PESA Branch Activities

SA Branch June technical lunch

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The June technical lunch meeting of PESA SA Branch featured a fascinating presentation by  Dr Markus Häring (Consultant) on “The impact of triggered earthquakes of the Basel geothermal project 2006 on Engineered Geothermal Systems.”  Dr Häring was the Director of Geothermal Explorers and faced the criminal court of Basel City for causing material damage and flooding as a result of the induced seismicity - fortunately he was cleared of the charge.  Dr Häring will present an expanded version of this talk as a PESA Webinar later this year, so stay tuned.

The presentation is timely as there's been a resurgence in geothermal energy exploration in SA with new licences granted over the last few years to test new exploration concepts and technologies.

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PESA VIC/TAS Branch welcome a new President

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Above image: The last time that Nick was in Tasmania (2017). Caution, some changes may have occurred since then!

After 10 years of sterling service, Tim O’Brien is stepping down from the branch presidency and Nick Hoffman is taking up the role. We would like to thank Tim for his dedication to the role through thick and thin, whilst also toiling hard against the Victorian government bureaucracy over onshore gas. Perhaps the tide is finally turning there as gas shortages creep ever closer to the east coast energy market?

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PESA WA Core workshop in collaboration with CCUSNA

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Summary by Dr Fiona Burns

On  Tuesday 10th June, DEMIRES (in collaboration with PESA WA and  CCUSNA) organised a core workshop entitled  “Perth Basin from a CCS Perspective” which was  presented by Julie Cass and Dr Arthur Mory. We spent a day at the Perth Core Library considering how our collection of cores helps us to understand CCS targets in the Perth Basin. We also delved into the importance of characterising seals, the influence of reservoir heterogeneity vs homogeneity and how diagenesis impacts pore geometry.

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WA hold joint talk with SPE on CCS topics

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Summary by Dr Fiona Burns

On Thursday evening, 15th May PESA and SPE held a joint evening event at the ParmeliaHotel. The key focus of the presentations were projects and insights from across Australiaon the topic of CCS, with three separate speakers invited.

Robert Root’s talk (Chevron Australia) was entitled “Gorgon Carbon Capture and Storage –Insights and Lessons Learned”. Rob provided a highly informative overview of Gorgon CCSincluding performance to date, system optimization, and key lessons for other CCS projects.

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PESA Queensland Welcomes New Branch Executive

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In June, PESA Queensland held their AGM and welcomed a new executive to lead the branch committee.  

Sue Slater – President

Sue takes on the role of President for the second time, having previously served in the role from 2009-2014. A familiar face to those in Queensland, she has been involved with the branch committee since 2007, organising the technical event program and the annual Symposium through this time. Sue was awarded the PESA Distinguished Member award in 2017 and the Exceptional Woman in Exploration in Qld Resources award in 2019.

Sue knew she wanted to be a geologist at a young age, and studied geology at University of Queensland achieving an MSc qualification.

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PESA QLD Lunch with Brendon Mitchell

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The Queensland branch technical meeting for May was a presentation from Brendon Mitchell, Chief Geophysisct and Managing Director of Oceania Geo. PESA Queensland were pleased to welcome members of the Queensland ASEG branch to the event to hear about the challenges of seismic acquisition in New Zealand, during covid.

Brendon has significant experience working across New Zealand and Australia, with a focus on onshore data acquisition for unconventional and tight gas exploration and development.

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WA Branch held a joint YP networking event with ASEG and SPE

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PESA-ASEG-SPE YP Networking Night, held on Friday, 28th March 2025 at The Shoe Bar

The PESA-ASEG-SPE YP Networking Night, held on Friday, 28th March 2025, provided a unique opportunity for young professionals to connect with experienced industry leaders. The event featured three distinguished speakers: Steve Molyneux, a consultant geologist at Hancock Energy, Sam Howman, Director at Howman Seismic Services, and Lina Hartanto, Subsurface Technical Advisory Group Lead at Chevron. Each speaker delivered a candid 5–10-minute career overview, sharing their personal journeys, the highlights and lowlights of their careers, and the valuable lessons learned along the way.

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WA Lunch talk – all about borehole images

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What you should know about borehole images but were afraid to ask…..Forty years of hard-won lessons’ By Lawrence Bourke

Lawrence Bourke of Task Fronterra Geoscience, one of the founders of image log interpretation, took us on a trip down memory lane, back to the embryonic beginnings of image logs with the with the original 8 button high resolution dipmeter of 40 years ago through the revolution (for geologists) of the high-resolution FMS and FMI micro-resistivity devices in the late 1980s and early 1990s at the PESA WA April technical luncheon.

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WA evening talk on Basin centred gas accumulations

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PESA WA Evening Talk:  Thursday March 20th 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm @ The Shoe Bar

“Tight Gas Sand Reservoir Evaluation: Basin-Centred Gas Accumulation (BCGA) & Implications on Production & EUR”  by Greg Salter, Core Laboratories

The dark art of sub-capillary equilibrium gas, better known to us as basin centred gas, was introduced to a small but enthusiastic group of geoscientists at Faraday’s in Perth on the evening of 20th March, by Greg Salter (VP Eastern Hemisphere, Core Laboratories, based in KL).

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QLD kick off lunch series with a talk from Dr Julie Pearce

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Queensland branch kicked off their 2025 technical lunch season on 20th March at the Hilton, with Dr Julie Pearce from University of Queensland talking about CO2 storage.

Internationally experienced Julie is currently an ARC Mid-career Industry Fellow in the UQ Gas and Energy Transition Research Centre and School of the Environment, putting her expertise on gas-water-rock interactions to good use with a focus on CO2 geological storage.

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