OSLO, Norway, July 7, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Petroleum Geo-Services ASA ('PGS' or the 'Company') announced today that its subsidiary Arrow Seismic ASA ('Arrow') has received a writ of summons to Asker og Baerum Tingrett from Compagnie Generale de Geophysique -- Veritas ('CGGVeritas') where CGGVeritas claims compensation from Arrow of approximately US$70 million.
In the writ CGGVeritas claims to have a binding agreement with Arrow for a charter and ultimately the purchase of NB 534, a newbuild seismic vessel that Arrow's subsidiary Arrow Seismic V Limited is building in Spain. CGGVeritas claims to have a binding agreement to this effect even though no agreement has been signed between CGGVeritas and Arrow or any subsidiary of Arrow.
CGGVeritas claims that Arrow discontinued the negotiations with CGGVeritas as a consequence of PGS' purchase of Arrow at a stage where, considering the nature of the negotiations, a binding agreement had in fact been entered into.
PGS views the CGGVeritas claim against Arrow as totally unfounded. PGS' position is that neither Arrow nor any subsidiary of Arrow was bound by any agreement with CGGVeritas at the time PGS purchased Arrow.
The availability of NB 534 was a clearly communicated and accepted condition of PGS' bid for GC Rieber Shipping ASA's ('Rieber') shares in Arrow. PGS has put Rieber on notice of the situation and reserves any rights towards Rieber.
Petroleum Geo-Services is a focused geophysical company providing a broad range of seismic and reservoir services, including acquisition, processing, interpretation, and field evaluation. The company also possesses the world's most extensive multi-client data library. PGS operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters at Lysaker, Norway. For more information on Petroleum Geo-Services visit www.pgs.com.
The information included herein contains certain forward-looking statements that address activities, events or developments that the Company expects, projects, believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future. These statements are based on various assumptions made by the Company, which are beyond its control and are subject to certain additional risks and uncertainties. The Company is subject to a large number of risk factors including but not limited to the demand for seismic services, the demand for data from our multi-client data library, the attractiveness of our technology, unpredictable changes in governmental regulations affecting our markets and extreme weather conditions. For a further description of other relevant risk factors we refer to our Annual Report for 2007. As a result of these and other risk factors, actual events and our actual results may differ materially from those indicated in or implied by such forward-looking statements.