On Friday, 12 October, 27 PESA members made their way to the Priory Hotel, Dongara to network, enjoy dinner and drinks and kick start the field trip headed by Darren Ferdinando, our trip leader. First stop on the Saturday was to survey magnificent spectacle of the cliffs at Coalseam Park. Along the banks of the Irwin River are some magnificent outcrops, with strata gently dipping, such that a hike up the river brings you to successively younger beds. The first rocks we looked at in the high cliff near the car park were, the imaginatively titled High Cliff Sandstone.
PESA Branch Activities
Announcing New PESA-ASEG Queensland Mentoring Program
PESA and ASEG Queensland are joining forces to initiate a mentoring scheme for young professionals. This program aims to facilitate face-to-face mentoring sessions to establish a more interpersonal partnership through which industry insights, knowledge and experience are shared to foster the professional and personal development of mentees. In addition, we will also be launching a local Young Professionals’ network, with ties to federally coordinated YP networks in sister societies throughout Australia. Such networks exist as special interest groups within their respective societies and can be adapted to serve the needs and interests of their members.
QLD Branch October Technical Meeting – Mark Casey, Senex Energy
PESA Queensland were delighted to welcome Mark Casey from Senex Energy to speak at the October technical meeting. Mark Casey is the Development Manager at Senex Energy, responsible for Cooper Basin developments. He has over 15 years of experience in Australia, UK and Denmark primarily focused on field development and reservoir management in clastic, carbonate and CSG reservoirs. Mark started his career in the Cooper Basin and Queensland CSG assets working for Santos, before heading to Europe where he worked with Talisman Energy and Maersk Oil, primarily on their North Sea assets.
2018 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in Perth
On 15th August, ASEG and PESA WA Branches jointly hosted the 2018 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer Satish Singh on the topic of “Seismic Full Waveform Inversion for Fundamental Scientific and Industrial Problems”. This programme is supported through the SEG Foundation by PGS and Equinor (formely Statoil). Satish had visited Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand and the eastern states of Australia before arriving in Perth. The evening lecture was held at CGG 's ground floor function room and it kicked off with over 60 members, from various professional and academic backgrounds attending, socialising over food and beverages.
PESA QLD 2018 Symposium Exploration: Back in the game
September 6th saw the return of the PESA Queensland annual Symposium. The theme this year was Exploration: Back in the Game, a fitting theme as increasing oil price sees an increase in activity within the state.
The festivities kicked off on Wednesday evening at the Southbank Beer Garden with an Icebreaker where the presenters, organisers, attendees and sponsors mingled. This casual affair was enjoyed by all and has been a regular feature of the Annual PESA QLD Symposium.
As delegates arrived Thursday morning, they were greeted by the aroma from the Comet Ridge Limited sponsored coffee cart and a selection of Exhibition Booths presented by ALS, ERC, GeoConsult, GSQ, Synterra and Velseis.
PESA WA Branch September Lunch – Salt Tectonics within the Petrel Sub-basin
PESA WA Branch hosted Chris Elders, Curtin University at their September luncheon where Chris discussed some of the findings of recent research into the salt tectonics within the Petrel Sub-basin and the salt structures that these processes have formed over time. Chris mentioned a seismic stratigraphic study that showed the relationship between salt structures and the complex multi-phase evolution of the Petrel Sub-basin. Changes in thickness of the surrounding sediments indicate that the salt was deposited as part of the syn-rift sequence, and a significant phase of mini-basin formation across large areas ensued until the end of rifting.
YPP monthly lunch informal networking series
PESA WA’s Young Petroleum Professional Chapter (YPP) launched its new Lunch Social Catch-up Series, with the first catch-up kicked off on Friday 14 September at Cloisters Food Hall in Perth CBD. In attendance there were nine young professionals, who are very aspiring individuals with experience ranging from freshly graduated to over 5 years in the industry, giving a great range of knowledge and opportunities for the new professionals to discuss career progression and gain insight from the more seasoned within the group. Various companies in the industry were represented in this gathering: TGS, Santos, Discover Geoscience, Murphy Oil, Chemostrat and Carnarvon.
PESA – ASEG WA Mentoring Program Session
Simon Molyneux facilitated the September interactive session, reminding participants of the mentoring program objectives. The outcome mid-program tracking session was to check-in, invigorate and energise the mentor-mentee partnerships and the Mentimeter was a great way to assess mentors and mentees' satisfaction. When asked on program satisfaction, mentees scored an average of 4.5/5 out of 15 responses and mentors scored an average of 3.4/5 out of 12 responses. Most mentors and mentees have met 3 to 4 times which includes the kick-off and mid-program tracking sessions. Ideally, mentors and mentees should consider catching-up at least once a month.
PESA WA Branch Evening Lecture Series
In addition to the successful PESA WA Branch Technical Luncheon Series held this year, the Evening Lecture Series has been going very well too. Our Evening Lecture Series is a great platform for networking over canapes and drinks accompanied by a technical talk in a very relaxed environment. The event usually starts around 5.30pm at The Georges Hotel. The first evening lecture that PESA WA hosted this year was on 17 April with Chris Cubitt as the guest lecturer. His topic was on the “Drill cuttings, core, wireline and seismic – a match made in heaven!
PESA WA August Luncheon – Evolution of “Tres Hombres”
PESA WA Branch hosted Chris Hurren from BHB Billiton, with special gratitude to our four technical series sponsors, to talk our members through the evolution of the large mid-crustal “Tres Hombres” structure within the northern Beagle Sub-basin, offshore WA. Three enigmatic circular structures in the outer part of the Beagle sub-basin, known as the three brothers, or possibly named after the album of the same name by ZZ Top, have attracted passing interest and quite a bit of head scratching in the past based on some rather sparse 2D seismic lines.