Western Geophysical, Division Of Western Atlass International

Western Geophysical, a leading seismic company, provides comprehensive seismic services for oil and gas exploration, field development, and reservoir monitoring. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, U.S.A., Western's employees around the globe conduct seismic surveys on land, in deep waters, and across shallow-water transition zones. The seismic surveys encompass high-resolution 2-D, 3-D, and multicomponent surveys for delineating exploration targets and extend to the integration of seismic data with borehole-derived information to describe petrophysical properties throughout a reservoir. Western also conducted some of the industry's first time-lapse 4-D seismic surveys for monitoring reservoir fluid movement.

The growth of Western Geophysical is a classic American success story. Western was founded by Henry Salvatori, who had participated in some of the early geophysical surveys for oil and gas after earning an electrical engineering degree from Pennsylvania University and a masters degree from Columbia University.

From a small building in Los Angeles, California, Salvatori and two of his employees built Western's first seismic data recording truck. In less than a year-and-a-half, Western had 10 seismic crews at work in California, Colorado, Kansas, Texas, and Louisiana.

Western's international operations began in 1937 when the first crew was sent to Italy. In 1952, Western established its first foreign subsidiary, Western Geophysical Company of Canada, Ltd. In 1957, Western founded a second subsidiary, Western Riserche Geofisiche, in Italy.

Marine geophysical operations began in 1938 when Western placed an instrument truck on a barge and began surveying in the bays along the Texas coast. Development of modern marine operations was delayed until the settlement of boundaries between state and federal waters occurred in 1952. Western immediately established a marine seismic crew off California, and by 1955, had 10 such crews in operation. With innovative contracting practices such as turnkey operations and speculative shooting, Western quickly came to the forefront of marine geophysics.

During the 1950s, when seismic data were recorded on analog tape, Western devised the first practical system for large-scale analog data processing. Western became a part of Litton Industries in 1960. In the early 1960s, Western was among the first to switch to digital recording and processing, and has been a leader since in digital seismic technology, both in the field and in the processing center.

In 1965, the company relocated its headquarters from California, to Houston. Over the years, Western's R&D and Applied Technology groups have contributed to the development of air guns, vibrators, GPS positioning, 3-D surveys, 24-bit digital recording, radio telemetry and bottom-cable surveys, on-site quality control, 3-D visualization, complex imaging, stratigraphic analysis, and fracture detection. Western's geoscientists and engineers are also helping to advance seismic technology to the next frontier -- 4-D surveys for time-lapse reservoir monitoring.

In 1987, Litton, in a joint venture with Dresser Industries, formed Western Atlas International, Inc. In 1993, Litton Industries purchased Dresser Industries' share of Western Atlas International and spun off its commercial segments -- oilfield services and industrial automation -- as Western Atlas, Inc.

In late 1993, Western Geophysical acquired the assets of Halliburton Geophysical Services (HGS). In 1997, Western Atlas spun off the industrial automation portion of the company to concentrate solely on providing oilfield services.

In 1998, Western Atlas and Baker Hughes merged, combining premier information technology with leading execution capability to deliver a full range of best-in-class services worldwide.

Today, Western Geophysical is advancing the state-of-the-art in all phases of seismic services through an aggressive combination of geoscientific research, field engineering, and software development. Western's emphasis on technology and service is matched by a commitment to safety and concern for the environment.