Industry

Federation University closing Geology Course

09/12/2025 Posted by Rachel

The former Ballarat School of Mines, now Federation University, is abruptly closing its Geology course, mid-stream, leaving students marooned with their courses incomplete (ABC News).

Source: https://www.federation.edu.au/about/locations/ballarat/smb/

As highlighted by VIC/TAS PESA President Nick Hoffman, “This is the end of well over a century of geological teaching and marks the continued degradation of Australia's geoscience capacity at the same time as it is becoming apparent that minerals are not just stuff to dig up and sell but are the foundations of energy and commercial independence in an increasingly troubled world.

Natural hydrogen future to unfold with new drilling

09/12/2025 Posted by Rachel

Natural hydrogen pioneer Gold Hydrogen is aiming to gather enough information from its second round of drilling on its South Australia tenement to design a pilot project towards commercialisation of its hydrogen and helium assets.

The company was the first in Australia to drill natural hydrogen-specific exploration wells in 2023, confirming 100-year-old accidental finds of hydrogen by oil prospectors in the 1930s. It also discovered helium, a nice added value.

Armed with results from the 2023 drill program at two sites east of Minlaton, Ramsay 1 and 2, and having conducted an extensive regional 2D seismic survey since, Gold Hydrogen has identified up to three new well sites for its 2025-26 drill campaign.

Exploration Success in the Otway Basin

08/12/2025 Posted by Rachel

November saw the announcement from ConocoPhillips Australia and their JV partners, 3D Energi and Korea National Oil Corporation, the results of their recent drilling campaign in the Otway Basin. Read on below for their issued press release.

November 17th 2025:

ConocoPhillips Australia today announced a natural gas discovery in the Otway Basin (VIC/P79). Initial results from the Essington-1 well have detected the presence of natural gas in the two target reservoirs, Waarre A and Waarre C.

Preliminary estimates from logs and wireline results place the primary Waarre A target reservoir as a 62.6-metre gross hydrocarbon column.

Australia’s Energy Commodity Resources 2025 published by Geoscience Australia

10/11/2025 Posted by Rachel

Geoscience Australia’s latest edition of Australia’s Energy Commodity Resources (AECR) publication reinforces Australia’s position as a as a key global energy exporter and leader in emerging low carbon solutions.

Delivering a comprehensive assessment of the nation's emerging low-carbon technologies and non-renewable energy commodity resources, the 2025 edition shows the status of Australia’s energy resources as at the end of 2023 set against a backdrop of accelerating global decarbonisation, technological innovation, and shifting patterns of energy demand and trade.

For decades, Australia’s non-renewable resources have supported not only its own prosperity but also the economies of nations around the world.

Vp/Vs ratio conventional vs Web-AVO inversion

eFWI Using WEB-AVO at Delft Inversion

07/08/2025 Posted by Janny

By John Coffin

This year we have seen plenty of publicity and interest in elastic full waveform inversion, or eFWI and the potential benefits and advantages it can provide. At Delft Inversion we have been using eFWI for over 12 years focussing on quantitative interpretation and seismic reservoir characterisation. This article explains how and why we do this.

The eFWI technology developed at Delft Inversion is called WEB-AVO which stands for Wave Equation Based AVO inversion. So, what does this mean? We solve the integral representation of the wave equation.

Core Storage is at Capacity at the Exploration Data Centre in Zillmere, your Support is Needed!

12/06/2025 Posted by Janny

The Exploration Data Centre (EDC) in Zillmere, QLD is a cornerstone of Queensland's geoscientific infrastructure, preserving and providing access to an extensive collection of geological core samples and drill cuttings. These samples are fundamental to research, mineral and energy exploration, and long-term resource planning for the state. However, the facility is currently at or near full capacity, significantly limiting the ability to archive new sedimentary cores from exploration, appraisal and development programs.

At the Australian Energy Producers (AEP) Conference held in Brisbane from May 26–29, 2025, significant discussions centred on Queensland's oil and gas investment outlook.

Natural Hydrogen in Western Australia

09/03/2025 Posted by Helen

Leon Normore, Geological Survey of Western Australia

Abstract

The nascent field of natural hydrogen investigations is expanding rapidly worldwide. Recent studies in Australia have documented hydrogen in natural gas samples in both sedimentary basins and cratonic settings, and discussed multiple abiogenic sources for natural Hydrogen (Boreham et al., 2021a,b).

US Power Prices ‘Set to Surge’ saysWoodMac

28/02/2025 Posted by Dale

LOBE NEWSWIRE) -- US power demand has remained essentially flat for the past decade, but this is all about to change as a pending surge in demand growth will be the biggest challenge for utility companies in decades, according to the latest Horizons report from Wood Mackenzie.

According to the report, “Gridlock: the demand dilemma facing the US power industry” US electricity demand growth will be between 4% and 15% through 2029, depending on the region, with burgeoning data-centre development, a resurgence in energy-intensive US manufacturing, and greater transport and heating electrification driving electricity demand growth not seen since the 1990s.

Barossa on-track

29/01/2025 Posted by Matthew.Quinn

Santos announced in it’s fourth quarter report, that the Barossa project is 88.3% complete and still on track for first production in 2025. The second and third wells of the six-well program have been completed with good results, both the fourth and fifth wells have been spudded.

The project consists of up to eight subsea wells and a subsea production system bringing gas and condensate to an FPSO. Water, gas and condensate will be separated at the FPSO with gas transported via an approximately 300km pipeline to Darwin. Condensate is to be transferred from the FPSO to tankers for sale.

PESA ETSIG CSIRO CCS Knowledge Transfer Series

PESA / CSIRO CCS Knowledge Transfer Series wraps up

06/01/2025 Posted by Helen

Peter Hoiles – PESA Webinar Coordinator

In early 2023, CSIRO and PESA’s Energy Transition Special Interest Group (ETSIG) joined forces to design a carbon capture and storage (CCS) knowledge transfer series. The aim of the series was to highlight to the PESA audience what is different about CCS compared to what we know about and understand from oil and gas operations. The series commenced in September 2023 and concluded in September 2024, with a total of twelve webinars presented.