Getech to exceed forecasts thanks to success of Globe

The Leeds-based group, which maps out areas around the world where oil might be found, has recently won five more Globe sponsors and has made two substantial sales of its global gravity and magnetic datasets.

Getech’s chief executive Raymond Wolfson said: “The first part of our financial year has been extremely successful, with the strong uptake of Globe and continuing strong data sales including two major sales of our global gravity and magnetic data products.

“We are seeing a strong synergy between the sales of Globe and sales of other products and services, and we anticipate that this will continue.”

He said the group now has a forward income, mainly but not solely from Globe, and a prospective sales pipeline that gives it confidence that its performance for the year as a whole will exceed expectations.

Analyst Eric Burns, at WH Ireland, said: “Getech has announced that it expects results for the year to July to be ahead of market expectations.

“This should come as no great surprise: recent newsflow has been excellent with a number of new sponsors signed for the Globe programme and two million dollars of data sales announced earlier this month.”

Getech sells complex magnetic and geophysical data to help oil and gas companies decide where to sink wells.

The company, spun out of the University of Leeds, recently announced two sales from its gravity and magnetic data sets, one for $1.5m and another for $500,000.

Getech has been stepping up marketing of its Globe programme, which provides firms with an overview of the whole planet and its geological structures. “We’re very encouraged by the progress we’ve been making,” said Mr Wolfson.

“These sales emphasise the fact that we seem to have a wider potential market for Globe.

“We seem to be stimulating more market as a by-product of pushing Globe – it’s pulling through these data sales.”

Originally called Global Programmes, Globe includes plate tectonics, which provide a broad history of the earth’s geological structures. It also features more detailed sets of data, which map specific regions at much higher resolution.

“It’s a framework, an ecosystem that powers everything we do. We are continually adding to it, ” said Mr Wolfson. “Oil companies use Globe to help them decide where to go in the broader sense and then having done that might ask for higher resolution stuff.”

Mr Wolfson said Globe has attracted a wider range of customer, from oil majors and national oil firms to smaller independents.