A Brief History

In 1973 Bell Aerospace developed the first FTG (Full Tensor Gradient) system for the U.S. military. In 1994 Bell Geospace, a private company, demonstrated the viability for using FTG for resource exploration by imaging salt formations in the Gulf of Mexico for a small group of oil companies. Later that year, Bell Geospace leased a vessel to acquire 200 additional blocks for a consortium of oil companies, which included Amoco, BHP, Chevron, Mobil, Shell, Texaco and Unocal.

In June 1997 Bell Geospace obtained $8 million in venture capital, and in November, the company was successfully launched at the International Exposition and Annual Meeting of SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists).

Five months later Bell Geospace received the first of two FTG Systems from Lockheed Martin who had previously acquired Bell Aerospace. In June, 1998 Bell Geospace opened an office in Aberdeen, Scotland. Since that time Bell Geospace has acquired over 2,700 blocks of Marine-FTG^® data in the Gulf of Mexico, all of which is available for license. Additionally, Bell Geospace has acquired Marine-FTG^® data in the North Sea, Barents Sea and West of Shetlands area of the Atlantic Ocean. Marine-FTG^® clients include Anadarko, BP, Chevron, Cobalt International Energy, Conoco-Philips, Devon, ENI, Hess, Noble Energy, Shell, StatoilHydro, Total, WesternGeco.

In 2002, Bell Geospace adapted the knowledge gained from Marine-FTG^® surveys and began to successfully acquire on-shore FTG surveys using a single engine fixed wing airplane (Air-FTG^®). Since then Bell Geospace has acquired over 200,000 line-km of billable Air-FTG^® data for geologic mapping as well as oil & gas, diamond, precious metal, base metal, uranium, and groundwater exploration. From 2006-2007, Bell Geospace in partnership with DeBeers acquired extremely high resolution FTG data using a Zeppelin for diamond exploration in Botswana. In 2008, Bell Geospace purchased a Basler BT-67, a modified DC-3 with modern instrumentation and turboprop engines, in order to increase efficiency and data quality.

Today Bell Geospace is an active viable company operating three FTG systems for both Marine-FTG^® and Air-FTG^® acquisition worldwide.