EXHIBIT 99.1

                       [LETTERHEAD OF CORE LABORATORIES]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             For more information, contact:
                                          Richard Bergmark, 713-329-7403 (phone)
                                                              713-939-8295 (fax)

CORE LABORATORIES ACQUIRES SAYBOLT

HOUSTON (May 12, 1997) -- Core Laboratories N.V. announced that it has acquired
Saybolt International B.V. for $67 million in cash and the assumption of
approximately $5 million of net debt. Saybolt, a privately held company with
1996 revenues of approximately $100 million, provides field and analytical
services used to characterize crude oil and its derivatives. Combined, the
companies will offer petroleum oilfield services from over 70 offices in 50
countries and locally serve every major petroleum producing province in the
world.

"Our client-driven business strategies of adding technologies and services to
further leverage our global presence should lead to accelerated growth," said
David M. Demshur, President and CEO of Core Laboratories. "Saybolt, with 24
offices in the Commonwealth of Independent States, provides the operating
experience and base from which Core can offer reservoir description and
production management services that are in increasing demand, especially in the
southern Caspian Sea area," Demshur added.

Although the acquisition will provide greater growth opportunities to both
companies, there will be consolidation savings at both the operating and
administrative levels. Several field offices will be combined and Saybolt's
Western Hemisphere administrative functions will be moved from Parsippany, New
Jersey to Houston, Texas. The total consolidation savings could exceed $3.0
million. "This acquisition is expected to be accretive to our 1997 operational
earnings," said Richard L. Bergmark, CFO and Treasurer of Core Laboratories. "We
have arranged financing for this transaction on attractive terms which should
preclude the need to seek additional equity capital through a secondary offering
at this time," Bergmark added.

"We will be better able to service our clients and offer a more complete package
of services," said Erik Pluimers, President and CEO of Saybolt. "Exchanging
technology and increasing technical interaction of our senior engineers and
scientists should lead to a new series of related services as we go forward. We
are very encouraged about the future," Pluimers added.

Core Laboratories N.V. (NASDAQ - NNM: CRLBF) is one of the world's leading
providers of petroleum reservoir description data and production management
services for maximizing hydrocarbon recovery from new and existing fields. The
company is the world's largest provider of petroleum reservoir rock and fluids
analyses and multidisciplinary reservoir description studies. Core is also a
leading provider of field services evaluating the efficiencies of well
completions and stimulations and the effectiveness of enhanced oil recovery
projects. In addition, the Company manufactures and sells petroleum reservoir
rock and fluid analysis instrumentation and other integrated systems. The
Company's forecasts and projections herein are subject to various important
cautionary factors as more fully described in Core Laboratories 1996 10-K and in
other securities filings.

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