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                         EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT AMENDMENT          EXHIBIT 10.15

     This Employment Agreement Amendment ("Amendment") is entered into this 11th
day of August, 1997, by and between Exploration Holdings Limited (the "Company")
and ___________ ("Executive").

                                    Recitals

     WHEREAS, the Company and Executive have previously entered into a Service
Agreement for Senior Directors relating to the employment of Executive by the
Company, which has been amended by an Employment Agreement Amendment dated July
3, 1996 (as so amended, the "Agreement");

     WHEREAS, Executive and the Company have agreed to enter into this Amendment
and hereby amend certain terms of the Agreement as set forth herein;

                                    Agreement

     NOW, THEREFORE, for and in consideration of the mutual promises and
covenants contained herein, the parties hereby agree as follows:

     1. Executive and the Company hereby agree that the warrants to purchase up
to 5,555 ordinary shares of US$0.001 of Energy Research International, a Cayman
Islands corporation and the parent corporation of the Company, at a price of
US$300.03 per ordinary share, granted to the Executive on July 3, 1996 pursuant
to the Agreement are hereby cancelled.

     2. Executive is hereby granted stock options to purchase up to 75,000
shares of Common Stock, $0.01 par value per share, of Eagle Geophysical, Inc., a
Delaware corporation and the ultimate parent corporation of the Company
("Eagle"), pursuant to Eagle's stock option plan at a price per share equal to
the initial public offering price of such stock pursuant to Eagle's initial
public offering being consummated on or about the date hereof. Such stock
options shall vest in cumulative installments of one-third of the total shares
subject thereto on each of the first, second and third anniversaries of the date
hereof and will expire ten years from the date of grant or such earlier date as
may be specified pursuant to Eagle's stock option plan. In addition, any such
options that are not vested as of any date on which the Company terminates the
Executive's employment not in accordance with this Agreement shall become fully
vested on the date of such termination.

     3. The annual review date set forth in paragraph 7 of the Terms and
Conditions of Employment, Particulars, is hereby amended to be each subsequent
anniversary of the date hereof.

     4. Subsection 1.4.2 of the Agreement is hereby amended to read in its
entirety as follows:

        "1.4.2      the relocation shall be within England or the United States
                    of America; provided, however, any such relocation to the
                    United States shall be only
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                    with the consent of Executive, which consent may not be
                    unreasonably withheld by the Executive."


     5. Subsection 5.2 of the Agreement is hereby amended to read in its
entirety as follows:

        "5.2  Any change in salary will be made at the Company's absolute
              discretion; provided, however in no event may the salary be
              reduced below the Salary reflected as item 6 of the Terms &
              Conditions of Employment attached as a part of the Agreement."

     6. The Company Executive Incentive Scheme contemplated in paragraph 13.1 of
the Agreement is hereby amended for the calendar year ending December 31, 1997
to provide that the Executive shall be entitled to receive an amount equal to
50% of his base salary for such year under the Scheme if and only if the
Operating Profit Margin (as defined in Paragraph 13.2 of the Agreement) of the
Marine Business (as defined in Paragraph 13.2 of the Agreement) for such year
equals or exceeds 24% of revenues from the Marine Business.

     7. Section 13 of the Agreement is hereby amended by adding a new paragraph
13.2 thereto as follows:

13.2     Additional Incentive Bonus

         13.2.1 Additional Incentive Bonus. The Executive shall receive
                additional incentive bonuses, if earned,with respect to the
                fiscal years ending during the Term pursuant to Subsection
                13.2.3 and/or 13.2.4 (each an "Additional Incentive Bonus");
                provided, however, that no Additional Incentive Bonus for a
                fiscal year shall be payable if the Net After-Tax Profits (as
                hereinafter defined) for such fiscal year do not exceed Base
                Profits (as hereinafter defined).

         13.2.2 Definitions.

                "Base Profits" shall mean 5% of gross revenues from the Marine
                Business.

                "Chief Financial Officer" means the chief financial officer of
                Eagle Geophysical.

                "Eagle Geophysical" means Eagle Geophysical, Inc., a Delaware
                corporation and the indirect parent corporation of the Company.

                "Marine Business" means the marine seismic data acquisition
                business of the Company and its wholly owned subsidiaries
                and of any other company that is a direct or indirect wholly
                owned subsidiary of Eagle Geophysical.

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                    "Net After-Tax Profits" shall, for the purposes hereof, mean
                    the amount of net profits of the Marine Business calculated
                    by the Chief Financial Officer applying U.S. GAAP and such
                    other accounting principles and assumptions as may be
                    reasonable and taking into account expenses attributable to
                    allocable overhead (based on revenues) from all other
                    companies controlled by or under common control with the
                    Company engaged in the Marine Business and of such
                    companies' parent corporation(s), and subtracting therefrom
                    all income tax liabilities attributable to the Marine
                    Business.

                    "Operating Profit Margin" means the amount of revenue less
                    cost of sales of the Marine Business calculated by the Chief
                    Financial Officer applying U.S. GAAP and such other
                    accounting principles and assumptions as may be reasonable.

            13.2.3  Applicable Percentage Bonus. If Net After-Tax Profits for a
                    fiscal year exceed Base Profits for such fiscal year, the
                    Executive shall receive an Additional Incentive Bonus (in
                    addition to any Additional Incentive Bonus pursuant to
                    Subsection 13.2.4) equal to the Applicable Percentage set
                    forth in the table below multiplied by the difference
                    between actual Net After-Tax Profits and Base Profits.

                          Net After-Tax Profits
                       (percent of gross revenues)       Applicable Percentage
                      ------------------------------     ---------------------
                      greater than 5%, but less than             2.0%
                              or equal to 6%
                      greater than 6%, but less than             2.5%
                              or equal to 7%
                             greater than 7%                     3.0%

            13.2.4  Significant Increase in Revenues Bonus.  If Net After-Tax
                    Profits for a fiscal year after 1997 exceed Base Profits for
                    such fiscal year, and if gross revenues of the Marine
                    Business for such fiscal year increase by an amount of 20%
                    or more as compared to the gross revenues of the Marine
                    Business for the previous fiscal year, the Executive shall
                    receive an Additional Incentive Bonus equal to 3% multiplied
                    by the excess, if any, of the Net After-Tax Profits for such
                    fiscal year over the greater of (i) the Net After-Tax
                    Profits for the prior fiscal year or (ii) Base Profits for
                    the prior fiscal year.

            13.2.5  Payment of Additional Incentive Bonus. The Chief Financial
                    Officer shall calculate the Net After-Tax Profits, and any
                    Additional Incentive Bonus payable to the Executive in
                    connection therewith, shall certify such calculations and
                    shall deliver such calculations to the Executive as soon as
                    reasonably practicable after the end of each fiscal year,
                    but in any event


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                    within seventy-five (75) days following the end of such
                    fiscal year. Any Additional Incentive Bonus payable
                    hereunder shall be paid by the Company to the Executive
                    within seven (7) days of delivery of such calculations by
                    the Chief Financial Officer and in any event within
                    eighty-two (82) days following the end of the applicable
                    fiscal year.

         8.  Section 28 of the Agreement is hereby amended to read in its
entirety as follows:

  "28.   DISPUTES

   28.1  Arbitration. Any dispute, difference or question ("Dispute") between
         Executive and the Company ("Disputing Parties"), arising with respect
         to the Agreement or Executive's employment under the Agreement that is
         not resolved promptly by the Disputing Parties shall be resolved by
         binding arbitration as follows. In the event the Parties are unable to
         resolve the Dispute within 14 days following written notice from one
         Disputing Party to the other setting forth the basis of the Dispute,
         then either Disputing Party may request that the Dispute be settled by
         binding arbitration by an arbitrator mutually acceptable to the
         Disputing Parties in an arbitration proceeding conducted in Houston,
         Texas in accordance with the rules existing at the date hereof of the
         American Arbitration Association. If the Disputing Parties hereto
         cannot agree on an arbitrator within ten (10) business days of the
         initiation of the arbitration proceeding, an arbitrator shall be
         selected for the Disputing Parties by the American Arbitration
         Association. The Disputing Parties shall use their reasonable best
         efforts to have the arbitration proceeding concluded and a judgment
         rendered by the arbitrator within forty (40) business days of the
         initiation of the arbitration proceeding. The decision of such
         arbitrator shall be final, and judgment upon the award rendered by the
         arbitration may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof,
         and the costs (including, without limitation, reasonable fees and
         expenses of counsel and experts for the Disputing Parties) of such
         arbitration (including the costs to enforce or preserve the rights
         awarded in the arbitration) shall be borne by the Disputing Party whom
         the decision of the arbitrator is against. If the decision of the
         arbitrator is not clearly against one of the Disputing Parties or the
         decisions of the arbitrator is against more than one Disputing Party
         on one or more issues, the costs of such arbitration shall be borne
         equally by the Disputing Parties.

28.2     Consent to Jurisdiction; Venue. The parties hereto agree that all
         actions relating to the enforcement of this Section or any award
         rendered hereunder, and over which the United States federal courts
         have subject matter jurisdiction, shall be litigated, if at all,
         exclusively in the United States District Court for the Southern
         District of Texas, Houston Division, and, if necessary, the
         corresponding appellate courts. The parties further agree that all
         actions relating to the enforcement of this Section or any award
         rendered hereunder, and over which the United States federal courts do
         not have subject matter jurisdiction, shall be litigated, if at all,
         exclusively in the Courts of the State of Texas, in Harris County,
         and, if necessary, the corresponding appellate courts. Each party
         hereto hereby submits itself to the personal jurisdiction of, and


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         consents to venue in, any such court, and hereby waives any claim it
         may otherwise have that such court lacks personal jurisdiction over
         it, or that such court is an inconvenient forum, with respect to any
         such matter or proceeding. Each party hereto further agrees to
         voluntarily appear and to enter a general appearance in any such
         proceeding which is brought in any such court. Executive hereby
         appoints Carolyn Campbell and/or Griggs & Harrison, P.C. of Houston,
         Texas as its agent for service of process in any such matter or
         proceeding."

28.3     Governing Law. This Agreement shall be governed by, and interpreted
         in accordance with, the laws of the United Kingdom, without regard to
         the conflicts of laws provisions thereunder.

         9.  Except as specifically amended hereby, the terms and provisions
of the Agreement shall continue in full force and effect.


SIGNED as a Deed           )
by the Company             )
acting by its              )
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SIGNED as a Deed           )
by the Executive           )




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