The exploration and production business has been bearing the brunt of slashed investment and reduced budgets in the wake of the oil price crash. Yet, another industry dependent on E&P expenditure has taken even more of a beating: seismic surveying. The seismic market has not only suffered the reduced exploration allocation, it has been piling huge levels of debt and is unable to flip more return on investment because spending cuts in exploration budgets have left them with less funding prior to completing a seismic survey job. Struggling E&P companies have been renegotiating seismic vessel rates, and many geophysical survey companies have been scrambling to cover their own costs. It was in December 2014 – a few months after the oil prices started crumbling – that Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB) said it was reducing its WesternGeco marine seismic fleet to lower operating costs in response to the price crash. But according […]