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PESA WA Technical talk and Core Workshop with Brian Willis

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PESA WA October Technical Evening Talk —  

By Matt Fittall

A core group of PESA geoscientists gathered at The Globe on the evening of October 2nd to learn about the impact of new numerical modelling of deposition in wave influenced deltas in the interpretation of deltaic sequences and their facies distributions. Dr Willis and his co-workers showed how this work challenges the paradigm of a prograding equilibrium shoreface profile and a gradual upward- coarsening facies progression with a sharp-based shoreface succession generated by a relative sea-level fall.

In his presentation Brian Willis demonstrated that differences in...

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PESA WA October Technical Lunch — Fault Timing & Depocentre Development in the Northern Perth Basin

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The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA WA) held its October Technical Lunch on 16 October 2025 Parmelia Hilton Perth, featuring a presentation by Chris Watts. The event attracted around 50 attendees from across the upstream sector, including representatives from Shell, Woodside, Santos, Chevron, and other leading energy companies in the Perth Basin.Chris delivered an informative and well-structured presentation highlighting the geological evolution of the Northern Perth Basin and the implications for exploration and resource development. His talk generated strong interest and engagement among participants.

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WA YP event

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PESA hosted a very successful YP event after the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) conference in Perth in September jointly with AIG, SPE and ASEG.

With over 70 attendees from both Perth and interstate, it was a wonderful evening of networking with both familiar and new faces.

A big thank you to our panellists who all volunteered their time after a packed week presenting at the conference: Ishtar Barranco (CCS Geologist, Chevron), Donna Sewell (Consulting Geologist, AIG WA Brach Chair) and Richard Lilly (Exploration Geologist, The University of Adelaide)

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Vale Rowley Butters

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Article prepared by Don Poynton who first met Rowley in 1972

(Accompanying photo from PESA News No 75, April/May 2005)

PESA Meritorious Service Awardee, Rowley Edward Butters passed away peacefully on Sunday 12 October, aged 87.

In the April/May 2005 issue of PESA News, newly elected PESA Federal President Dave Cliff wrote, “The biggest change for PESA will be the retirement of Rowley Butters as the society’s Secretariat. Rowley has been with the organization since its inception as the APEA Profession Division in 1968 when he was press-ganged into being WA Branch Treasurer”.

Rowley joined the industry as accountant with WAPET in the mid-1960s.

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VIC/TAS Meeting Updates

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PESA VIC/TAS branch is actively working on its schedule of meetings and will bring some in-house events to the membership ASAP. Meanwhile, some of the branch membership are able to access meetings of our sister geoscience societies in Melbourne. On Friday 10th October, a few PESA Victorians attended the SPE lunchtime talk given by the SPE Distinguished Lecturer Mike Byrne, of Elemental Energies. Mike spoke on the topic of CO2 injection well design with the subtitle "The same, but different".

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Australian Natural Hydrogen Conference 2025

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It’s a crucial year for the potential commercialisation of natural hydrogen, and the second Australian Natural Hydrogen Conference October 21-23 in the Adelaide Hills promises to shed new light on this emerging energy source.

With a handful of companies worldwide having confirmed high levels of natural hydrogen in the ground, all are now racing to prove they can commercialise the zero-carbon resource, and the conference, put on by the Natural Hydrogen Association of Australia, has some of the industry’s heavyweights fronting attendees.

Since the inaugural Natural Hydrogen Association of Australia conference in 2024, the game has changed.

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Carbon Loop #13

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Read the full newsletter here

Hello and welcome to The Carbon Loop — a newsletter by the CCUSNA dedicated to highlighting the Australian carbon capture, utilisation and storage industry

The Federal Government has dropped a suite of Net Zero strategies covering key parts of the economy: transport, resources, industry, built environment, agriculture and land, and electricity. Together with the overarching Net Zero Plan, these reports provide the most detailed picture yet of how Australia expects to meet its emissions commitments.

There’s a bajillion pages to get through and I’m a long way from having an informed opinion, but my initial hot take is a bit: Hmm.. really?

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WA Basin’s workshop to be held 1st-2nd Dec at Curtin University

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The 2025 Basins Workshop will take place on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 December 2025 at Curtin University, Perth in association with PESA WA Branch.  The aim of the workshop is to provide an informal forum for the exchange of insights and ideas regarding the evolution of sedimentary basins in Australia and around the world, and the diverse resources they contain, including hydrocarbons, minerals, geothermal energy, natural hydrogen, and the potential for CO2 and hydrogen storage.

Talks are limited to 10 minutes in duration, with ample time for discussion, so we are looking for thought provoking ideas, rather than polished conference presentations.

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OPINION PIECE – Climate Change and the Demise of PESA – By Dennis Morton

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By Dennis Morton - Member NSW branch https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-morton-a7587121/

Australia’s petroleum exploration and production industry has been in decline for decades and professional societies like PESA-Australia are suffering. Membership is falling, meeting and conference attendance is low and branch budgets are under pressure. Without significant change branches in Victoria and NSW may fold. The ACT branch merged with NSW after Geoscience Australia discouraged employee involvement, citing federal government policies that demonise fossil fuels.

Academia has also been affected with most Earth Science faculties in Australian universities closing.

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New PESA Webinar Library and Pete’s Webinar Picks

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Peter Hoiles – PESA Webinar Coordinator

PESA Webinar Library

It is hard to believe that we have nearly five years under the PESA Webinar Series belt.  Over this time, we have heard from many speakers on a number of topics of interest to PESA members, from oil and gas exploration in Australia and from across the World, to visiting several facets of the “Energy Trilemma”.  Many of these speakers have graciously given their permission for their video recordings to be made available to PESA members for viewing at their leisure.

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