Technical information provider IHS last week acquired the inventory and assets of Geological Consulting Services--Houston, Inc., which provides tops data files in electronic and other media covering South Texas, East Texas, North Louisiana, South Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The acquisition includes a database that contains information on more than 120,000 oil and gas well; and each well has an average of 20 correlated tops. GCS has used those correlations to create hand-contoured structure maps.
The formation tops database contains information collected over nearly 40 years. (Formation tops are used to study subsurface geology, map formation extent and dimension). The formation tops and structure maps are used by oil and gas explorationists conducting regional analysis or developing new prospects.
IHS will also gain access to GCS's technical expertise in the form of geologists who developed GCS's portfolio. They will continue to build out the product offerings.
This deal just emphasizes the fact that high-value data comes in many forms. Combining it all can certainly create a service that meets all customer needs. Owning such a wide range of data sources is just another thing to consider as content publishers strive to become complete service providers for their customers. Customers typically rely on a variety of data to achieve their goals. By becoming a provider of all kinds of high-value data, publishers can achieve their objectives as well.