PROPRIETARY seismic surveying once dominated marine seismic survey operations with 70% of the market and the remaining 30% devoted to multi-client, or 'spec' as it used to be known, writes Andrew McBarnet. That ratio has been reversed as companies have realised the savings in survey cost from sharing and the reduced regulatory hassle, for example navigating survey permitting in different offshore regimes. As competition has grown, the process of creating and selling a multi-client survey in countries around the world has become even more crucial to companies such as TGS. How it works is still something of a secret, according to chief executive Kristian Johansen.
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