After a brutal period lasting the better part of a decade, the marine seismic business may finally be rising from rock-bottom, buoyed by increased, if cautious, exploration and production spending by the major oil companies.

But no one should be getting too excited; the scale of any revival may be limited.

“We had a good year in 2022 but the size of the addressable market compared with our previous business model is probably 30-35% of what it used to be,” Kristian Johansen, chief executive of TGS, the longtime successful 3D seismic multi-client specialist, tells Upstream.