TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company L.P., a subsidiary of TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company ASA, and Parallel Data Systems, Inc. (PDS) entered into a definitive agreement on March 31, 2007 whereby TGS will acquire all shares of PDS.

The transaction has been approved by the Board of Directors of both companies and is subject to U.S. regulatory approval.

Hank Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer of TGS, views the PDS acquisition as major step forward in the growth of the company's core business.

"We are determined to develop a world-class seismic imaging organization to satisfy the growing demands of our customer base and to build our data library with leading edge technologies. In working with PDS on a number of recent projects, we have been extraordinarily impressed with their ability to solve highly complex imaging problems on massive datasets while meeting very challenging project schedules. The combination of PDS with our existing TGS Imaging group will dramatically increase our throughput capacity and our array of imaging algorithms, as well as provide the critical mass in research and development necessary to commercialize the next generation of seismic imaging technologies including wide azimuth 3D."