Western Geophysical was an international oil exploration company founded in California in 1933 by Henry Salvatori for the purpose of using

reflection seismology Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...

to explore for petroleum. The company prospered and was sold by Salvatori to Litton Industries in 1960. In 1987, Litton and Dresser Industries formed a joint venture comprising Western and

Dresser Atlas Dresser Industries was a multinational corporation headquartered in Dallas, Texas, United States, which provided a wide range of technology, products, and services used for developing energy and natural resources. In 1998, Dresser merged with i ...

. The joint venture, Western Atlas, was spun off as a public company in 1994. Western then purchased Halliburton Geophysical Services, which had been formed from Geophysical Service Incorporated, Geosource and several other companies. In 1998, Western Atlas was acquired by

Baker Hughes Baker Hughes Company, organized in Delaware and headquartered in Houston, is one of the world's largest oil field services companies. The company provides products and services for oil well drilling, formation evaluation, completion, productio ...

. In 2000, Western Geophysical became part of a joint venture between Baker Hughes and

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

called WesternGeco and ceased to exist as a separate entity. In May 2006, Schlumberger bought Baker Hughes' 30% share of the company. Western Geophysical built a number of significant seismic survey vessels over the years, in different classes depending on the role. The majority of Western Geophysical vessels were named for geographic features, such as: * Western Anchorage (200', West Coast and Alaska) * Western Cape (small, Gulf of Mexico) * Western Cay (small, Gulf of Mexico) * Western Glacier (200', West Coast and Alaska) *The Western Endeavour was based out of Singapore in the mid-70's. She worked from as far away as Mauritius to the Solomon Islands. Photo taken in Pt. Moresby, Papua New Guinea, late 1974. She was 127', 400 tons, V-hull. (can't figure out how to publish the photo). They also had the Western Islander and the Oil Creek (a supply vessel), both in S.E. Asia at that time. More recent vessels including the Western Trident and Western Neptune passed to WesternGeco when the new company was formed. The company was often referred to as "Westerns" and was affectionately known over many years by many of its employees as the "circus without a tent". Dean Walling was the operating President of Western Geophysical for his entire working life and retired when the company was sold to Litton Industries in 1960.

References

{{Reflist Companies based in Kern County, California Technology companies established in 1933 Technology companies disestablished in 2000 Oilfield services companies 1933 establishments in California 1933 disestablishments in California Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area Defunct technology companies based in California

See also

References