UPDATE 3-CGGVeritas Q1 profit misses forecasts, shares dip

* Q1 EBIT down 18.7 percent in euros, misses forecast

* Says to cut costs, focus on "healthy" net free cash flow

* Says visibility very low for the rest of 2009

* Keeps bullish long-term outlook for seismic business

* Shares down as much as 8 percent

(Recasts with details from conference call, analysts)

By Marie Maitre and Benjamin Mallet

PARIS, May 14 (Reuters) - CGGVeritas (GEPH.PA) reported sharply lower first-quarter profits and announced "rigorous" cost cuts as oil and gas companies cut or delay spending, reducing demand for the French company's seismic surveys.

"Oil companies are doing everything to put contractors under pressure, which has totally disastrous effects in our sector," Chairman Robert Brunck told a conference call for analysts, adding though that he remained confident in the outlook for the industry in the longer term.

"I would be surprised to see a permanent and lasting collapse in oil prices in 2010, 2011 and 2012," he said.

CGGVeritas shares were down 6 percent to 11.19 euros by 1000 GMT on Thursday, adding to an 11 percent fall earlier this week, with analysts and traders citing disappointment over the quality of the earnings and the company's bleak outlook.

CGGVeritas said first-quarter operating profit fell 18.7 percent to 100 million euros ($136 million), which came well below market expectations as analysts had forecast an operating profit of 139 million euros on average.

In dollars, operating profit was down 29 percent at $131 million, said the company which is based in Paris and Houston.

Sales fell to $851 million from $873 million last year, with operating margin down to 15 percent from 21 percent.

Order backlog fell to $1.4 billion on May 1, from $1.98 billion at end-2008 on reduced demand and with clients postponing investment decisions.