ION Geophysical has acquired Global Dynamics Incorporated (GDI), an Ontario-based company that designs and develops marine towing systems and equipment, including its proprietary SailWing technology.

ION said it plans to leverage SailWing technology to develop and sell commercial products for both source control and streamer deployment optimization in the towed streamer segment and to commercialize SailWings for use by its OceanGeo ocean bottom seismic (OBS) acquisition company.

ION president and CEO, Brian Hanson, said, “Over the last few years, we have licensed SailWings for several novel applications, including under-ice towing and for source array optimization for ocean bottom surveys, with impressive results.

“We have already filed our own IP improvements around this technology platform, which ultimately led to our acquisition of the technology to provide additional offerings for our revitalized towed streamer devices business and to further differentiate our OceanGeo ocean bottom business. In the current market environment, offering solutions to our towed streamer devices customers that help them improve their efficiency, while giving ourselves a unique ability to expedite ocean bottom surveys, is an attractive proposition.”