The PESA WA evening talks programme kicked off for 2019 on 12 March, hosted with thanks to our evening talk sponsor Discover Geoscience. The Grand Bar and Bistro was filled to capacity for the talk on the role of geoscience in sustainable energy development – “recycling” the Permian Basin, West Texas presented by visiting AAPG President Denise Cox. Various companies and academic institutions were represented in the crowd of well over 60 initially meeting in the Grand’s outdoor space for food, drinks and networking before heading upstairs for the talk.
WA
Obituary – Peter Marriott Barber PhD
Dr Peter Barber, a well-known petroleum geologist and sequence stratigrapher, died peacefully in Murdoch Hospice on 13th December 2018. He was 68 years old. Peter Barber was born in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, England on 21st June 1950. He grew up with his younger brothers Martin and Jerry in Dartford, Kent. Peter was four years old before his parents realised that he was profoundly deaf. Despite this handicap and with the help of a hearing aid, Peter did very well at school and gained admission the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He graduated in 1972 with a BSc (Honours) degree in Geology.
Kevin Hill’s course on Structural Geology for Petroleum systems
PESA WA was lucky enough to be able to persuade Kevin Hill to travel across to Perth in order to give us a 4 day training course on structural geology. For the group who attended this was a solid learning experience covering techniques and examples that helped us rethink the way we go about interpreting. Throughout the 4 days, we covered structural examples from extensional regimes, compressional, strike slip, and also salt. This was accompanied by numerous hands on exercises where we determined growth sections and fault timing, reactivations, and may other methods of understanding the data.
PESA-ASEG WA 2nd Young Professional Speakers Night
Continuing from our first event in April, in mid-October PESA WA Young Professionals in conjunction with ASEG WA held our second speaker’s night. With approximately 20 members attending, the first speaker, Tasman Gilfeather-Clark, presented his work on SOM and machine learning, which formed part of Team Macquarie’s submission for the Frank Arnott Award. The second speaker, Vincent Crombez, gave a brief overview of his PhD. following work on unconventional fields in western Canada. The talks gave insights to two vastly different sides of different industries.
PESA WA 2nd annual weekend field trip – Perth Basin
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.
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 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.