* Returns to profit with $79 mln net income
* Sticks to 2013 target for higher sales, margins
* Analysts see Fugro acquisition boosting margins
PARIS, May 3 (Reuters) - French firm CGG
Shares in the oil industry seismic surveying firm were the biggest gainers in the European oil & gas sector
A sustained rise in oil prices is encouraging oil companies to spend more on exploration in increasingly difficult-to-get-at places, boosting demand for CGG's high-resolution seismic data.
New technology has played a major role in helping rejuvenate mature oil production areas such as the North Sea, including better seismic tests which allow the design of more precise 3-dimensional maps of the fields deep under the seabed.
The former CGG Veritas, which earlier this year completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Dutch engineer Fugro's
The profit topped a forecast of $38 million from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
CGG shares are down 19 percent since the beginning of the year, after the stock was hit by an aggressive price-cutting strategy at Fugro before its integration into CGG, Julien Laurent, energy analyst at Natixis, said.
Full integration of the Dutch group should help CGG raise prices and boost margins this year, he said.
"It's not done yet, but it will come in the next quarters and that's the idea the market has in mind," Laurent said.
It posted an operating margin of 19 percent for the quarter, up from 7 percent a year earlier, and confirmed on Friday it has targeted a 25 percent rise in revenue in 2013.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; editing by Jason Neely)
((michel.rose@thomsonreuters.com)(+33149495570)(Reuters Messaging: michel.rose.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: CGG RESULTS/
