ION increases ownership in OceanGeo to 100%

HOUSTON, June 16, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- ION Geophysical Corporation (NYSE: IO) today announced that it has entered into an agreement to increase to 100% its ownership of ocean bottom seismic (OBS) acquisition company OceanGeo B.V.  ION acquired 30% of OceanGeo in February 2013 and increased its ownership to 70% in January 2014. 

As announced today in a separate press release issued by OceanGeo, OceanGeo was recently awarded a substantial survey offshore West Africa for an international oil company, having recently completed a 540 square km survey offshore Trinidad for Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Petrotrin), on time, on budget and with no QHSE incidents.

Brian Hanson, ION's President and CEO, commented, "The OBS segment is the fastest-growing seismic market segment today, commanding an estimated 13% of E&P company marine seismic spend, up from about 6% in 2006.  Our increase in ownership of OceanGeo is indicative of our full commitment to the OBS market and is in keeping with our strategy of leveraging our key technologies, such as our Calypso^® next generation VSO acquisition system, to deliver solutions to oil & gas companies.  With the addition of OceanGeo services, we now offer a fully-integrated OBS solution that includes survey planning and design, data acquisition using Calypso, and data processing, interpretation and reservoir services through our GX Technology group.  An integrated solution means efficient, seamless delivery of these technologies, services and expertise to oil and gas companies seeking higher quality OBS data for reservoir development and production."

To learn more about ION's Ocean Bottom Seismic services, visit iongeo.com/OBS.  To learn more about OceanGeo, visit oceangeo.co.

About ION

ION is a leading provider of technology-driven solutions to the global oil & gas industry.  ION's offerings are designed to help companies reduce risk and optimize assets throughout the E&P lifecycle. For more information, visit www.iongeo.com. www.iongeo.com.

Contacts
ION (Investor relations)
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Greg Heinlein, +1 281.552.3011

ION (Media relations)
Vice President - Corporate Marketing & Communications
Karen Abercrombie, +1 713.366.7281
[email protected]

The information included herein contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  These forward-looking statements include anticipated attributes of the project and OceanGeo B.V., benefits expected to result from the project and the Company's ownership of OceanGeo B.V., and other statements that are not of historical fact.  Actual results may vary materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements reflect numerous assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties.  These risks and uncertainties include risk factors, which could affect actual results, as disclosed by the Company from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed during 2014.

SOURCE ION Geophysical Corporation