Compagnie Générale de Géophysique
| Industry | Geophysical Services |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merger |
| Successor(s) | CGGVeritas |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Defunct | 2007 |
| Headquarters | Paris, France |
| Key people | Robert Brunck (CEO) |
Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) was a geophysical services company, providing seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation services, as well as related processing and interpretation software to clients in the oil and gas exploration and production business. The firm merged with United States-based competitor Veritas in early 2007, forming CGGVeritas.
CGG's clients were principally oil and gas companies using seismic imaging in exploration for, and development and production of oil and gas reserves. Seismic imaging is used to identify new areas where subsurface conditions are favorable for the accumulation of oil and gas, determining the size and structure of previously identified oil and gas fields and optimizing the development and production of oil and gas reserves (reservoir management). CGG also manufactured geophysical equipment.
Contents
History
In 1926, Conrad Schlumberger, and his brother Marcel Schlumberger, formed Société de Prospection Electrique (SPE) which specialised in oil and coal exploration as well as civil engineering.
In March 1931, SPE and Société Géophysique de Recherches Minières (SGRM), both specialists in seismology and magnetometry merged into La Compagnie Générale de Géophysique. SGRM provided 5,000,000 francs of capital and CGG capital of 120,000 francs. In his premises at 30 rue Fabert in Paris, Conrad Schlumberger decided to transfer the subsurface business to CGG while SPE retained the logging. At the same time, Raymond Maillet from SGRM was appointed President of CGG.
The first two years of business for CGG were shaky. Near-surface surveys (hydrology, mining and civil engineering) and oil exploration were not enough to break even in a period when oil was worth 10 cents a barrel.
In January 2007, CGG merged with Veritas DGC Inc creating CGGVeritas.
Aliases
Also known as:
- Compagnie Generale de Geophysique,
- CGG,
- GGY.
See also
External links
- CGGVeritas website
- Early fortunes of CGG in a volatile world, First Break, November 2006fr:CGGVeritas
