Schlumberger Acquires Two Key Canadian Companies

Schlumberger Oilfield Services has acquired two leading Canadian software companies based in Calgary, Alberta-Panther Software Corp. and Merak. Panther is a provider of hardware and software products and services for managing, indexing, loading, and cataloging large volumes of seismic data throughout the seismic data lifecycle; and Merak is a market leader in petroleum software solutions for economic evaluation, decision and risk analysis, field optimization, and data visualization and mining.

The acquisition of virtually all of Panther's assets was completed earlier this month, and the acquisition of Merak is expected to be completed by the end of the month. Both will be integrated into Schlumberger's GeoQuest portfolio of seismic data management applications and services.

The integration of Panther's SDMS, SDL, SAL, and PetaSTAR with GeoQuest's applications and services will provide an optimized workflow across the seismic data lifecycle, while the integration of Merak's tools into GeoQuest's exploration decision support process and that company's value management and field optimization products into GeoQuest's production data management and analysis greatly expand the latter's capabilities.

Core product development and business operations in Calgary will continue, making the Canadian city a key product development center for GeoQuest.