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PESA Branch Activities

PESA Queensland President Sue Slater and lucky door winner Ariga Agrawal

PESA Queensland Hosts Autumn Afterhours Networking Event

Posted by Sarah.Harris

PESA Queensland recently welcomed members and industry colleagues to Brisbane for its April networking event, Autumn Afterhours, with a great turnout from across the Queensland energy and geoscience sector.

The evening provided a relaxed opportunity for attendees to reconnect, meet new industry contacts and catch up on activity across the sector.

Congratulations to the night's lucky door prize winner, Ariga Agrawal from Santos, who took home a $250 gift card generously provided by Axiom Geoscience.

Thank you to everyone who attended — PESA Queensland looks forward to seeing members again at upcoming branch events throughout 2026.

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PESA WA March Branch News

Posted by Rachel

On 17th March, Alex Muftei presented on the topic of his PhD thesis, which he hasundertaken at Curtin University, supervised by Chris Elders, Simon Lang and Robert Seggie.

”Stretching or flexing - a review of the Triassic from the Northern Carnarvon and RoebuckBasins” was the title of his talk. Alex presented the results of his mammoth interpretationeffort, which included Triassic formation tops for 442 wells within a sequence-stratigraphicframework, at least four key Triassic horizons, and more than 2300 faults interpreted in anextremely large seismic dataset!

The talk was attended by 25 people and held at the Shoe Bar in Yagan Square.

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Omega Oil and Gas and the Taroom Trough Story

Posted by Rachel

The PESA SA/NT Branch welcomed Trevor Brown and Nathan Parker to give 36 members an update on Omega’s activity in the Taroom Trough, onshore Queensland.

Trevor introduced the company and gave an overview of the geology of the Bowen Basin, and this was followed by Nathan giving a very interesting history of the oil and gas industry in the region which started in the late 1800s.

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PESA/SPE Golf Day 2026

Posted by Rachel

The 45rd Annual South Australian PESA/SPE Golf Day was held on Friday the 27th of March 2026, at the Flagstaff Hill Golf Club. The Golf Day attracted ninety golfers with more than 100 people attending the evening festivities and prize presentations. It was another successful fundraising event for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS). 

During the day the various par three holes organised competitions to raise funds for the RFDS, including putting competition organised by Stuart Jones, landing on the green, consumption of traditional Mexican chilly and still landing on the green (organized by Desert City, hole 9), and the traditional Tiger Tee competition on Hole 7 (organised by Ensign).

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Queensland PESA committee kicks off 2026

Posted by Sarah.Harris

Many of the Queensland PESA committee members made it to an informal pre-work coffee at Marhaba Café in Brisbane on February 24.  With all our committee meetings taking place via Google Meet, it was an opportunity for a face-to-face catch up before the 2026 calendar of events got underway. We were also delighted to meet our newest committee addition, baby Zara.

We have a busy year scheduled with technical lunches, the annual Symposium, the Christmas lunch and various collaborations with peer societies happening throughout the year.

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PESA WA Christmas Luncheon and AGM 2025

Posted by Helen

PESA WA held their annual AGM and Christmas Luncheon at The Hilton on 18 th December, with over 135 people attending. Past events held during 2025 were summarised by Fiona Burns (PESA WA president), while Peter Hoiles (Treasurer) provided an overview of the years’ finances. During 2025, PESA WA held regular monthly talks, as well as numerous workshops and courses provided by energy experts from Australia, and from overseas such as Mark Bentley, Henry Posamentier, John Holbrock and Steve Hasiotis.

Our guest speaker, Julia Davies, is energy industry professional with over forty years of experience in the industry.

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PESA SA Welcome Aike Albers

Posted by Rachel

The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (SA/NT) branch kicked off the new year technical program on 26 February 2026 with two presentations for the 27 attendees at Ayers House!

The meeting was kicked-off by PhD candidate Aike Albers of Adelaide University, the PESA 2025 Horstmann Scholarship recipient. He introduced his PhD topic, Evaluating the feasibility of permanent carbon sequestration in mafic reservoirs in the Bass Basin, work focussed on assessing the suitability of basalts for carbon dioxide storage. Our president Paul Strong presented Aike with his certificate and we wish him well for his studies.

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2026 HICCup Tournament

Posted by Rachel

The HICCup (Hydrocarbon Industry Cricket Cup) tournament has been played and won for 2026.  The tournament has been a staple of the oil and gas industry in Adelaide since the late seventies with 2026 possibly being the 46th year of competition.  This year the trophy made a long-awaited appearance, to be handed to the winning team.

The competition was established as a way of giving ex-pat industry workers an opportunity to experience a fully organized cricket match, with all the equipment, in a social and fun atmosphere.

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Perth building stones walking tour

Posted by Helen

Write up by Helen Debenham. Photos from Helen Debenham and Karen Pandya.

On Friday night (6th February) a group of PESA members, led by Stephen Molyneux, and ably assisted by Peter Haines and Leon Normore from the geological survey, wandered through the streets of Perth looking at building stones and other geological wonders.

If you are sad to have missed this, you can take a look at the guide below that talks you through a self guided similar tour.

https://dmpbookshop.eruditetechnologies.com.au/product/stepping-stones-two-self-guided-geology-trails-in-the-city.do

Our intrepid walkers met up in the Melbourne Hotel on Hay street, where, as you can see in the image below, there is some lovely amygdaloidal basalt in the passageway down towards the toilets.

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The 2025 PESA SA/NT core workshop, a fresh look at South Australia’s eastern Warburton Basin, Daralingie Shelf Area

Posted by Rachel

Author | Chris Cubitt: Geological Survey of South Australia

Chris Cubitt of the Geological Survey South Australia (GSSA), hosted the 2026 PESA SA/NT core workshop at the SA Drill Core Library on Friday November 21st, 2025, (Fig. 1). This year’s event was well attended by industry, government and academia focussing on the eastern Warburton Basin (Daralingie Shelf area) with the aim to produce a quick look GDE map and form an opinion on the basin’s prospectivity.

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