TGS taps Tape Ark for 40 PB seismic cloud migration

TGS has awarded Tape Ark a contract to migrate about 40 petabytes of seismic and subsurface data to the cloud.

The programme is among the largest cloud migration projects of its kind in the energy sector.

The work will move a large part of TGS's data estate into a hyperscale cloud environment for imaging, analytics and data delivery. The dataset includes seismic and subsurface information from the company's global library.

Tape Ark will migrate the data and deliver it in cloud-native formats compatible with TGS platforms. The agreement also includes measures to speed access for internal teams and customers and shorten delivery times.

The move is part of TGS's broader effort to modernise its data and technology platform. The company supplies subsurface data and energy intelligence to businesses across the energy sector.

Cloud access to large seismic libraries has become a priority for data providers and users that want to analyse large volumes of information without relying on older storage and delivery systems. That can affect how quickly exploration teams, interpreters and analysts retrieve data and run processing jobs.

Scale of move

The migration involves tens of petabytes, placing it at the upper end of data transfer projects in the sector. Handling volumes at that scale typically requires parallel processing across several sites, especially when data has been stored on tape or in other legacy formats.

Tape Ark's ingest platform supports parallel processing across multiple facilities, allowing petabyte-scale datasets to be moved in line with TGS's internal processing and delivery workflows. The approach is intended to reduce disruption during the migration.

TGS expects the programme to support on-demand access to its global data library, improve collaboration between subsurface and digital teams, and speed project and customer workflows. The cloud environment is also expected to provide computing resources for imaging and analytics as demand changes.

Wadii El Karkouri, Executive Vice President of Imaging & Technology at TGS, outlined the company's view of the project.

"With ongoing investment in modernizing our data and technology platform, this migration is a key step in how we continue to evolve TGS' data and technology platform. It enables greater speed, scale, and flexibility in how our customers access and use subsurface data," said El Karkouri.

The contract gives Tape Ark a prominent role in a market where energy companies and specialist data owners are reassessing how they store and distribute large technical datasets. Seismic libraries can span decades of surveys and formats, making migration both a complex operational task and a storage decision.

Cloud strategy

For TGS, the project is linked to customers using subsurface data in digital workflows rather than through slower manual delivery methods. Moving data into cloud-native formats can make it easier to integrate datasets with interpretation tools and internal systems.

The agreement also reflects a broader industry shift toward remote access to technical datasets for teams working across multiple locations. That has increased pressure on data owners to make archives easier to search, retrieve and process at short notice.

Guy Holmes, Founder & CEO of Tape Ark, said the company had built its platform for projects of this size.

"TGS has a clear vision for how subsurface data should be accessed and used in a cloud-first environment. Our platform was designed specifically to support migration programs of this scale, and we're pleased to support TGS as it advances its global digital infrastructure," said Holmes.

Tape Ark operates in Australia, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India, focusing on large-scale tape-to-cloud migration work for corporate, government and industrial clients. Under the TGS agreement, it will move roughly 40 petabytes of data and prepare it for direct use within TGS systems.

Once completed, the migration is expected to strengthen TGS's cloud-based access to subsurface data for customers worldwide.