ION Geophysical

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ION Geophysical Corporation
Type Public (NYSE: IO)
Industry Petroleum
Founded 1968
Headquarters Houston, Texas
Area served Global
Key people Robert P. Peebler (CEO)
Products Geophysical Services
Employees 1,195
Website www.iongeo.com

ION Geophysical (NYSE: IO) is a technology-focused seismic solutions company that provides advanced acquisition equipment, software, planning and seismic processing services, and seismic data libraries to the global oil & gas industry. The company’s technologies and services are used by E&P operators and seismic acquisition contractors to generate high-resolution images of the subsurface during exploration, exploitation and production operations. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ION has offices in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Russia, China and the Middle East.

History

Founded in 1968 as Input/Output (I/O), ION began as a provider of highly specialized, seismic source synchronization equipment. ION became publicly traded on NASDAQ in 1991, and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November 1994 using the trading symbol "IO". Throughout the 1990s and 2000's ION experienced growth through a number of key acquisitions. In September 2007 Input/Output (I/O) officially changed its name to "ION" to better reflect the broad-based, technology-focused seismic solutions provider it has evolved into.

Key Acquisitions

  • 1994 - cable and connector groups of Tescorp, Inc., provided customers with the cables necessary to operate I/O systems
  • 1995 - Western Geophysical's Exploration Products Group, added marine seismic recording systems, vibrator source products, and geophone products to the company's technology portfolio
  • 1997 - Green Mountain Geophysics, Inc. (GMG), developer of MESA software for seismic survey design and planning
  • 1998 - DigiCOURSE, Inc., manufacturer of marine positioning products
  • 2001 - Pelton Company, Inc. Pelton makes seismic vibrator control systems, vibrator positioning systems using GPS (global positioning systems), and explosive energy control systems
  • 2002 - AXIS Geophysics, advanced seismic data processing company specializing in anisotropic processing (AZIM), AVO (amplitude variation with offset) analysis, and azimuthal velocity modeling
  • 2004 - Concept Systems, Ltd., advanced command & control systems and data integration software for land and marine seismic surveys
  • 2004 - GX Technology Corporation, advanced seismic imaging solutions and multi-client seismic data libraries, including a portfolio of BasinSPAN data libraries
  • 2008 - ARAM Systems Ltd., a Canadian-based provider of cable-based land seismic recording systems

Activities

ION offers a broad toolkit for land and marine acquisition. For land acquisition, the products include vibroseis vehicles, energy source controllers, analog and VectorSeis full-wave receivers, and cableless (FireFly) and cable-based systems (Scorpion). In the marine environment, the products include positioning and streamer control systems, source and source control systems, and both streamer and seabed acquisition systems.

ION‘s subsidiary, GX Technology (GXT), provides seismic data processing services, such as state-of-the-art depth migration, reverse time migration, and full-wave imaging; multi-client seismic data libraries, including basin-scale SPAN seismic programs; software and services for seismic survey design, geophysical analysis, and reservoir modeling; and start-to-finish seismic imaging programs that encompass survey planning, field acquisition, and final image rendering.

ION owns one of the largest seismic data libraries in the industry. Known as BasinSPANS, these basin-wide, ultra-deep data libraries are custom designed to provide a holistic understanding of petroleum systems including source rock deposition, hydrocarbon migration paths, sediment fairways, and reservoir trapping mechanisms. ION BasinSPAN programs exist for the Gulf of Mexico, the margins of West and East Africa and for offshore basins in Colombia and the eastern Caribbean, India, Eastern and Northern Canada, and Alaska.

ION’s Concept Systems offerings include command & control systems that integrate and quality control data acquisition in towed streamer, OBC, electromagnetic (EM), and land surveys and services for designing and planning complex surveys, including wide-azimuth and 4d acquisition programs.

In March 2010, ION signed a joint venture agreement with BGP (which is a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation - CNPC) and launched INOVA Geophysical Equipment Limited. This is an independent company owned 51% by BGP and 49% by ION Geophysical, aspiring to engineer and deliver energy source and source control systems, land seismic recording systems, and digital full-wave sensors by combining strengths from both parents.

See also

References

1. "ION Named to Deloitte Technology Fast 500", Wall Street Journal, December 4, 2007
2. "Input/Output Changes Name to ION", RigZone, September 21, 2007

External links


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