For a total value of approximately 40million USD, this is probably the biggest contract to have been awarded in the marine acquisition business in 1996. The CGG Harmattan in dry-dock. The market for combined gravimetry-seismic surveys has picked up in Venezuela, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Africa. Seismic tomography is finding applications for civil engineering and mining. The airborne electromagnetic mining market remains buoyant and is spreading to new regions such as Scandinavia, Greenland and the Kola Peninsula.
Surveys continue for natural underground sites for storage of gas and radioactive waste.
A large ground-penetrating radar survey was made of pipes buried at shallow depths to map their position. Data Processing CGG was recently awarded three more contracts for dedicated data processing centers, one in the UK and two others in Norway. The CGG Integrated Studies Group based in Houston is currently very busy after the completion of integrated studies in Mexico and Brazil. Upcoming projects are located in Syria, Venezuela, the Far East and the United States. Eleven IntegralPlus interpretation work-stations will equip Petrobas sites from this summer onwards.