Health, Safety, Environment & Quality Leadership in Health, Safety, Environment & Quality (HSEQ) is a Core Value within PGS and we strive, every day, to use these principles to maintain a culture where the goal to prevent harm to people and the environment becomes intrinsic in our business processes.

Our HSEQ management and reporting is a key element in our evaluation of business performance for all management levels and the Board of Directors.

As part of the PGS strategy for growth, being a recognized leader in HSEQ is a common goal and has been positively used to guide both investment and operational plans for the next years.

HSEQ Performance
2007 saw further improvements with better reporting, improved follow-up and focus on risk as a determining factor when directing management efforts. Our safety and environment results are favorable when compared to many of our competitors; however there is a broader trend the last year towards an increase in the recorded injury rates, and PGS results also reflect this. Our HSEQ results are being actively used to focus and drive our efforts to develop and maintain our position as a market leader in geophysical services.

HSEQ Achievements in 2007 Include:

In 2007 we experienced three fatalities. The fatalities occurred during two separate incidents: one on a sub-contractor drilling rig on an Onshore project and the other involving a vehicle roll-over on crew transportation on a public road, also on an Onshore crew. We have made extensive reviews to identify areas in which our routines can be improved and reinforced. Such improvements have been implemented, and have included industry-wide experience transfer to alert other geophysical contractors to previously unrecognized hazards.

Overall, lost time incident frequency (LTIF) was 0.65 per million man hours in 2007, compared to 0.31 for 2006. The total recordable case frequency (TRCF) remained relatively stable at 2.55 per million man hours in 2007 compared to 2.34 in 2006.

There are numerous examples of superior incident prevention performance on Onshore crews, with 2 crews exceeding 1 million hours without lost time incident (LTI) in Libya, and 1 crew achieving this no LTI milestone over 2 million hours in Peru. The Onshore crew in Mexico achieved 8.7 million hours without LTI over 3 years, from July 2004 thru August 2007 when the fatal vehicle incident occurred.

Increases in the lagging indicators is cause for concern, and factors such as increasing growth in the company as well as in the industry are seen as contri-buting. The continuous demand for people challenges the organization in terms of the increased requirements for training as well as a reduced level of available experience. The high demand for people also requires an increased use of subcontractors. Similarly, our challenges in Onshore were subcontractor management and vehicle transport incidents. PGS is continuously making a great effort in managing these challenges by implementing induction training programs, strengthening vehicle monitoring and training, and working closer with our subcontractors, including more stringent subcontractor supervision, auditing and prequalification, in addition
to the careful monitoring of experience levels within the operating units to guide growth and operational decisions. We implemented dedicated driver monitoring supervision onshore in early 2007.

We have increased efforts and results in all leading indicators; HSE training, HSE meetings, manager visits, cross auditing, START Cards, HSE drills and experience transfers with approximately a 20% increase in effort (per million hours) on average as compared to 2006.

During 2007 PGS implemented a global Crisis and Issues Management program with an initial focus in Marine Geophysical. The system, which is externally hosted for robustness, provides role-based com-munication lines and automated notification protocols to ensure ‘issues’ can be tracked throughout the organization with minimum of administration. The tool also allows managers and teams to remain updated in real time while away from the office, but with internet access worldwide, www.onevoice.no.

Training has been performed at major
locations in Houston, Oslo and Singapore with notification exercises on a regular basis including voice, e-mail and SMS messages to all levels of management. The implementation program is continuing during 2008 within the group companies.

Environmental Focus
The environment subject is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives and is a collective responsibility; not only for individuals, but also for governments, companies and society in general. As well as continuing to provide high quality products and services to the geophysical industry, PGS recognizes the importance of demonstrating environmental perfor-mance to customers, employees, contractors and investors.

Geophysical operations, both offshore and onshore have various environmental aspects to consider including energy use and waste management. The position of Environmental Manager was filled during Q1 2007 in order to enhance and further develop our environment related systems and competence. Whilst continuing to monitor and advise on issues related to sound in the marine environment. This new role is a key element in the design of a company-wide management framework based on the guiding principles of international standards, such as ISO 14001 to measure, monitor and assess the environmental performance of PGS.

This framework, which is one component of PGS’ efforts related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), will be implemented during 2008 and provide a mechanism to review objectives and targets related to environmental performance.

Fundamental elements of the proposed framework include:

Mechanisms to collect baseline data related to waste management, energy use and fuel consumption related to both field and office based activities were streamlined and standardized in 2007.

Throughout 2007, HSEQ continued its emphasis on project based environmental risk assessment and mitigation by working closely with clients during pre-survey planning activities as well as the data acquisition and post survey analysis phases of a given operation. PGS supports geophysical industry activities related to the environment by providing resources to participate in efforts coordinated by industry organizations such as the International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC), the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP). PGS also participates in international initiatives to measure and monitor energy use and waste management.

In addition to the intrinsic industry leading efficiency of the PGS Ramform fleet with which geophysical data collected per sail line and source effort are optimized due to increased streamer count the Ramform Sovereign is build in according to DNV Clean class notation, as is the DNV environmental class notation for transoceanic operation vessel. In addition to this specification for the Ramform Sovereign, PGS have added double skin hull to the whole vessel with no oil stored adjacent to the sea.

Several of our existing Ramform vessels have also had their main machinery upgraded to low NOx specifications. Following these upgrades less NOx pollutants are produced while delivering equal performance and fuel consumption.

We continued with all of our operations to work in partnership with the communities and have maintained good solid relations with them. In February, 2007, PGS Onshore conducted highly successful multi-client 3D seismic operations in the town of Anadarko, Oklahoma, population approximately 8 000. This survey is remarkable because it includes a populated area, and because our proactive approach interacting with the community, its officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is an illuminating example of how PGS Onshore implements Core Values in all facets of its business. We continue as standard practice to inform, coordinate with and involve community leaders, including providing support and assistance when needed, and emergency medical support. We provide employment opportunities for the local people with advancement opportunities for skilled performers, and training and personal development assistance. For example in Libya we provide English language courses to local staff. We leave our lines and operations areas in environmentally friendly status, conduct remediation activities to minimize impacts of our operations, and we continue to receive letters of recognition for our environmental stewardship. In project areas in North Africa and in Cambodia we continue to participate fully in local humanitarian de-mining activities.

MTEM
Following PGS purchase of MTEM Limited (MTEM), the Edinburgh-based Multi-Transient Electro Magnetics company, in June 2007 an integration committee was established involving key functions from PGS Marine, Onshore, Technology, HSE, GSS and Finance departments and whose job it was to ensure a rapid and effective adoption of MTEM into the PGS group of companies. MTEM had a world class HSE Management System (MTEM-MS) based on industry standards in operation and integration with the PGS systems continues aided by the similar structures of both systems.

PGS Multi-Transient EM field operations are carried out within a strict framework of procedures and work instructions as would be expected from an operation utilizing electrical power. Rigorous hazard identification processes are followed during the mobilization of each field deployment. During the job risk management is practiced in order to remove or mitigate risks to personnel, equipment or the environment. Throughout 2007 the MTEM crews operated safely with only one LTI on an onshore crew.

MTEM already had established an induction training system for new hires which showed the HSE, technical and operational information that they needed to safely start their work. Upon joining PGS this was further enhanced by adopting the basic minimum training units from PGS Marine or Onshore. Further specialized training was taken up including low voltage electrical training, management and leadership training including Duke Port1 & Port2, and TOPSET incident investigation training.