Henk Kombrink, GeoExpro | June 30, 2025
As much as there is a consolidation happening in the large operator landscape and the seismic acquisition space, the same applies to the subsurface software business.
“Let’s face it,” says Bill Shea from Sharp Reflections, “in a market where there is not an awful lot of natural expansion, creating room for newcomers, only the strongest will win.”
“A consolidation such as what we have now seen with CMG, makes sense in such a market.”
“Whether we will ever be able to knock Petrel out of the park is another question,” he laughs. “Ultimately, they have got resources we certainly don’t, but yeah, we are here to join the battle.”
Let me introduce Bill and Herman very briefly. Bill is the founder of Sharp Reflections, the company that has earned its mark in the time-efficient analysis of pre-stack and 4D seismic data. Herman Nieuwoudt is the President of Bluware, the company that is on the frontline when it comes to developing tools for seismic interpretation supported by AI. Both companies were recently acquired by CMG, which has a long tradition in reservoir simulation development, providing options for storing and analyzing vast amounts of seismic data. Let’s dive into a comparative analysis of the formats. We will explore their features, advantages, disadvantages, and use cases…