We also have really exciting visitors coming to Perth during the coming months. On Thursday 2nd October Dr Brian Willis will be presenting an evening talk followed by a core workshop at Perth Core Library with Simon Lang and Tobi Payenberg. This trip is supported by Santos Ltd.
On the 6th and 7th November, we are delighted to be hosting Dr Henry Posamentier here in Perth. Henry is running a 2-day course entitled “Seismic Geomorphology and Seismic Stratigraphy: Fundamentals and Workflows”.
The Renaissance Tour: A revival of frontier basins with data-driven exploration.
By Lauren Found, Searcher.
Lauren Found of Searcher Seismic took us on a global magical mystery tour from the offshore Papuan Basin to the Scotia Basin offshore Canada on the northern Atlantic margin and the Orange Basin, offshore Namibia with its conjugate the Pelotas Basin offshore Brazil and showed us new insights from new data and interpretation in these basins that make them look more interesting than previously thought.
Lauren showed a new crustal model for the Gulf of Papua interpreted from long offset 2D seismic data suggesting the presence of new and previously overlooked depocenters and the possibility of the continuation of the oil provinces that are prolific in the onshore.
Sharon Tiainen (left) and Paul Strong (right), receive vote of thanks from Rob Kirk (centre) for their stimulating SA/NT branch luncheon talk
“New Geological Studies Leading to 2025 Acreage Release in the Polda and Otway Basins, SA” The July 31 meeting was attended by 35 participants
The Polda Basin is a 10,000 km2 Neoproterozoic to Jurassic basin covering the central western portion of the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia and extends westwards into the Great Australian Bight.
On 18th July, PESA-WA held their “Winter Warmer” networking event at The Globe Lounge Bar in Perth CBD, which this year featured a Jazz Quartet. Sophie Kerr and her band (WAPPA and ex-WAPPA students) played fantastic mellow as well as lively jazz tunes. The event was really well attended (62 people). It was a great opportunity to socialise with colleagues, friends and new members, particularly on a cold Winter’s evening. There was an open bar until 10pm, with fantastic food platters and raffle prizes.
The Queensland branch July meeting returned to the Port Office Hotel for an interesting talk on Hydrogen exploration from Dr Josh Whitcombe, VP of Development and Operations at HyTerra.
Josh took time to introduce the audience to the different types of hydrogen and where they might be found. He then dived into more detail about the exploration and appraisal work Hyterra are doing at their Nemaha Project in Kansas, USA.
Nemaha is located between Kansas City and Wichita in the centre of a major industrial and manufacturing hub.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.