Seitel Announces Second Quarter Revenue and Cash Resales

Schedules Conference Call
HOUSTON--(Business Wire)--
Seitel, Inc., a leading provider of seismic data to the oil and gas industry,
today announced that, based on preliminary information, total revenue for the
quarter ended June 30, 2009, is expected to be $21.3 million, a 52% decrease
from total revenue of $44.7 million for the same period last year. Cash resales
for the second quarter of 2009 were $7.2 million, down 78% from the same quarter
of last year and down 28% on a sequential basis. Seitel`s cash resales reflected
decreases throughout all of our geographical areas, with both large and small
clients curtailing their expenditures on data from our library. The absence of
large licensing deals and the low number of library card contracts continue to
hurt our licensing revenue. Cash resales fell year-on-year by 79% and 74% in the
U.S. and Canada, respectively. For the six month period, Seitel`s cash resales
were $17.2 million, down $35.3 million or 67% as compared to 2008.

We believe that the drop in our cash resales has been driven by weak prices for
natural gas, further exacerbated by the economic uncertainty and tough credit
markets that have triggered a sharp reduction in exploration spending in the
U.S. and Canada. North American drilling activity continued to fall during the
second quarter, with the average year to date rig count dropping by 38% compared
to the same period of last year. Despite this sharp reduction in drilling
activity, we believe that production of natural gas has not fallen significantly
and continues to exceed current demand. We have seen no indications at this
point that our industry environment will improve materially in the near term or
that our resales will increase. Nonetheless, we expect that lower drilling
activity will have an impact on natural gas production in the medium term, and
that drilling and production costs in North America will continue to fall. The
resulting tighter natural gas storage and improved returns for our customers
should stimulate drilling activity and improve our licensing revenue to levels
more in line with historical results.

On June 30, 2009, our cash balances stood at approximately $28.7 million. The
company is not in compliance with the covenants on its undrawn $25 million Wells
Fargo Foothill credit facility. We are still in discussions with our bank on the
status of the credit facility.

CONFERENCE CALL

Seitel will hold its quarterly conference call to discuss second quarter results
for 2009 on Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Central Time (10:00 a.m.
Eastern Time). The dial-in number for the call is 888-396-2384, passcode Seitel.
A copy of the company`s press release announcing second quarter results, and any
other financial information about the period to be presented in the conference
call, will be available at the Investor Relations section of the company`s
website at http://www.seitel-inc.com.

ABOUT SEITEL

Seitel is a leading provider of seismic data to the oil and gas industry in
North America. Seitel's data products and services are critical for oil and gas
exploration and the development and management of hydrocarbon reserves by E&P
companies. Seitel owns an extensive library of proprietary onshore and offshore
seismic data that it has accumulated since 1982 and that it licenses to a wide
range of oil and gas companies. Seitel believes that its library of onshore
seismic data is one of the largest available for licensing in the United States
and Canada. Seitel's seismic data library includes both onshore and offshore 3D
and 2D data. Seitel has ownership in over 41,000 square miles of 3D and
approximately 1.1 million linear miles of 2D seismic data concentrated in the
major active North American oil and gas producing regions. Seitel serves a
market which includes over 1,600 companies in the oil and gas industry.

The Press Release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
the federal securities laws, which involve risks and uncertainties.
Forward-looking statements include all statements that do not relate solely to
historical or current facts, and you can identify forward-looking statements
because they contain words such as "believes," "expects," "may," "will,"
"should," "seeks," "approximately," "intends," "plans," "estimates," "projects,"
or "anticipates" or similar expressions that concern the strategy, plans or
intentions of the Company. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks
and uncertainties that may change at any time, and, therefore, actual results
may differ materially from management expectations reflected in our
forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the
Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its
most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, a copy of which may be obtained from the
Company without charge.Management undertakes no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise, except as otherwise required by law.

The press release also includes the non-GAAP financial measure, cash resales,
for which the most comparable GAAP measure is total revenue.

CASH RESALES

Cash resales represent licensing contracts from our seismic data library payable
in cash. We believe this measure is helpful in determining the level of cash
from operations available for cash operating expenses, debt service and unfunded
capital expenditures. The following is a quantitative reconciliation of this
non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial
measure, total revenue (in millions):

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended
March 31, June 30, June 30, June 30, June 30,
2009 2009 (a) 2008 2009 (a) 2008

Cash resales $ 10.0 $ 7.2 $ 32.7 $ 17.2 $ 52.5

Add other revenue components not included in cash resales:
Acquisition revenue 18.0 8.2 12.5 26.3 31.0
Non-cash resale licensing revenue 5.3 4.8 (2.5 ) 10.1 5.0
Solutions and other 1.4 1.1 2.0 2.5 3.6

Total revenue $ 34.7 $ 21.3 $ 44.7 $ 56.1 $ 92.1

(a) Based on preliminary information.

The following table summarizes the percentage decrease between the periods
indicated for cash resales and total revenue:

1Q09 to 2Q08 to YTD 08 to
2Q09 2Q09 YTD 09

Cash resales (28%) (78%) (67%)
Total revenue (38%) (52%) (39%)
U.S. cash resales (79%)
U.S. total revenue (45%)
Canada cash resales (74%)
Canada total revenue (72%)

Seitel, Inc.
William Restrepo, 713-881-8900

Copyright Business Wire 2009