Executive viewpoint
Best practice in the business world suggests that a company should have a set of values—core values—that represent the company’s highest priorities and drive the underlying ways in which the company conducts the business. Strong core values can provide internal and external advantages to companies. At marine seismic company Polarcus, we have our own set of core values—Responsibility, Innovation, Excellence.
On the surface, our core values might look like those values for hundreds of other companies, both inside and outside the energy industry. There is a unique difference among companies and how, if ever, they truly live and/or benefit from their own stated values. Seldom have I seen a company’s values be as evident and influential in day-to-day business as I have at our firm. One can see elements of our values permeating through all aspects of the business, across all parts of the company. So, let’s see how these core values really do drive the business.
Responsibility. As one would expect, health, safety and the environment (HSE) are a high priority in the marine seismic acquisition business. Seismic vessels operate around the globe, in many of the harshest conditions and remotest locations. Streamer equipment, valued at multi-millions of dollars, covering surface areas the size of metropolitan Houston, London or Sydney, are towed behind these vessels in varying patterns with methodical precision. This operation must be done with the highest care and responsibility for human and marine life, company assets, and client data standards.
Our employees and service providers perform responsibly through pro-active health and safety development and awareness, resulting in the best-in-class performance with the lowest number of recordable incidents in the marine seismic acquisition industry.
Our vision is to be a pioneer in an industry where the frontiers of seismic exploration are expanded responsibly without harm to our world. Our company maintains environmental practices that are among the highest in the industry. We live our Explore Green commitment with full reporting of fleet emissions on a quarterly and annual basis, with results among the lowest when compared to other seismic fleets, as well as IMO standards.
It is tangible actions of responsibility, such as the ones mentioned above, that are recognized by clients, resulting in repeated business.
Innovation. Our firm maintains a clear vision to innovate. At the heart of our solution offering is our geophysical toolbox. Our geophysical community has access to multiple solution-oriented offerings, both in-house and externally developed, to support today’s sophisticated acquisition systems and to provide tailored solutions for our clients’ specific geological and/or prospect-based survey challenges.
XArray is an innovative acquisition configuration developed by Polarcus to deliver high-quality data and make full use of today’s larger streamer spreads. It is somewhat unique in the industry, as it delivers highest-quality data with significantly less equipment deployed, reducing our in-sea footprint and lowering equipment exposure.
It is such an offering, with demonstrable results, that is recognized by operators in the industry, resulting in multiple new-project awards. Through these awards, we are gaining market share in new jurisdictions across the globe. This includes projects where we are operating offshore, for the first time, in five new countries during 2016.
Excellence. We believe that there are multiple examples of excellence across our company. A common factor in the company achieving such excellence is our employees. The entire team, whether in onshore offices or on offshore vessels, with diverse backgrounds and complimentary expertise, comes together with a common goal to deliver excellence.
Take, for example, the company’s continued vessel utilization. In spite of the industry’s greatest and longest downturn, we continue to see our vessels staying busy and generating revenue. The company delivered 87% utilization through the first three quarters of 2016. This is a company record, and it represents the best in the industry. To achieve this record, it takes onshore employees securing contract awards and developing pre-funded multi-client projects, all in a highly competitive market. It then takes carefully coordinated project planning, preparation and execution. This is a combination of dedicated onshore support staff and offshore crews, to deliver superior results.
We use the term operational excellence in many of our communications, both inside and outside the organization. This statement becomes easier to make, when the entire team continues to deliver one of the industry’s lowest technical downtimes, and at a lower cost.
While our strategies will change from time to time, and quickly evolve with ever-changing market conditions, our core values are here to stay. Our core values continue to influence and deliver the business; as such, they will be fixed, regardless of internal and external factors that may affect the organization. Responsibility, Innovation, Excellence, we believe, will continue to differentiate us and drive the company’s sustainability and success. 
