Petroleum Geo-Services is Awarded One of the Largest Reservoir Characterization Contracts in the Industry

Houston, Texas; Oslo, Norway; July 10, 2000: Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (NYSE: PGO; OSE: PGS) announced today that it has recently been a awarded a significant contract to deploy its leading-edge reservoir characterization technology on one of the world’s largest oilfields, the Zakum field offshore Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The survey is expected to start in July 2000.

This 15 month survey will cover 1,500 square kilometers and as such represents one of the larger deployments yet of PGS’ PetroTracTM suite of seismic technologies: a comprehensive toolkit of technologies, techniques, and services aimed specifically at production & recovery optimization. The new survey will allow the client (ADNOC group , ADMA-OPCO and ZADCO) to improve production performance through enhanced reservoir definition and can serve as the base survey for a future time-lapse 3D reservoir monitoring program.

Bjarte Bruheim, President and Chief Operating Officer of PGS, stated, "PGS is pleased to have won this major contract against tough competition. Increasing focus on reservoir seismic studies is now a key trend in the spending patterns of both major and national oil companies. Specialized, reservoir-focused seismic technologies are the only means of describing the reservoir and its fluids between the wells, and allow our customers to locate wells optimally so hydrocarbon recovery can be maximized."

Bruheim went on to say, "As the major and national oil companies grapple with the management of production decline in their major reservoirs, PGS’ PetroTracTM suite of seismic technologies will provide the oil industry with the reservoir description tools it requires."

Reidar Michaelsen, PGS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer added, "This is an exciting contract for PGS and continues building on our track record as one of the most experienced reservoir imaging companies in the industry. Similar reservoir characterization studies to the Zakum survey that PGS has performed in the recent past include those over the Varg, Foinaven and Banff fields in the North Sea, the Penglai field in China’s Bohai Bay, India’s Bombay High and Umrat fields, and Mexico’s Abkatun field in the Gulf of Mexico. PGS is also well positioned for several other similar contracts which are expected to be awarded in the coming months.”

Petroleum Geo-Services is a technologically-focused oilfield service company principally involved in two businesses: geophysical seismic services and production services. PGS acquires, processes, manages and markets 3D, time-lapse and multi-component seismic data and provides associated data management solutions. This data is used by oil and gas companies in the exploration for new reserves, the development of existing reservoirs, and the management of producing oil and gas fields. In its production services business, PGS owns four floating production, storage and offloading systems and operates numerous offshore production facilities for oil and gas companies. FPSOs permit oil and gas companies to produce from offshore fields more cost effectively. PGS operates on a worldwide basis with headquarters in Oslo, Norway and Houston, Texas.