Helen

Carbon Loop #13

10/10/2025 Posted by Helen

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?

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

10/10/2025 Posted by Helen

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.

New PESA Webinar Library and Pete’s Webinar Picks

09/09/2025 Posted by Helen

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.

WA branch volunteers man the PESA booth at AEGC

08/09/2025 Posted by Helen

PESA are proud to be joint organisers of the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) 2025, taking place in the beautiful city of Perth, Australia from 8-11 September 2025. AEGC is the premier event for petroleum and mineral geoscience in Australasia and promises to be an exciting and enriching experience, bringing geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and industry professionals from across the globe.

ADNOC Eyes Santos: A High-Stakes Bid That Could Reshape the Asia-Pac LNG Landscape

08/09/2025 Posted by Helen

In a bold strategic maneuver, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil giant, ADNOC—via its international arm XRG, in partnership with ADQ and global private equity firm Carlyle—is pursuing the acquisition of Australia’s Santos Ltd. The A$30 billion (US$18.7–19 billion) all-cash bid, unveiled in mid-June 2025, emerges as the largest takeover proposal in Australian corporate history.

This acquisition aligns with ADNOC’s ambitious goal: becoming a top-five global player in LNG by 2035. Santos’ assets—including Darwin and Barossa LNG projects, a stake in PNG LNG, and significant exploration acreage like Beetaloo Basin—provide essential footholds in the Asia-Pacific region

ADNOC has made...

GA releases plans for the 1st 10 years of “Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity” initiative

08/09/2025 Posted by Helen

Geoscience Australia have showcased their planned projects for the first 10 years (2024-2034) of the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative in an online webinar, where the Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia the Hon. Madeleine King MP announced the location of the third deep dive project in the Georgetown-Julia Creek region, Queensland.

The 35-year $3.4 billion investment by the Australian Government was established to accelerate the discovery and development of the resources needed to support Australia’s net zero transition and resources management through 4 interrelated components.

Held on Tuesday 26 August 2025, the webinar went into detail about what to expect from the wide range of projects over the next 10 years and how they fit under the 4 components.

SAExploration Finalizes Acquisition of Australia’s Leading Seismic Contractor, Terrex Seismic

08/09/2025 Posted by Helen

Houston-headquartered SAExploration Holdings has acquired Terrex Seismic, a leading Australian seismic contractor, a deal that returns to SAE to the Australian land market and gives Terrex deep global support to continue its four-decade tradition of innovation and quality in seismic exploration.

SAE said Terrex is recognised for its innovative approach to projects in challenging environments, as well as its deep expertise in land-based seismic operations.

GSWA Record 2025/6

08/09/2025 Posted by Helen

A Summary of GSWA Stratigraphic drilling in sedimentary basins, Western Australia

The Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) routinely acquires new pre-competitive geoscience data to encourage exploration within Western Australia. Drilling in underexplored regions by this organisation aims to update stratigraphic and age relationships, and the prospectivity for many commodities. In Neoproterozoic–Phanerozoic sedimentary basins such drilling can reveal the existence of reservoir, seal and hydrocarbon source rocks, and can provide geothermal data to aid prospectivity assessments for petroleum (oil, hydrocarbon gas, helium, and hydrogen), coal, geothermal energy and CO2 sequestration.