Looking back at 2023, it's clear that the land seismic sector is evolving rapidly.
In just three years, the market uptake of STRYDE has seen our business grow from a start-up to the market-leading provider of land seismic nodes by volume. As we’ve experienced this growth, we’ve also gained valuable insights into the trends in our market.
Firstly, there is clear growth in the overall use of STRYDE and more broadly, high-density land seismic, which doesn’t appear to be limited to specific geographies. As a result, we expect to report record revenues this year. Our nodal technology saw its first applications in 11 new countries, including large projects in Brazil and Ukraine, while we’ve also seen a record number of projects using STRYDE during 2023.
Secondly, there is a growing demand for land seismic for new applications, which STRYDE is at the forefront of. We’ve seen a significant shift in the type of projects our technology and services have been used on. As a solution developed initially for oil and gas, we’re pleased to share that this year, more than two-thirds of our projects were outside of the oil and gas sector. For comparison, in 2021, we saw about half of our projects outside of oil and gas.
Last year saw our highest-ever number of projects across low-carbon sectors, including geothermal, CCUS, and hydrogen. We’ve also welcomed the opportunity to work with a selection of elite academic institutes as part of their research and development projects, which has led to some diverse use cases, such as deciphering elephant communication in Kenya, assessing soil health for better agricultural yields, and delving into Earth’s critical zone processes. A third theme amongst our customers has been seismic studies and exploration in increasingly challenging terrains. Projects have ventured into dense jungles, mountainous regions, urban landscapes, and even on an active volcano.
All these environments require nimble and agile technology, a perfect fit for STRYDE Nodes™, which continue to be the world's smallest, lightest, and most affordable seismic sensor on the market today.
The launch of STRYDE Lens™ in August marked another milestone in our journey to offer high-density, rapid subsurface imaging solutions for clients. Led by an in-house team of highly skilled and experienced land processing geophysicists, this new service line has generated a sizeable interest in the market. This in-field data processing solution promises to revolutionise the timescales between acquisition and decision-making, a crucial factor in the majority of projects. It also enables operators in regions where laws restrict data from leaving the country of origin to access a best-in-class service without hinderance from restrictions. As more clients and partners begin to understand the opportunities available here, momentum in the service is gaining, and I predict further growth for STRYDE Lens™ in the new year.
Looking ahead to 2024, we’re anticipating an increase in exploration activity for natural hydrogen – or white hydrogen as it’s otherwise known – as both governments and industry seek to accelerate the energy transition. Our technology has already demonstrated cost-effective ways to explore natural hydrogen, addressing a crucial barrier to white hydrogen exploration and positioning STRYDE for the opportunities ahead.
November marked a significant moment as we surpassed 685,000 STRYDE Nodes™ delivered globally. This exceptional uptake underscores the growing demand for faster, cost-effective seismic acquisition technology, with STRYDE leading the charge. We expect to hit a sizeable milestone in the first quarter of 2024 as the one-millionth STRYDE Node™ comes off the production line.
These accomplishments fuel our excitement for what is to come, amidst the rapid global growth of land seismic across all sectors and showcase to our clients and partners that we have the inventory and resources to deliver across multiple, large-scale projects concurrently. Operators can be rest assured that they can design any survey that they want, and STRYDE will be able to enable it.
The positive feedback from our clients has been invaluable, highlighting the efficiencies and exceptional data quality enabled by STRYDE’s compact units. Our software's user-friendliness has been a significant differentiator, especially for newcomers to the seismic industry in emerging renewable sectors and academia, while we regularly receive praise for our fantastic field support team.
As we look to the future, our success hinges on our incredible team and our combined desire to offer a seismic technology that reduces environmental footprint and HSE risk, as well as enabling faster surveys and significant operational efficiencies. Together with our customers, we aim to steer the seismic industry away from legacy systems towards better datasets and more cost-effective seismic data acquisition.