Jones, previously President of Western Geco,
Western Geophysical and Baker Atlas. Both bring 
to the Board key skills which will reinforce our
deliberations.They will offer themselves for election 
at the coming Annual General Meeting.
Finally, I would like to thank our CEO, Dave Pratt, the
teams, both onshore and offshore, and management 
of OHM for all their hard work over the past 12 months.
Their efforts should place your Company at the centre 
of an exciting step change in exploration for oil and gas.
Dr Pierre Jungels CBE
Chairman
Chairman’s Statement
Gaining industry acceptance
Dr Pierre Jungels
Chairman Pre-survey modelling is a vital part of the
process, as it determines to a great extent 
just how valuable the work to be undertaken
will ultimately be. As the electric dipole
source provides a three-dimensional signal,
the placement of the receivers for the survey
is of absolute importance. OHM works
closely with its clients to ensure optimisation
of the survey.
> Below left: Electromagnetic
inversion constrained by seismic data.
Below right: Receiver deployment.
Main image: Detail of survey
geometry.
Planning 4 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
In ﬁscal year 2004,the Company made 
immense progress in attaining its strategic goals
of establishing itself as the leading provider of 
the Controlled Source ElectroMagnetic Imaging
(CSEMI) service to the oil industry and of
promoting the use of the technique by industry.
The Company made substantial advances in 
each area of its service offering,and recruited 
and trained key operational staff.
The Company’s new headquarters in Aberdeen were
opened by Lewis Macdonald MSP , Deputy Minister for
Enterprise and Life Long Learning, and provide us with
excellent workshop facilities in the oil capital of Europe,
together with ﬂexible work areas which should be able 
to support the Company’s likely expansion needs over
the next few years.
OHM provides a range of services including:
> survey design using our in-house software to model
acquisition parameters from clients’ geological scenarios,
> data acquisition using our own proprietary sources 
and receivers,
> data processing and interpretation using proprietary
software.
The Company also focuses a large part of its efforts 
on research and development aimed at improving the
capabilities of the technique. In co-operation with the
University of Southampton short courses are offered 
to industry allowing oil company explorationists to 
fully understand the technique, its beneﬁts, and how 
to incorporate it into their workﬂows.
T raditionally the oil industry has used the seismic
technique, and especially 3D seismic, to assist in the
search for oil and gas.The seismic technique uses
acoustic energy to provide an image of structures in 
the earth, and interpreters use this to identify areas 
that could potentially trap oil and gas. However, the
seismic technique gives relatively little information on 
the nature of the ﬂuids within these structures, and the
oil industry has to drill into these structures to test for
the presence of oil and gas, with the large majority 
of exploration wells being commercially unsuccessful.
As hydrocarbon saturated reservoirs are generally very
resistive compared to water saturated sediments, the
presence of resistive bodies within these structures can
be compelling evidence of the presence of hydrocarbons
and can signiﬁcantly reduce the risk of drilling dry wells.
As the CSEMI technique is signiﬁcantly more cost effective
than drilling, oil explorers can afford to test many more
prospects and hence reduce the risk of relinquishing
acreage that contains undiscovered hydrocarbons.
CSEMI and the value created
CSEMI is an offshore geophysical technique which uses
electromagnetic measurements of the subsurface
resistivity to reduce uncertainty in exploration, appraisal
and production drilling programmes. A controlled
electromagnetic source is towed at depth, generating 
a deep penetrating ﬁeld which is measured by receivers
placed on the seabed.The recorded data, after advanced
processing and interpretation, produce images of the
subsurface resistivity structure which, when integrated
with all other available information, can signiﬁcantly
improve the understanding of the hydrocarbon producing
potential of the prospect.
With deep water wells costing many tens of millions of
dollars, the value created in avoiding unsuccessful wells is
high. However, even this value may be small compared to
the value of a discovery made on a prospect that would
not otherwise have been tested.
Industry adoption
OHM’s largest client during the year employed one 
of the Company’s ﬁeld crews for most of the year , and 
have used the technique in a number of deepwater 
basins around the world.Through early adoption of the
technique, OHM believe that their client, an international
oil company who cannot be named for contractual
reasons, are enjoying signiﬁcant competitive advantage 
over their peers and have gained a signiﬁcant lead in 
their understanding of the beneﬁts that the technique 
can deliver .
Chief Executive’s Review
Immense progress made
Dave Pratt
Chief Executive
Ofﬁcer Execution
The technique uses a dipole source towed
just above (typically 30 metres) the seaﬂoor.
OHM’s source (DASI) emits complex low
frequency electromagnetic signals that diffuse
outwards through the water column, and
into the underlying sediments.The resulting
electric ﬁelds are measured by OHM’s
receivers on the seaﬂoor.
> DASI ( Deep towed Active Source
Instrument) during deployment 
and recovery. 6 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
OHM are now experiencing strong interest from most
other oil majors and many of the leading independent oil
companies, and believe that mass industry adoption of
the method will follow in the foreseeable future.
OHM have recently commissioned a second ﬁeld crew,
using the latest generation of OHM’s equipment to
address the early part of this anticipated demand, and 
the Company stands ready to make further expansions 
as is warranted by industry demand.
Health,safety and the environment
The Company believes that it best serves its stakeholders
by ensuring that its activities are carried out in a safe and
environmentally sensitive manner.
The Company has invested signiﬁcantly in the
development of a comprehensive safety management
system which has given our staff the tools to perform
complex operations in difﬁcult environments while
assessing and controlling the risks involved. In the last
year, our crews operated in offshore environments
ranging from tropical to arctic climes. We recruited 
new staff and trained them to operate new equipment.
It is a testament to the diligence of our staff, and the
effectiveness of our safety management systems that 
this was all achieved without serious injury or lost 
time incidents.
The Company also retained the services of third party
specialists to undertake a comprehensive analysis of the
potential environmental impact of our activities.Their
ﬁndings show that our activities have no signiﬁcant
environmental impact and are considerably more benign
than other remote sensing techniques used in industry.
In fact, by preventing the drilling of unnecessary oil and
gas wells, it is likely that we will have a positive
environmental impact.
Research and development
Our strategic aim is to use focused research and
development to improve the utility of our product 
for our oil company clients and to cement our place 
as the technological leader in the CSEMI ﬁeld. In 2004,
our research and development effort focused on three 
main fronts:
1 Improving signal to noise ratios in our data enabling 
us to image ever more subtle and deeper targets.The
introduction of our third generation transmitter system
(DASI III) early in 2004 has led to more than a 25-fold
improvement in signal to noise ratios and our latest
generation of receivers (EFMALS II) exhibit noise ﬂoors
signiﬁcantly below anything we have had available in the
past. Both these systems are proprietary to OHM and
are part of an ongoing development process which we
expect to bear more fruit in 2005.
2 Improving our ability to produce images of the 
resistive nature of the subsurface. In ﬁscal year 2004 
we developed the ability to create three dimensional
inversions of our ﬁeld data enabling complex images to
be produced of the resistivity structure of the subsurface.
At a major industry convention in June, we announced 
a signiﬁcant breakthrough in how CSEMI data can be
imaged using non invertive techniques and this has led to
high levels of industry interest and to a number of data
reprocessing contracts. Our aim is to deliver images of
the resistivity of the earth to our clients, which they can
co-render with their existing seismic data and geological
models to allow them to achieve a fuller understanding 
of their exploration objectives.
3 Extending our ability to operate in shallower water
environments. We completed a project, sponsored by 
a consortium of oil companies, to investigate fully the
nature of the ‘airwave’ problem in which energy trapped
at the seawater/air interface overwhelms the useful
information contained in signals coming from subsurface
targets in areas where targets are particularly deep, or
where the water depths are shallow. Armed with this
improved understanding, we have opened up a number 
of research avenues which show great promise in
overcoming these problems and which should lead to a
signiﬁcant increase in potential market for our technique.
We anticipate that this research will lead to further
progress in 2005 and to a number of proof of concept
surveys to show the effectiveness of these advances.
In addition to this research, which is conducted in house,
we sponsor ongoing research at the University of
Southampton and at Scripps Institution of Oceanography 
in California.
Through our research and development efforts we 
have proprietary electromagnetic transmitters,
electromagnetic receivers and data processing suites 
that are speciﬁcally designed for CSEMI operations and
we believe that this creates signiﬁcant security both in
our supply chain and in our technical edge. Our research
team have clear views on how future improvements will
be made in each of these areas, and we expect to deliver
incremental improvements in capability over the years 
to come.
Chief Executive’s Review continued > Above: A priori data.
Right: Detail of swath receiver 
simulations over a 3D earth.
Main image: Co-rendered
electromagnetic inversion/surface 
seismic data.
Siesmic data courtesy TGS Nopec
Interpretation
OHM’s people have developed their
interpretative skills over many years, and 
this part of the process is key to creating 
real value for the client. OHM’s advanced
forward and inverse techniques combined
with high speed imaging methods make 
up some of the tools designed to deliver
results to directly inﬂuence decision making. 8 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Financial performance
In this, our second year of trading, we are delighted to
report that the Company has achieved pre-tax proﬁts 
of £404,021 on revenues of £4,678,597. A signiﬁcant
contribution towards this result has been our
performance on a long term contract with one major
client. However, material contributions have also come
from data processing and interpretation carried out on
surveys gathered by our competitors, and from feasibility
modelling studies conducted on exploration prospects 
of potential new customers. We believe that the data
processing and interpretation element of our business
will continue to grow as clients become more aware 
of the possibilities of the CSEMI technique, and of our
technical lead in this area. Feasibility study work should
lead to future data acquisition and processing projects.
Our gross margins before depreciation of capital
equipment show that industry recognises the value 
of our method. Our net proﬁt before tax of £404,021
is due largely to signiﬁcant expenditure in research and
development, and to aggressive amortisation and write
off of early generations of our equipment, which have
often been rapidly overtaken by improvements coming
out of our research and development. We expect that
our current generation of sources and receivers are likely
to be the workhorses of our business for years to come,
and while we anticipate no slowing down in research 
and development effort, we will be applying longer
depreciation periods to reﬂect these anticipated longer
working lives.
Operating activities generated positive cash ﬂows during
the year and funded signiﬁcant portions of our capital
expenditure for equipment for our second crew. We end
the year in a strong cash position, with reserves which
will allow us to rapidly react to industry demand growth,
and to maintain business stability through any periods 
of sporadic demand that may occur during this phase 
of early client adoption of our technology.
Current trading outlook
We believe that we are making tremendous progress in
solving the issues that prevent the CSEMI method being
used in shallow water areas. As we need to gather data
over known oil ﬁelds to prove this concept, we are
dedicating blocks of time on our second ﬁeld crew to
accelerate research and development efforts in this area
in 2005. We expect this not only to maintain our lead in
this area, but to bring to early fruition the added value
from offering our services in this new market, assuming 
a successful outcome.
Since completing the 2004 ﬁscal year end, we have had 
an incident resulting in the loss of the DASI III transmitter
on our long term contract crew, with a resulting
requirement to send our ﬁrst DASI IV to that crew.
A second DASI IV is in production and will be delivered
within a matter of weeks to replace that unit.
These issues are likely to impact on proﬁtability in 
ﬁscal 2005.
We continue to see strong evidence from the oil
companies that they have signiﬁcant increases in their
planned work in calendar year 2005 and we are actively
involved in discussions and negotiations with potential
clients for work in 2005.
In summary
The last year has been one of signiﬁcant progress for 
the Company. We have developed the capability to 
offer industry the full range of services surrounding 
our technique and have made signiﬁcant progress in
encouraging industry adoption. We have operated for
demanding clients in demanding locations and we have
delivered results in line with our ﬁnancial performance
expectations. We have made immense progress in
building the infrastructure necessary to grow the
Company to meet anticipated demand.
I am also very pleased to observe that the Company 
has generated proﬁts at such an early stage in its
development, and should acknowledge the hard 
work and dedication of all the Company’s staff who 
have contributed greatly to this achievement.
Our successful ﬂotation on AiM in London has given 
us the resources to support future expansion and 
our research and development efforts continue to
improve the effectiveness of our technique. Our focus 
in 2005 will be to build on our achievements of 2004 
by continuing to invest in research and development,
promoting industry adoption, and growing capacity to
meet demand as it arises.The difﬁculty in forecasting
exact demand levels through this period of industry
adoption requires us to be vigilant and ﬂexible in 
planning and managing our growth but we are conﬁdent
that our technique delivers game changing value to our 
clients and that widespread adoption is inevitable.
Dave Pratt
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer
Chief Executive’s Review continued 9 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Dr Pierre Jean Marie Henri Jungels CBE 60
Non-executive Chairman
Pierre, a certiﬁed engineer, has a PhD in geophysics and
hydraulics from the California Institute of T echnology.
He has over 30 years’ experience in the oil industry,
12 of which have been served at main board level,
including appointments as Chief Executive of Enterprise
Oil plc and Managing Director roles at PetroFina and
British Gas. He currently holds non-executive
directorships at Woodside Petroleum Ltd, Offshore
Logistics, Inc and Imperial T obacco plc. He was twice
President of the Institute of Petroleum.
David Charles Newall Pratt 45
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer
Dave has more than 20 years’ experience in the oilﬁeld
service industry, and was formerly President of Veritas
Geophysical Services (a division of Veritas DGC Inc, a
NYSE quoted company) based in Houston. At Veritas,
Dave reshaped key product lines within that company,
increasing turnover in these areas to over US$100 million
and making a major contribution to the corporation’s
proﬁtability. Prior to this role, Dave was VP of marine
operations and technology for Digicon Geophysical
Corporation (later merged with Veritas). Previously,
Dave spent over ten years at Racal Survey Group
working in a variety of onshore and offshore roles in
numerous countries. Dave is a geophysicist by training
and has an MBA with distinction from the University of
Strathclyde, Graduate School of Business.
Garry Allan 46
Finance Director
Garry is a chartered accountant, having qualiﬁed in 
1983 with Deloitte Haskins and Sells, and has a Masters
degree in ﬁnance from the University of Aberdeen.
He has 20 years’ experience in ﬁnancial management in
the oil exploration industry having held posts at KCA
Drilling, Nabors, Wilrig, and Hamilton Brothers Oil 
and Gas. His last position was as Finance Director 
of OIS International Inspection plc.
Dr Lucy Margaret MacGregor 31
Chief Scientiﬁc Ofﬁcer
Lucy has over ten years’ experience as a leading
researcher in CSEMI and is an inventor of key patents.
Lucy has signiﬁcant experience in data processing and
modelling techniques and has been responsible for 
survey design and data interpretation on a number of
commercial surveys. Lucy has a PhD from the University
of Cambridge for research in the ﬁeld of CSEMI.
Landon Thomas Cla y 78
Non-executive director
Landon is a managing member of East Hill Management
Company, LLC which manages investments in early stage
companies focusing on physical and life sciences. Landon
has over 50 years of investing experience in both private
and public companies. He is the current Chairman of
Nasdaq listed ADE Corporation, a worldwide leader in
automated metrology and inspection systems for the
wafer manufacturing and computer disk drive industries.
For over 20 years, Landon was the Chairman and Chief
Executive Ofﬁcer of Eaton Vance Corporation, a New
Y ork Stock Exchange listed investment ﬁrm that currently
manages in excess of US$76 billion.
Gary Jones 50
Non-executive director
Gary has a BSc in geological engineering from the
University of Arizona and an MSc in geophysics 
also from the University of Arizona. He has over 20 years’
experience in the oil and gas industry including recent
appointments as President of WesternGeco, President 
of Western Geophysical,Vice President of Baker Hughes,
President of Baker Atlas and Vice President, Corporate
Business Development, WAII. He is currently the owner
of Earthworks, Inc, a consulting company.
Board of directors 10 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Keith Lough 45
Non-executive director
Keith has an MA in economics from Edinburgh University,
a Masters in ﬁnance from London Business School and is
a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certiﬁed
Accountants. He has over 20 years’ experience in the 
oil and gas and energy industries including recent
appointments as Finance Director, British Energy plc,
Chief Financial Ofﬁcer, Hurricane Hydrocarbons 
(now PetroKazakhstan, Inc) and MD Europe & North 
Africa for LASMO plc. He is currently Chief Executive 
of Composite Energy Ltd, a private-equity funded 
energy company.
David Robert Norwood 35
Non-executive director
David is the Chief Executive of IP2IPO, the AiM quoted
technology commercialisation specialist which was
instrumental in the formation of OHM. Dave has
signiﬁcant experience of working with quoted and
unquoted technology companies and in July 1999, he
founded IndexIT Partnership Ltd, a technology advisory
boutique, which, in March 2000, was acquired by Beeson
Gregory Group plc (‘Beeson Gregory’). David was a
director of Beeson Gregory and became an executive
director of The Evolution Group plc (‘Evolution’)
following its merger with Beeson Gregory in July 2002
and became a non-executive director of Evolution in
September 2003.
Dr Anthony Raven 49
Non-executive director
T ony graduated with a First in physics from Manchester
University and obtained his MSc and DPhil from Oxford
University. He worked at Rutherford Appleton
Laboratories and Osaka University before joining PA
Consulting in 1983. In 1985 he was closely involved with
the formation of Summit T echnology, the Boston MA
based market leader in laser refractive surgery, which was
acquired by Nestle Alcon in 2000. In 1987 he co-founded
the Generics Group plc, a London Stock Exchange listed
technical and management consultancy. In 1991 he
founded Diomed Inc, the AMEX listed pioneer and world
leader in therapeutic medical diode lasers. He is currently
Director of the University of Southampton’s Centre for
Enterprise & Innovation and is responsible for commercial
exploitation of the University’s knowledge base through
licensing and spin out company formation.
Professor Martin Clarebrough Sinha 51
Non-executive director
Martin is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University 
of Southampton’s Oceanography Centre. He has played 
a leading role in CSEMI research for 18 years, and has
been the leader of many of the most signiﬁcant CSEMI
studies carried out worldwide since the early 1990s.
He has extensive experience in geophysical instrument
development, survey design, data analysis and geological
interpretation, and in formulating and leading strategic
research and development programmes. Martin received
his PhD in marine geophysics from the University of
Cambridge, and is Chairman of the Company’s T echnical
Steering Committee.
Board of directors continued 11 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Directors’ Report
The directors present their report together with 
the audited ﬁnancial statements for the year ended 
31 August 2004.The Remuneration Report and Corporate
Governance Report on pages 13 to 17 have not been
subject to audit, as these have been prepared voluntarily.
Principle activities and business review
The Company’s principal activity was that of the provision
of electromagnetic remote sensing services to the oil and
gas exploration and production industry.
In August 2003 the Company began operations on a long
term international contract for a major oil company, and
also has a number of smaller contracts with other leading
oil and gas explorers. As a result of better than forecast
utilisation and lower than expected operating and
maintenance expenses the proﬁt, offset by an increased
expenditure on ﬁeld testing of new equipment for the
year, was in line with expectation.
The Company continues to place the highest priority 
on investing in research and development and has a
number of key projects under way. Its current focus 
is on extending the use of its surveying method to
shallower water environments and to improving the
image of the subsurface created by its techniques.
On 1 1 March 2004 the group successfully raised
£9.9 million net of expenses when it ﬂoated on 
the Alternative Investment Market (AiM) of the London
Stock Exchange.The proceeds from the ﬂotation are
being used to build additional capital equipment to
provide the company with additional ﬁeld crews and
expanded data processing capacity.
Results and dividends
The Group made a proﬁt after taxation for the year
ended 31 August 2004 of £365,879 (2003: loss for the
year £367 ,220).The directors do not recommend the
payment of a dividend (2003: £Nil).
Directors
The names of the directors who held ofﬁce during the
year ended 31 August 2004 are as follows:
Executive directors
David Charles Newall Pratt 
Garry Robert Allan (appointed 26 February 2004)
Dr Lucy Margaret MacGregor
Non-executive directors
Dr Pierre Jean Marie Henri Jungels CBE (appointed
22 December 2003)
Landon Thomas Clay 
David Robert Norwood (appointed 26 February 2004)
Dr Anthony Raven 
Professor Martin Clarebrough Sinha 
John Davies (resigned 26 February 2004)
Keith Lough (appointed in August 2004)
Gary Jones (appointed in August 2004)
Details of the interests of directors in the share capital 
of the Company, together with details of share options
granted to them, are set out in the Remuneration 
Report on pages 13 to 15.
Substantial shareholders 
In addition to the directors’ beneﬁcial interests shown 
on page 14, as at 31 August 2004 the Company had been
advised of the following shareholders with interests of
3 per cent or more in its ordinary share capital.
East Hill University Spinouts 
Funds LP 7 ,164,767 24.71%
Southampton Asset 
Management Ltd 3,891,580 13.42%
Bank of New Y ork Nominees Ltd 1,717 ,359 5.92%
IP2IPO Management Ltd 1,577 ,765 5.44%
IP2IPO Ltd 1,444,000 4.98%
State Street Nominees Ltd 1,003,440 3.46%
Change of name
The Company was re-registered as a public limited
company on 26 February 2004 and its name changed to
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc.
Share capital
The following movements in the share capital of the
Company occurred during the year:
> On 6 February 2004, 464 Ordinary Shares were issued
at £107.61 per Ordinary Share
> On 10 February 2004, 3,700 Ordinary Shares 
were issued for cash at par to Southampton Asset
Management Ltd pursuant to the exercise of 
an option
> On 26 February 2004 the authorised share capital was
increased from £1,000 to £227 ,1 16 by the creation of 
an additional 22,61 1,600 Ordinary Shares and 22,61 1,600
Ordinary Shares were issued pursuant to a 360 for
1 bonus issue
> The company issued a further 6,323,529 Ordinary
Shares with a par value of £0.01 at an issue price of
£1.70 for cash on 1 1 March 2004 through a Placing.
The company was admitted to AiM on 1 1 March 2004.
Post balance sheet events
The second offshore crew mobilised in August 2004
utilising the newly developed source and receivers and
completed its ﬁrst commercial survey in September 2004.
for the year ended 31 August 2004
Directors’ Report 12 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Payment of creditors
It is the Group’s current policy to establish payment
terms with suppliers when agreeing terms of supply, to
ensure that suppliers are made aware of the terms of
payment, and to adhere to those terms.The Group’s
average creditor payment period at 31 August 2004 
was 63 days.
The Company had no creditors during the year.
Charitable and political donations
The Group made charitable donations of £355 during 
the year (2003: £Nil). No political donations were made
(2003: £Nil).
Cash
It is the Group’s current policy to place cash surplus 
to working capital requirements with reputable banks
offering the most competitive rate of interest.
Directors’ responsibilities
The directors are required by UK company law to prepare
ﬁnancial statements for each ﬁnancial year which give a
true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company
and the Group as at the end of the ﬁnancial year and of 
the results of the Group for the year .
The directors conﬁrm that suitable accounting policies
have been used and applied consistently and that
reasonable and prudent judgements and estimates have
been made in the preparation of the ﬁnancial statements
for the year ended 31 August 2004.The directors also
conﬁrm that applicable accounting standards have been
followed and that the ﬁnancial statements have been
prepared on the going concern basis.
The directors are responsible for keeping proper
accounting records and for taking reasonable steps to
safeguard the assets of the Company and the Group.
They should use reasonable endeavours to prevent and
detect fraud and other irregularities.
The maintenance and integrity of the website is the
responsibility of the directors; the work carried out 
by the auditors does not involve consideration of 
these matters and, accordingly, the auditors accept no
responsibility for any changes that may have occurred 
to the information contained in the ﬁnancial statements
since they were initially presented on the website.
Auditors
On 31 December 2003, BDO Stoy Hayward, the group’s
auditors, transferred its business to BDO Stoy Hayward
LLP , a limited liability partnership incorporated under 
the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000. Accordingly
BDO Stoy Hayward resigned as auditors on that date 
and the directors appointed BDO Stoy Hayward LLP 
as its successor. A resolution to re-appoint BDO Stoy
Hayward LLP as auditors will be proposed at the next
annual general meeting.
By order of the Board
Garry R Allan
Company Secretary
14 October 2004
Directors’ Report continued 13 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Remuneration Report
This report which has not been audited has been
voluntarily prepared so as to comply with the Listing
Rules, the Combined Code and the Companies Act 1985 
(as amended by the Directors’ Remuneration Report
Regulations 2002).The Company’s remuneration policy 
is the responsibility of the Remuneration Committee.
This Committee is chaired by Gary Jones and also
comprises Keith Lough.The Committee is authorised 
if it wishes to seek independent specialist services to
provide information and advice on remuneration at 
the Company’s expense.
The Committee has speciﬁc responsibility for
determining the remuneration and other beneﬁts of
executive directors, an overall policy in respect of
remuneration of other employees of the Group, and
establishing the Group’s policy with respect to employee
share option schemes. In determining executive
remuneration packages of individual directors the
Remuneration Committee takes account of the levels 
of experience, performance and responsibility of each
director, and the remuneration packages for similar
executive positions in companies it considers are
comparable. It also considers the remuneration 
packages offered within the Group as a whole.
Remuneration policy
a) Executive remuneration
The Committee aims to ensure that the remuneration 
of executive directors is competitive, takes into account
individual performance and provides a package which is
sufﬁciently dependent on achievement to motivate and
incentivise the individual executive directors. Executive
remuneration currently comprises a base salary which 
is not performance related, and an executive bonus
scheme. Certain directors also have an entitlement 
to private medical insurance and pension contributions 
to individual personal pension schemes.The Board
believes that the interests of directors and shareholders
are best aligned with a remuneration policy that 
provides a modest base salary that is not dependent 
on performance together with a discretionary 
bonus arrangement. Further details relating to 
bonus arrangements and pension contributions 
are detailed below:
Bonuses
Executive directors are eligible to receive speciﬁc
bonuses at the discretion of the Remuneration
Committee. Such payments do not form part of
pensionable earnings.
Pensions
David Pratt and Garry Allan are entitled to a contribution
of annual salary which is paid directly into personal
money purchase pension plans.This contribution is
£9,600 for David Pratt and £7 ,200 for Garry Allan.
Share options
The directors believe that the success of the Company
depends to a high degree on the future performance of
the management team. Accordingly the Company has
entered into option agreements with its executive
directors and certain employees through the Company’s
approved Management Incentive Scheme and unapproved
share option scheme. Executive options are granted at
the middle market price of the Company’s shares on the
date of grant, or in respect of options granted before the
Company’s shares were publicly traded, at the directors’
best estimate of fair value at the date of grant.
b) Non-executive remuneration
Dr Pierre Jungels, Dave Norwood, Landon Clay,
Keith Lough and Gary Jones each receive a ﬁxed fee for
services, which covers preparation for and attendance 
at meetings of the full Board and all committees thereof.
Professor Martin Sinha and Dr Anthony Raven are not
currently entitled to a fee for services as directors,
however Professor Sinha has a separate consultancy
agreement with the company.The non-executive
directors are also reimbursed for all reasonable expenses
incurred in the performance of their duties. Non-
executive directors are not entitled to participate in 
any of the Group’s incentive schemes, including the 
share option scheme and bonus schemes.The executive
directors are responsible for setting the level of non-
executive remuneration.
c) Service contracts
David Pratt has a service contract which commenced 
on 8 July 2002, and contains a contractual notice period
of one year by either party. Dr Lucy MacGregor has a
service contract which commenced on 18 December
2002, and contains a contractual notice period of one
year by either party. Garry Allan has a service contract
which commenced on 19 January 2004, and contains a
contractual notice period of six months by either party.
The contracts for executive directors do not provide any
predetermined amounts of compensation in the event 
of early termination. In the event of early termination,
payments for loss of ofﬁce would be determined by the
Remuneration Committee who would take account of
the particular circumstances of each case, including the
unexpired term of the service contract.
Executive directors may accept other outside
non-executive appointments.
for the year ended 31 August 2004
Remuneration Report 14 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Directors’ emoluments (un-audited)
The following information has not been subject to audit.
The aggregate remuneration received by directors who served during the year was as follows:
T otal T otal T otal
T otal (incl. (excl. (incl.
Base (excl. pension) pension) Pension pension)
Salary Bonus Fees Beneﬁts pension) Pension 2004 2003 2003 2003
££££££££££
Executive
David Pratt
(1)
132,851 41,250 – 502 174,603 7,200 181,803 87,385 – 87,385
Dr Lucy MacGregor 78,333 10,000 – 142 88,475 – 88,475 40,833 – 40,833
Garry Allan
(2)
39,693–––39,6932,40042,093–––
Non-executive
Dr Pierre Jungels
(3)
– – 32,865 – 32,865 – 32,865 – – –
Landon Clay – – 7 ,912 – 7 ,912 – 7 ,912–––
David Norwood
(4)
––2,084 –2,084 –2,084–––
Professor Martin Sinha ––––––––––
Dr Anthony Raven ––––––––––
John Davies
(5)
– – 5,000 – 5,000 – 5,000 19,300 – 19,300
Keith Lough
(6)
––1,603 –1,603 –1,603–––
Gary Jones
(7)
––––––––––
T otal 250,877 51,250 49,464 644 352,235 9,600 361,835 147,518 – 147,518
(1)
David Pratt was the highest paid director during the year ended 31 August 2004.
(2)
Garry Allan was appointed to the Board on 26 February 2004.
(3)
Dr Pierre Jungels was appointed to the Board on 22 December 2003.
(4)
David Norwood was appointed to the Board on 26 February 2004.
(5)
John Davies resigned as a director on 26 February 2004.
(6)
Keith Lough was appointed to the Board in August 2004.
(7)
Gary Jones was appointed to the Board in August 2004.
Directors’ interests in ordinary shares
The directors who held ofﬁce at 31 August 2004 had the following interests in the ordinary shares of the Company:
2004 2003
Number Number 
Directors’ interests in ordinary shares of shares of shares
David Pratt 26,714 26,714
Dr Lucy MacGregor 1,552,300 1,552,300
Garry Allan – –
Dr Pierre Jungels 167,504 –
Landon Clay – –
David Norwood – –
Professor Martin Sinha 1,552,300 1,552,300
Dr Anthony Raven – –
Keith Lough – –
Gary Jones – –
The 2003 comparatives have been adjusted to reﬂect the 360 for 1 bonus issue which took place in February 2004.
There has been no change in the interests set out above between 31 August 2004 and 15 October 2004.
Remuneration Report continued 15 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Directors’ options (unaudited)
The following information has not been subject to audit.
The executive directors have the following interests in options over the shares of the Company under the Group
share option scheme. No options have been exercised during the year by any directors.
Adjusted
At Granted Adjustment Granted At Exercise Earliest
1 September during the for Bonus during the 31 August price exercise Expiry
Date of grant 2003 year Issue year 2004 (p) date date
David Pratt
28/1 1/2002 1,900 – 684,000 – 685,900 7.10 28/1 1/03 27/1 1/12
01/03/2004 – 940,008 – – 940,008 170.00 01/03/05 28/02/14
Dr Lucy Macgregor
01/12/2003 – 586 210,960 21 1,546 21 1,546 29.81 01/12/04 30/1 1/13
Garry Allan
01/03/2004 – 216,600 – – 216,600 170.00 01/03/05 28/02/14
These options have been granted under OHM’s Enterprise Management Incentive option scheme (EMI) and
unapproved share option scheme.
The option granted to David Pratt on 28 November 2002 vested or will vest in three equal tranches on the ﬁrst,
second and third anniversaries of the date of grant.
Of the options granted to David Pratt on 1 March 2004 (representing 3 per cent of the fully diluted issued share
capital at Admission), 313,336 vest in three tranches upon the satisfaction of performance criteria agreed between 
Mr Pratt and the Remuneration Committee.
The options granted to Garry Allan vest in three equal tranches upon the satisfaction of performance criteria agreed
between Mr Allan and the Remuneration Committee.
The options granted to Dr Lucy MacGregor also vest in three equal tranches upon the satisfaction of performance
criteria agreed between Dr MacGregor and the Remuneration Committee.
Options will lapse after ten years from the date of grant and option holders who cease to be employed by the Group
are required to exercise the vested part of their option within six months of cessation.
The middle market price of the ordinary shares on 31 August 2004 was 252 pence.The high and low market prices
during the year were 292.5 pence and 207.5 pence respectively.The subscription price of the shares offered at the
placing was 170 pence.
Apart from the interests disclosed above, none of the directors had any interest at any time during the year ended
31 August 2004 in the share capital of the Company or its subsidiaries.
Performance graph
The chart, left, shows the shareholder return performance
over the period from 1 1 March 2004 when the Company’s
shares were ﬁrst publicly traded on the Alternative
Investment Market (AiM) to date, alongside the
performance of the FTSE AiM all-share index and the 
Oil Service Sector (OSX) index of the Philadelphia 
Stock Exchange as, in our opinion, these comprise the
most relevant equity indices against which the total
shareholder return of Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
should be measured.
By order of the Board
Gary Jones
Chairman of the Remuneration Committee
100
80
120
140
160
180
200
Rebased closing price
OHM plc share price performance (rebased)
Source: Datastream
OHM plc
OSX
AiM
March 
2004
April 
2004
May
2004
June
2004
July
2004
August
2004
September
2004 16 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Corporate Governance Report
The Board supports the principles of corporate
governance advocated by The Principles of Good
Governance and Code of Best Practice (the ‘Combined
Code’) issued by the Financial Services Authority.The
Company is moving towards voluntarily applying the
principles of the Combined Code as indicated below.
The Board
The Group’s business is managed by the Board of
Directors.The full Board meets regularly, and met a 
total of 1 1 times during the year ended 31 August 2004.
A discussion of current and future performance and
strategy is included on the agenda for each meeting.
In addition, terms of reference for full Board approval 
are in place, which includes, inter alia, the approval of
annual and interim results, signiﬁcant transactions, major
capital expenditures, the yearly business plan and budget,
the Group’s long term commercial strategy, establishing
ﬁnancial authority limits, litigation, and executive
remuneration and appointments.
Each Board member receives monthly management
accounts including a review and analysis of performance
against budget and other forecasts. Directors are sent 
an agenda and a full set of Board papers for each 
agenda item to be discussed at the meeting. Additional
information is provided as appropriate.
The Board currently consists of ten directors, seven 
of whom are non-executive.Their names are set out 
on pages 9 and 10.The Company has a separate 
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer and Chairman. Gary Jones and
Keith Lough are considered by the Board to be free from
any business or other relationship that could materially
impact their independent judgement.The non-executive
directors with the exception of Professor Martin Sinha
and Dr Anthony Raven receive a ﬁxed fee for their
services and all non-executive directors receive the
reimbursement of reasonable expenses incurred in
attending meetings.
There is an agreed procedure for directors to take
independent professional advice at the Company’s
expense. In addition, every director has direct access 
to the impartial advice of the Company Secretary.
The Company Secretary is responsible for ensuring that
Board procedures and applicable rules and regulations
are followed.
While the Board retains overall responsibility for the
Company, the day to day management of the business 
is conducted by the executive directors. In addition, in
accordance with best practice, the Board has established
Audit, Nomination and Remuneration Committees with
written terms of reference for each that set out their
duties and authority.
Committees of the Board
Audit Committee
The Audit Committee was established in March 2004 and
has met twice since then. It will meet at least three times
a year going forward.The Committee originally
comprised Dr Pierre Jungels, Professor Martin Sinha and
David Norwood.The members of the committee now
comprise Keith Lough (Chairman), Gary Jones and 
Dr Pierre Jungels and as noted above both Keith Lough
and Gary Jones are considered to be independent non-
executive directors.The Committee’s terms of reference
are principally concerned with accounting matters,
ﬁnancial reporting and internal controls.The Committee
will meet not less than three times a year (two meetings
have been held to date which had a 100 per cent
attendance) to review all signiﬁcant judgements made 
in the preparation of the half-yearly and annual accounts,
before they are submitted to the Board. It agrees with
the auditors the nature and scope of their work and
discusses with them the results thereof.The Committee
has the power to seek external advice as and when
required. In addition the Audit Committee makes
recommendations to the Board regarding the
appointment of the external auditors, reviews their
independence and objectivity and is also responsible 
for agreeing the level of audit fees and monitoring 
the provision of non audit services provided by the
Group’s auditors.
Remuneration Committee
The Remuneration Committee was established in 
March 2004 and meets as and when required. It originally
comprised Dr Anthony Raven, Landon Clay and
Professor Martin Sinha and now comprises Gary Jones
(Chairman) and Keith Lough and, as noted above, both
Keith Lough and Gary Jones are considered to be
independent non-executive directors.The Committee’s
objective is to develop remuneration packages for
executive directors that enable the Group to attract,
retain and motivate executives of the appropriate calibre
without paying more than is necessary. No director is
involved in deciding his or her remuneration.The Board’s
policy on executive remuneration and the details of
executive director’s individual remuneration packages are
ﬁxed by the Committee or the Board. Full details of the
directors’ remuneration are set out in the Remuneration
Report on pages 13 to 15.
for the year ended 31 August 2004
Corporate Governance Report 17 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Nomination Committee
The Nomination Committee was established in March
2004 and meets as and when required.There were no
meetings in the 2003/4 ﬁnancial year. It considers the
appointment of both executive and non-executive
directors and makes recommendations to the Board.
It originally comprised Dr Pierre Jungels (Chairman),
David Pratt and Landon Clay and now comprises 
Dr Pierre Jungels (Chairman), Keith Lough and Gary Jones
and, as noted above, both Keith Lough and Gary Jones
are considered to be independent non-executive
directors. All directors are required to submit themselves
for re-election by the shareholders at the Company’s
Annual General Meeting following their ﬁrst appointment
and thereafter at least every three years. Notwithstanding
this, at least one third of all the directors must submit
themselves for re-election each year. At the forthcoming
Annual General Meeting Dr Pierre Jungels, David Pratt,
Garry Allan, Dr Lucy MacGregor , Landon Clay, Gary Jones,
Keith Lough and Professor Martin Sinha will submit
themselves for re-election, having either retired by
rotation or having been appointed since the last Annual
General Meeting.
Internal control
The Board is responsible for establishing and 
monitoring internal control systems, and for reviewing
the effectiveness of these systems.The Board views 
the effective operation of a rigorous system of internal
control as critical to the success of the Group, however it
recognises that such systems can provide only reasonable
and not absolute assurance against material misstatement
or loss.The key elements of the Group’s internal control
system are as follows:
Control environment
The Group has a clear organisational structure with
deﬁned responsibilities and accountabilities. It adopts the
highest values surrounding quality, integrity and ethics,
and these values are documented and communicated
clearly throughout the whole organisation.
Identiﬁcation and evaluation of risks
The Board actively identiﬁes and evaluates the risks
inherent in the business, and ensures that appropriate
controls and procedures are in place to manage 
these risks.
Control procedures
Detailed written policies and procedures have been
established covering key ﬁnancial operating and
compliance risk areas.These will be reviewed and updated
at least annually by the Board. Due to the nature of the
Group’s operations and its size, the Board considers that
there is no current requirement for an internal audit
function, although it will continue to review the
requirement for such a function on a periodic basis.
Performance evaluation
The performance of the Chairman and each director 
will be formally evaluated on an annual basis.The non-
executives will meet annually, and whenever deemed
necessary, to appraise the Chairman’s performance in 
the absence of the Chairman.The performance of non-
executive directors, other than the Chairman, will be
reviewed by the Chairman and executive directors on an
annual basis.The performance of executive directors will
be reviewed by the Board, as deemed necessary, in the
absence of the executive director under review.
Relations with shareholders
The Company is committed to constructive dialogue
with its shareholders.The Company uses the Annual
General Meeting as an opportunity to communicate 
with its shareholders. Notice of the Annual General
Meeting, which will be held at 2pm on 10 November 2004
at the ofﬁce of KPC Peel Hunt Ltd,1 1 1 Old Broad Street,
London EC2N 1PH, is enclosed with this report. Details
of the resolutions and explanatory notes thereon are
included with the Notice along with a proxy form for
members of the Company unable to attend.
The Group’s website www.OHMsurveys.com is the 
primary source of information on the Group.This
includes an overview of the activities of the Group,
and details of all recent Group announcements.
Statement of compliance
The directors are satisﬁed that the Company is now
voluntarily complying with the Code provisions set 
out in section 1 of the Combined Code.
By order of the Board
Garry R Allan
Company Secretary 18 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
T o the shareholders of Offshore Hydrocarbon
Mapping plc
We have audited the ﬁnancial statements of Offshore
Hydrocarbon Mapping plc for the year ended 31 August
2004 on pages 19 to 31 which have been prepared under
the accounting policies set out on pages 23 to 24.
Respective responsibilities of directors 
and auditors
The directors’ responsibilities for preparing the annual
report and the ﬁnancial statements in accordance with
applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards
are set out in the statement of Directors’ Responsibilities
on page 12.
Our responsibility is to audit the ﬁnancial statements 
in accordance with relevant legal and regulatory
requirements and United Kingdom Auditing Standards.
We report to you our opinion as to whether the ﬁnancial
statements give a true and fair view and are properly
prepared in accordance with the Companies Act 1985.
We also report to you if, in our opinion, the Directors’
Report is not consistent with the ﬁnancial statements, if
the group has not kept proper accounting records, if we
have not received all the information and explanations 
we require for our audit, or if information speciﬁed by
law regarding directors’ remuneration and transactions
with the company and other members of the group is 
not disclosed.
We read the Directors’ Report, Chairman’s Statement,
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer’s Review, Remuneration Report
and Corporate Governance Report and consider the
implications for our report if we become aware of any
apparent misstatements within them.
Our report has been prepared pursuant to the
requirements of the Companies Act 1985 and for no
other purpose. No person is entitled to rely on this
report unless such a person is a person entitled to rely
upon this report by virtue of and for the purpose of 
the Companies Act 1985 or has been expressly
authorised to do so by our prior written consent.
Save as above, we do not accept responsibility for this
report to any other person or for any other purpose 
and we hereby expressly disclaim any and all such liability.
Basis of audit opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with United
Kingdom Auditing Standards issued by the Auditing
Practices Board. An audit includes examination, on a test
basis, of evidence relevant to the amounts and disclosures
in the ﬁnancial statements. It also includes an assessment
of the signiﬁcant estimates and judgements made by the
directors in the preparation of the ﬁnancial statements,
and of whether the accounting policies are appropriate 
to the group’s circumstances, consistently applied and
adequately disclosed.
We planned and performed our audit so as to obtain all
the information and explanations which we considered
necessary in order to provide us with sufﬁcient evidence
to give reasonable assurance that the ﬁnancial statements
are free from material misstatement, whether caused by
fraud or other irregularity or error. In forming our
opinion we also evaluated the overall adequacy of the
presentation of information in the ﬁnancial statements.
Opinion
In our opinion the ﬁnancial statements give a true and fair
view of the state of affairs of the group and the company
as at 31 August 2004 and of the proﬁt of the group for
the year then ended and have been properly prepared in
accordance with the Companies Act 1985.
BDO Stoy Hayward LLP
Chartered Accountants and Registered Auditors
Glasgow
14 October 2004
Independent Auditors’ Report 2004 2003 
Note £ £ 
T urnover 2 4,678,597 1,608,589
Cost of sales 1,922,192 1,023,937
Gross proﬁt 2,756,405 584,652
Administrative expenses 2,483,462 993,474
272,943 (408,822)
Other operating income 810 –
Group operating proﬁt/(loss) 3 273,753 (408,822)
Loss on disposal of ﬁxed assets (93,643) –
Proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities before 
interest and other income 180,1 10 (408,822)
Interest receivable and similar income 225,928 46,602
Interest payable and similar charges 6 (2,017) –
Proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities before taxation 404,021 (362,220)
T axation on proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities 7 38,142 5,000
Proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities after taxation 18 365,879 (367,220)
Earnings per share
Basic 8 1.46p (2.20)p 
Diluted 8 1.39p (2.20)p 
All amounts relate to continuing activities.
All recognised gains and losses in the current and prior year are included in the proﬁt and loss account.
19 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
for the year ended 3 1 August 2004
Consolidated proﬁt and loss account 
The notes on pages 23 to 31 form part of these ﬁnancial statements. 20 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
2004 2004 2003 2003 
Note £ £ £ £ 
Fixed assets
Intangible assets 10 68,758 28,328
T angible assets 1 1 2,520, 191 780,838
2,588,949 809,166
Current assets
Debtors 13 1,219,203 369,522
Cash at bank and in hand 9,944,483 1,1 12,435
11 , 1 63 , 686 1,481,957
Creditors:amounts falling due within one year 14 1, 443,52 1 298,550
Net current assets 9,720,165 1,183,407
T otal assets less current liabilities 12,309,1 14 1,992,573
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 17 289,979 586
Share premium account 18 12,102,992 2,441,723
Proﬁt and loss account 18 (83,857) (449,736)
Equity shareholders’ funds 19 12,309, 1 1 4 1,992,573
The ﬁnancial statements were approved by the Board on 14 October 2004.
D C N Pratt Garry R Allan
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Finance Director
at 3 1 August 2004
Consolidated balance sheet 
The notes on pages 23 to 31 form part of these ﬁnancial statements. 21 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
2004 2004 2003 2003 
Note £ £ £ £ 
Fixed assets
Fixed asset investments 12 2 2
Current assets
Debtors 13 12,488,71 8 1,586,923
Cash at bank and in hand 3,504 992,043
12,492,222 2,578,966
Creditors:amounts falling due within one year 14 – 42,079
Net current assets 12,492,222 2,536,887
T otal assets less current liabilities 12,492,224 2,536,889
Capital and reserves
Called up share capital 17 289,979 586
Share premium account 18 12,102,992 2,441,723
Proﬁt and loss account 18 99,253 94,580
Equity shareholders’ funds 19 12,492,224 2,536,889
The ﬁnancial statements were approved by the Board on 14 October 2004.
D C N Pratt Garry R Allan
Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Finance Director
at 3 1 August 2004
Company balance sheet 
The notes on pages 23 to 31 form part of these ﬁnancial statements. 22 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
2004 2004 2003 2003 
Note ££ ££
Net cash inﬂow/(outﬂow) from 
operating activities 22 1,409,653 (491,006)
Returns on investments and servicing of ﬁnance
Interest received 103,438 46,602
Interest paid (2,017) –
Net cash inﬂow from returns on investments 
and servicing of ﬁnance 101,421 46,602
T axation
Corporation tax paid (43,142) –
Capital expenditure and ﬁnancial investment
Payments to acquire intangible ﬁxed assets (54,414) (25,178)
Payments to acquire tangible ﬁxed assets (2,532,132) (868,320)
Net cash outﬂow from capital expenditure 
and ﬁnancial investment (2,586,546) (893,498)
Cash outﬂow before ﬁnancing (1,1 18,614) (1,337,902)
Financing
Share capital issued 10,799,967 2,342,096
Share issue expenses (849,305) –
Net cash inﬂow from ﬁnancing 9,950,662 2,342,096
Increase in cash 23 8,832,048 1,004,194 
for the year ended 3 1 August 2004
Cash ﬂow statement 
The notes on pages 23 to 31 form part of these ﬁnancial statements. 23 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
1 Accounting policies
The ﬁnancial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and are in accordance with
applicable accounting standards.
The following principal accounting policies have been applied:
Basis of consolidation
The consolidated ﬁnancial statements incorporate the results of Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc and its
subsidiary undertaking as at 31 August 2004 using the acquisition method of accounting.The results of the subsidiary
undertaking are included from the date of acquisition.
T urnover
T urnover represents sales in respect of the provision of oil exploration services to external customers at invoiced
amounts less value added tax or local taxes on sales.T urnover is recognised in line with the performance of these
services, to the extent that the performance entitles the Group to receive consideration in line with the terms of 
the service contracts under which the Group operates.
Included within turnover are amounts in respect of data modelling and data interpretation services provided to
external customers.T urnover is recognised on these contracts in accordance with SSAP 9 ‘Stocks and long term
contracts’.The accounting policy is described in more detail below.
Reimbursable expenses billed to customers are included in turnover.
Depreciation
Depreciation is provided to write off the cost, less estimated residual values, of all tangible ﬁxed assets, except for
assets in the course of construction, over their expected useful lives. It is calculated at the following rates:
Plant and machinery – 1 to 3 years straight line
Computer equipment – 33.3% to 50% straight line
Ofﬁce equipment – 33.3% to 100% straight line
Stocks and long term contracts
Due to the nature of the principal activity of the Group, no stocks are held. Any spare parts for oil exploration
devices owned by the Group are expensed as purchased.
Long term contracts are assessed on a contract by contract basis and are reﬂected in the proﬁt and loss account by
recording turnover and related costs as contract activity progresses. Where the outcome of each long term contract
can be assessed with reasonable certainty before its conclusion, the attributable proﬁt is recognised in the proﬁt and
loss account as the difference between the reported turnover and related costs for that contract. As soon as a
contract is expected to be loss making overall, all future contract losses are provided for in the period.
Foreign currency 
Foreign currency transactions are translated into sterling at the rates ruling when they occurred. Foreign currency
monetary assets and liabilities are translated at the rates ruling at the balance sheet dates. Any differences are taken
to the proﬁt and loss account.
Research 
Expenditure on pure and applied research is charged to the proﬁt and loss account in the year in which it is incurred.
Deferred taxation
Deferred tax balances are recognised in respect of all timing differences that have originated but not reversed by the
balance sheet date with the exception that the recognition of deferred tax assets is limited to the extent that the
group anticipates making sufﬁcient taxable proﬁts in the future to absorb the reversal of the underlying timing
differences.
Deferred tax balances are not discounted.
Pension costs
Contributions made by the Group to the personal pension plans of certain directors are charged to the proﬁt and
loss account in the period in which they are payable.
Impairment of ﬁxed assets
The need for any ﬁxed asset impairment write-down is assessed by comparison of the carrying value of the asset
against the higher of realisable value and value in use.
for the year ended 3 1 August 2004
Notes to the accounts 24 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Notes to the accounts continued
1 Accounting policies continued
Patent development costs
Patent development costs are amortised over the period prior to the patents being granted, estimated by the
directors to be a period of four years.
Financial instruments
The Group’s principal ﬁnancial instruments comprise short term debtors, short term creditors and short term
deposits used to ﬁnance the Group’s operations and future growth.The Group has no borrowings and transacts 
only in its functional currency.
The Group has taken advantage of the exemption available under FRS 13 to speciﬁcally exclude short term debtors
and creditors from disclosure except in relation to currency risk, should this risk ever arise.
The Group does not hold or issue derivative ﬁnancial instruments for trading purposes.
2 T urnover, proﬁt and net assets
The information in respect of turnover, proﬁt before tax and net assets required to be disclosed by Statement of
Standard Accounting Practice 25 ‘Segmental reporting’ has not been provided as, in the opinion of the directors,
such disclosure would be seriously prejudicial to the interests of the Group.
T urnover is wholly attributable to the principal activity of the group.
3 Operating proﬁt/(loss)
2004 2003 
£ £ 
This is arrived at after charging/(crediting):
Depreciation of tangible ﬁxed assets 699,136 90,320
Amortisation of intangible ﬁxed assets 13,984 5,034
Auditors’ remuneration:
Group – audit services 26,300 8,000
Group – non-audit services 7,800 –
Exchange differences (810) –
Included in the Group audit fee is an amount of £6,000 (2003: £4,000) in respect of the Company.
In addition, the auditors were paid £80,152 for services in connection with the ﬂotation on AiM.These costs have
been offset against the Company’s share premium account.
4 Employees
Staff costs (including directors) consist of:
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Wages and salaries 1,149,365 442,271
Social security costs 132, 1 1 9 91,687
Other pension costs 12,000 –
1,293,484 533,958
The average number of employees (including directors) during the year was as follows:
2004 2003 
Number Number 
Management 7 3
Scientists 6 5
Operations 14 9
27 17 25 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
5 Directors’ remuneration
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Directors’ emoluments 345,151 128,218
Company contributions to directors’ personal pension schemes 9,600 –
Amounts paid to third parties in respect of directors’ services 7,084 19,300
The total amount payable to the highest paid director in respect of emoluments was £174,603 (2003: £87 ,385). Group
pension contributions of £7 ,200 (2003: £Nil) were made to his personal pension plan during the year.
More detail of directors’ emoluments can be found in the remuneration report on pages 13 to 15. Note that this
information has been presented voluntarily by the directors and is, accordingly, unaudited.
6 Interest payable and similar charges
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Bank overdrafts 2,017 –
7 T axation on proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities
2004 2003 
£ £ 
UK Corporation tax
Current tax on proﬁts of the year – 5,000
Adjustment in respect of previous periods (4,673) –
Foreign tax
Current tax on foreign income for the year 42,815 –
T otal current tax 38,142 5,000
The tax assessed for the period is lower than the standard rate of corporation tax in the UK.
The differences are explained below:
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities before tax 404,021 (362,220)
Proﬁt/(loss) on ordinary activities at the standard rate 
of corporation tax in the UK of 30% (2003: 30%) 12 1 ,206 (108,666)
Effect of:
Expenses not deductible for tax purposes 3,9 12 10,974
Fixed asset timing differences (128,812) (75,732)
Small companies relief – (2,895)
R&D enhancement (73,885) (52,787)
Utilisation of tax losses brought forward – (30,817)
T ax losses carried forward 90,423 264,923
Foreign tax charge 42,815 –
Adjustment in respect of prior year (4,673) –
Double tax expense relief claimed (12,844) –
Current tax charge for period 38,142 5,000
At 31 August 2004, the Group had corporation tax losses carried forward amounting to £1,187 ,752 (2003: £883,076).
The full utilisation of these losses in the foreseeable future is uncertain and consequently no deferred tax asset has
been recognised in the ﬁnancial statements. 26 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Notes to the accounts continued
8 Earnings per share
Earnings per ordinary share have been calculated using the weighted average number of shares in issue during the
relevant ﬁnancial periods.
The weighted average number of ordinary shares in issue is 25,085,696 (2003:16,703,373).The comparative weighted
average number of ordinary shares in issue has been adjusted for the bonus issue that took place during 
the current year.
Earnings, being proﬁts after tax, are £365,879 (2003: loss of £367 ,220).
2004 2003 
Number Number 
Reconciliation of denominator for diluted EPS calculation
Number of shares used in calculation of basic EPS 25,085,696 16,703,373
Dilutive potential ordinary shares held under share option schemes 1,242,884 –
Number of shares used in calculation of diluted EPS 26,328,580 16,703,373
In 2003, the loss for the year resulted in any potential ordinary shares held under share option schemes being 
anti-dilutive, and, in accordance with FRS 14 have been excluded from the calculation of diluted EPS in that year.
9Proﬁt for the ﬁnancial year
The company has taken advantage of the exemption allowed under section 230 of the Companies Act 1985 and has
not presented its own proﬁt and loss account in these ﬁnancial statements.The group proﬁt for the year includes a
proﬁt after tax and before dividends of £4,673 (2003: £177 ,096) which is dealt with in the ﬁnancial statements of the
parent company.
10 Intangible assets
Patent
development
costs
Group £
Cost
At 1 September 2003 33,362
Additions 54,414
At 31 August 2004 87,776
Amortisation
At 1 September 2003 5,034
Provided for the year 13,984
At 31 August 2004 19,018
Net book value
At 31 August 2004 68,758
At 31 August 2003 28,328 27 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
1 1 T angible ﬁxed assets 
Assets in
Plant and Computer Ofﬁce the course of 
machinery equipment equipment construction T otal
Group £££££
Cost
At 1 September 2003 720,538 37 ,376 1 9 ,537 93,8 1 9 871 ,270
Additions 327,601 203,434 64,757 1,936,340 2,532,132
Disposals (204,076) – – – (204,076)
T ransfers 93,819 – – (93,819) –
At 31 August 2004 937,882 240,810 84,294 1,936,340 3,199,326
Depreciation
At 1 September 2003 77 ,288 8,855 4,289 – 90,432
Provided for the year 624,772 53,929 20,435 – 699,136
Disposals (1 10,433) – – – (1 10,433)
At 31 August 2004 591,627 62,784 24,724 – 679,135
Net book value
At 31 August 2004 346,255 178,026 59,570 1,936,340 2,520,191
At 31 August 2003 643,250 28,521 15,248 93,819 780,838
12 Fixed asset investments
Group undertakings
Company £
Cost
At 1 September 2003 and 31 August 2004 2
Company investments represents a holding of 100 per cent of the ordinary share capital of OHM Ltd, a company
incorporated in England and Wales whose principal activity is the provision of services to the oil exploration and
production industry.
13 Debtors:amounts falling due within one year
Group Group Company Company 
2004 2003 2004 2003 
£ £ £ £ 
T rade debtors 669,382 124,590 – –
Amounts owed by group undertakings – – 1 2,488,718 1,584,200
Other debtors 280,238 98,278 – 2,723
Prepayments and accrued income 210,583 42,068 – –
Amounts recoverable on contracts 59,000 104,586 – –
1,2 1 9 ,203 369,522 12,488,71 8 1,586,923
14 Creditors:amounts falling due within one year
Group Group Company Company 
2004 2003 2004 2003 
£ £ £ £ 
T rade creditors 593,001 240,930 – 17,622
Corporation tax – 5,000 – 5,000
Other taxation and social security 42,785 23,835 – –
Accruals and deferred income 807,735 28,785 – 19,457
1,443,521 298,550 – 42,079 28 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Notes to the accounts continued
15 Financial instruments
The Group had no material ﬁnancial instruments other than short term debtors and creditors during both this and
the prior year.
It is, and has been throughout the year under review, the Group’s policy that no trading in ﬁnancial instruments shall
be undertaken.
Financial assets
The Group’s ﬁnancial assets comprise cash at bank. Fixed rate ﬁnancial assets are Sterling deposits held in a ﬁxed term
deposit bank account with a six month notice period. Prior to ﬂotation on 1 1 March 2004, and also during the prior
year, Sterling deposits were held in a seven day rollover account.The weighted average ﬁxed rate of interest was 4.04
per cent (2003: 3.1 1 per cent).The weighted average period for which the rate is ﬁxed was 61 days (2003: seven days).
As the ﬁnancial assets disclosed below are cash, the fair value is the same as the book value.
Floating rate Fixed rate
ﬁnancial ﬁnancial 
T otal assets assets
Currency as at 31 August 2004 £ £ £ 
Sterling 9,944,483 4,944,483 5,000,000
Floating rate Fixed rate
ﬁnancial ﬁnancial 
T otal assets assets
Currency as at 31 August 2003 £ £ £
Sterling 1,1 12,435 1 12,435 1,000,000
Financial liabilities
The Group has no ﬁnancial liabilities other than short term creditors.
16 Provision for liabilities and charges
Group Group Company Company 
2004 2003 2004 2003 
£ £ £ £ 
Deferred taxation
Accelerated capital allowances 205,396 76,584 – –
Unutilised tax losses (356,326) (264,923) – –
(150,930) (188,339) – –
In line with the Group’s accounting policy on deferred taxation, the potential deferred tax asset has not been
recognised in these ﬁnancial statements. 29 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
17 Share capital
Allotted, called up
Authorised and fully paid
2004 2003 2004 2003
£ £ £ £
Equity share capital
43,000,000 (2003:100,000) Ordinary Shares of 1p each 430,000 1,000 289,979 586
Ordinary shares of 1p each
Number £
In issue at 1 September 2003 58,646 586
Issued on 6 February 2004 464 5
Share options exercised on 10 February 2004 3,700 37
Bonus issue of 360 1p Ordinary Shares for every 1p Ordinary Share 
held at 26 February 2004 22,61 1,600 226,1 16
Shares issued on 1 1 March 2004 pursuant to ﬂotation on AiM 6,323,529 63,235
In issue at 31 August 2004 28,997 ,939 289,979
On 6 February 2004 Dr Pierre Jungels, a non-executive director, purchased 464 1p Ordinary Shares for a
consideration of £49,931.
Southampton Asset Management Ltd exercised 3,700 options held over 1p Ordinary Shares on 10 February 2004 
at an exercise price of 1p.
The bonus issue on 26 February 2004 was funded from the company’s share premium account.
The ﬂotation on AiM took place on 1 1 March 2004 at a price of £1.70 per 1p ordinary share.The consideration
received in respect of this issue was £10,749,999.
Share Option Scheme
At 31 August 2004 the following share options were outstanding in respect of the ordinary shares:
Number of 1p Exercise price 
Date of grant Ordinary Shares Period of option per share
2 September 2002 823,080 September 2002 – September 2012 7.10p
2 September 2002 137 ,180 September 2002 – September 2012 7.10p
28 November 2002 685,900 November 2002 – November 2012 7.10p
1 December 2003 21 1,546 December 2003 – December 2013 29.81p
1 December 2003 261,364 December 2003 – December 2013 29.81p
1 March 2004 940,008 March 2004 – March 2014 170.00p
4 March 2004 216,600 March 2004 – March 2014 170.00p 18 Reserves
Share premium Proﬁt and loss
account account
Group ££
At 1 September 2003 2,441 ,723 (449 ,736)
Premium on shares issued during the year 10,736,690 –
Share issue costs (849,305) –
Proﬁt for the year – 365,879
T ransferred to share capital on bonus issue (226,1 16) –
At 31 August 2004 12,102,992 (83,857)
Share premium Proﬁt and loss
account account
Company ££
At 1 September 2003 2,441 ,723 94,580
Premium on shares issued during the year 10,736,690 –
Share issue costs (849,305) –
Proﬁt for the year – 4,673
T ransferred to share capital on bonus issue (226,1 16) –
At 31 August 2004 12,102,992 99,253
19 Reconciliation of movements in shareholder’s funds
Group Group Company Company 
2004 2003 2004 2003 
£ £ £ £ 
Proﬁt/(loss) for the year 365,879 (367,220) 4,673 177,096
Issue of shares 63,277 333 63,277 333
Premium on shares issued during the year 10,736,690 2,341,763 10,736,690 2,341,763
Share issue costs (849,305) – (849,305) –
Net additions to shareholder’s funds 10,316,541 1,974,876 9,955,335 2,519,192
Opening shareholder’s funds 1,992,573 17,697 2,536,889 17,697
Closing shareholder’s funds 12,309,1 14 1,992,573 12,492,224 2,536,889
20 Commitments under operating leases
The Group had annual commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as set out below:
2004 2003 2004 2003
Property Property Other Other
£ £ £ £ 
Operating leases which expire:
Within one year – – 33,000 –
In two to ﬁve years 51,650 – 1,3 1 8 1 ,318
51,650 – 34,318 1 ,318
30 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Notes to the accounts continued 31 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
21 Related party disclosures
Related party transactions and balances
During the year, the Group paid consultancy fees to Professor Martin Sinha, a non-executive director of the Company,
amounting to £15,000 (2003: £15,000).
Loans and transactions concerning directors and ofﬁcers of the company
During the year, the Group paid £5,000 (2003: £19,300) to IP2IPO plc (formerly IP2IPO Ltd), in which John Davies 
is a director, in respect of directors’ services.
The Group also paid £2,084 (2003: £Nil) in the year to IP2IPO plc, in which David Norwood is a director, in respect
of directors’ services.
22 Reconciliation of operating proﬁt/(loss) to net cash inﬂow/(outﬂow) from operating activities
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Operating proﬁt/(loss) 180, 1 1 0 (408,822)
Amortisation of intangible ﬁxed assets 13,984 5,034
Depreciation of tangible ﬁxed assets 699,136 90,320
Loss on sale of tangible ﬁxed assets 93,643 –
(Increase)/decrease in debtors (727,191) 293,036
Increase/(decrease) in creditors 1, 1 49 , 971 (470,574)
Net cash inﬂow/(outﬂow) from operating activities 1, 409 ,653 (491,006)
23 Reconciliation of net cash ﬂow to movement in net funds
2004 2003 
£ £ 
Increase in cash 8,832,048 1,004,194
Movement in net funds 8,832,048 1,004,194
Opening net funds 1, 1 1 2, 435 108,241
Closing net funds 9,944,483 1,1 12,435
24 Analysis of net funds
At At 
1 September 2003 Cash ﬂow 31 August 2004
£ £ £ 
Cash at bank and in hand 1,1 12,435 8,832,048 9,944,483
25 Contingent liability
There is presently a third-party action against the Group alleging patent infringement. It is not currently possible to
assess the likelihood of success or scale of this third-party action with any degree of certainty.
The directors are of the opinion that no provision is required. 32 Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Company registration number
04329960
Registered ofﬁce
c/o Masons
30 Aylesbury Street
London
ECIR OER
Directors
Dr Pierre Jean Marie Henri Jungels CBE
(Non-executive Chairman)
David Charles Newall Pratt (Chief Executive Ofﬁcer)
Garry Robert Allan (Finance Director)
Dr Lucy Margaret MacGregor (Chief Scientiﬁc Ofﬁcer)
Landon Thomas Clay (Non-executive director)
Gary Jones (Non-executive director)
Keith Lough (Non-executive director)
David Robert Norwood (Non-executive director)
Dr Anthony Raven (Non-executive director)
Professor Martin Clarebrough Sinha 
(Non-executive director)
Secretary
Garry Robert Allan
Nominated advisor and broker
KBC Peel Hunt Ltd
1 1 1 Old Broad Street
London
EC2N IPH
Registrars
Capita Registrars (Scotland) Ltd
Sutherland House
108 Dundas Street
Edinburgh
EH3 5DQ
Bankers
Royal Bank of Scotland plc
Aberdeen Bridge of Don Branch
18 Ellon Road
Bridge of Don
Aberdeen
AB23 8EA
Solicitors
Masons
30 Aylesbury Street
London
EC1R OER
Public relations
Aquila Financial Limited
90 Long Acre
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 9RZ
Auditors
BDO Stoy Hayward LLP
Ballantine House
168 West George Street
Glasgow
G2 2PT
Shareholder information Designed and produced by JacksonBone. Printed in England by MM Print Ltd. Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
Annual Report 2004
Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc
www.OHMsurveys.com
info
@
OHMsurveys.com
T elephone +44 
(
0
)
870 429 6581
Fax +44 
(
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)
870 429 6582
The T echnology Centre
Offshore T echnology Park
Claymore Drive
Bridge of Don
Aberdeen
AB23 8GD
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