Shearwater is headquartered in Bergen and is an integrated provider of marine geophysical services, primarily the acquisition and processing of seismic data for oil, gas, and multi-client companies worldwide.

The company was established by RASMUSSENGRUPPEN AS and GC Rieber Shipping ASA in 2016 with four seismic vessels, including streamer equipment. In November 2018, Shearwater acquired Schlumberger’s offshore-related seismic operations, including 10 seismic vessels with associated streamer equipment and streamer technology. In January 2020, Shearwater acquired 7 seismic vessels jointly owned by CGG and Eidesvik through the company Global Seismic Shipping AS, along with streamer equipment to outfit 5 seismic vessels. Additionally, CGG committed to chartering at least 2 seismic vessels annually for 5 years for its multi-client operations. In April 2021, Shearwater acquired 6 seismic vessels and streamer equipment to equip 4 seismic vessels from Tiger Moth AS. The vessels and streamer equipment were previously owned by Polarcus.

As of December 31, 2024, Shearwater owned a total of 23 modern seismic vessels, making it by far the largest seismic company in the world in terms of number of owned vessels. The company also has processing departments in the UK, USA, Malaysia, Brazil, India, and Australia, and owns proprietary streamer and node technology as well as a manufacturing facility for streamers and nodes in Malaysia.

As of December 31, 2024, the Rasmussen Group owned 88.8% of the share capital in Shearwater Geoservices Holding AS (Schlumberger Norge AS held 2%, GC Rieber AS 6.5%).