Viridien

In 1926, Conrad Schlumberger, and his brother Marcel Schlumberger, formed Société de Prospection Electrique (SPE) which specialized 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 (CGG). SGRM provided 5,000,000 francs of capital and CGG provided 120,000 francs of capital. In his premises at 30 rue Fabert, in Paris, Conrad Schlumberger decided to transfer the subsurface business to CGG while SPE retained the logging. Marcel Champin was Chairman and Conrad Schlumberger was Vice-Chairman. At the same time, Raymond Maillet from SGRM was appointed President of CGG.

In 1954, CGG acquired its first IBM 604 computer and an MT4 analog computing center for processing field data.

In 1958, CGG completed its first dual-vessel marine survey with one source vessel.

In 1966, CGG opened its first seismic data processing center in Massy, France.

In 1971, CGG started 3D marine seismic exploration with wide-line profiling.

1974-1990, Journey into the Earth, Part 4: The third dimension

Veritas DGC

Veritas Energy Services, a geophysical services company, was established in 1974 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with the purchase of a Rafael Cruz owned firm Rafael B. Cruz and Associates Ltd. by David B. Robson.

Natural Resources

Viridien develops geoscience technology to find natural resources and manage those resources sustainably. The organization focuses on oil and gas exploration, development and production; mineral exploration and mine development; and geothermal monitoring.

Minerals and mining: Viridien supports mineral exploration through global geological predictions and plate kinematic studies, satellite-derived surface material alteration targeting, provision of geophysical equipment, and the development and provision of modeling software, as well as monitoring services for mining operations and mine tailing storage facilities.

Geothermal: Viridien provides global screening datasets, as well as evaluating and monitoring geothermal developments to gain insight across asset life cycle by utilizing: data and analytics, resource assessments, reservoir characterization, and production and monitoring.

Environmental

Viridien utilizes analytics and Earth monitoring to understand and provide insights about human impact on the environment. Viridien focuses on environmental insight (on land, ocean, or atmosphere) through remote sensing, machine learning analytics, data analysis and interpretation, and high performance computing (HPC).

Seismic Survey Controversies

In December 2023, it was announced by environmental group Seaspiracy that CGG had been granted authorization by the South African government to conduct seismic blasting between Plettenberg Bay and Gqeberha.

The announcement stirred backlash from environmental groups and South African civil society. This backlash mirrored a similar response to attempts by Shell PLC and Shearwater Geo to conduct seismic blasting off the Wild Coast in December 2021.