Business Model

Seismic data is proven to hold its value over time as the cost of acquiring new data continues to increase. A single seismic program can take up to three months to shoot, and employs up to 100 people at a time. In contrast, Pulse can usually provide a survey from its seismic data library within 24 hours. While seismic survey costs continue to rise along with other oilfield services, the cost of maintaining Pulse's data library is trending slightly downward on a per-unit-of-data basis, through improved cost-efficiencies as Pulse's data set grows.

As a specialized provider of high-quality seismic data, Pulse Seismic can remain profitable throughout the commodity price cycle. As land prices go up producers are increasingly developing prospects before bidding on parcels. Analysing area seismic data before submitting a bid gives producers a better chance of acquiring truly prospective properties.

When commodity prices fall, producers use seismic to pin-point low-risk, low-cost exploitation and development properties or build a drilling inventory to pursue during higher price phases of the cycle. Using licensed library data is more cost-effective than shooting new seismic data, providing Pulse with a further edge during low-price phases. These factors all support Pulse's business.

Acquiring and Licensing Data

Pulse owns and manages the second-largest data library of freely available data covering the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin. Pulse built up its historical data library primarily by purchasing large historical data sets from major producers. Pulse continues to grow its data library by conducting participation surveys for new 3D data, and by acquiring 2D and 3D data sets from smaller seismic companies with data sets covering some of Western Canada's most prospective current exploration regions. Pulse's business model is designed to generate a growing stream of free cash flow by repeatedly re-licensing data within its seismic data library to oil and natural gas companies.

Participation Surveys

Pulse partners with customers on participation surveys from which the data collected can be added to Pulse's data library to generate future licensing revenue. Pulse retains 100 percent ownership of the data, and participating customers are provided with a licensed copy. Partnering with one, two or several customers on surveys reduces the cost for each participant, often making the difference between a cost-prohibitive and a viable shoot. It can also generate operating and cost efficiencies by simultaneously surveying several separately owned parcels that together form a contiguous land block. Pulse manages each stage of its participation surveys from start to finish. Participating customers may be granted exclusive access to the survey data for up to six months. For Pulse, it's important that much of the land in a potential participation survey area be open for posting by others, or is soon to expire, so there's the possibility of licensing the data to other companies.