John Kaldi, President of SA/NT branch was delighted to be able to honour some of their long standing members with certificates to mark the achievement.
PESA Gazette
Natural hydrogen future to unfold with new drilling
Natural hydrogen pioneer Gold Hydrogen is aiming to gather enough information from its second round of drilling on its South Australia tenement to design a pilot project towards commercialisation of its hydrogen and helium assets.
The company was the first in Australia to drill natural hydrogen-specific exploration wells in 2023, confirming 100-year-old accidental finds of hydrogen by oil prospectors in the 1930s. It also discovered helium, a nice added value.
Armed with results from the 2023 drill program at two sites east of Minlaton, Ramsay 1 and 2, and having conducted an extensive regional 2D seismic survey since, Gold Hydrogen has identified up to three new well sites for its 2025-26 drill campaign.
Exploration Success in the Otway Basin
November saw the announcement from ConocoPhillips Australia and their JV partners, 3D Energi and Korea National Oil Corporation, the results of their recent drilling campaign in the Otway Basin. Read on below for their issued press release.
November 17th 2025:
ConocoPhillips Australia today announced a natural gas discovery in the Otway Basin (VIC/P79). Initial results from the Essington-1 well have detected the presence of natural gas in the two target reservoirs, Waarre A and Waarre C.
Preliminary estimates from logs and wireline results place the primary Waarre A target reservoir as a 62.6-metre gross hydrocarbon column.
PESA SA/NT Branch November 2025 Technical Luncheon
Anthony Western of Santos gave the SA/NT Branch a very interesting and informative talk on“Moomba CCS – delivering a world leading CO 2 storage project”.
The Moomba Carbon Capture and Storage project is a large-scale CCS project at the MoombaGas Plant in the Cooper Basin, South Australia. New facilities were constructed to capture,dehydrate, transport and permanently store CO 2 emissions that were previously vented toatmosphere, and depleted gas fields were selected as the initial storage reservoirs. Five newinjection wells were drilled, and existing wells were re-purposed as monitoring wells to enable theMonitoring and Verification (M&V) plan including environmental assurance monitoring.
PESA Queensland Christmas Party
About 60 people gathered to celebrate the festive season and the year that was 2025 at the Stamford Plaza in Brisbane on Friday 28 November.
Thanks to our sponsors for the day, Velseis, InGauge, RealTime Seismic, Terrex (the lucky door prizes), ERC (the trivia quiz), and Comet Ridge (the oil price guess). Without this support the event would not be the same.
There were plenty of prizes and winners on the day.
The trivia quiz was ultimately won by Sam McDermott, after a tie between Sam and Peter Crosdale, who each scored 15 points from a possible 20.
Vale John Scott 1944-2025
Dr John Scott was an internationally known and respected geologist, knownespecially in Australia for his Curtin professorship and geochemical studies. Hiscareer across half a century was wide-ranging, enlivened by the adventure of foreignassignments and enriched by coincidences that brought new directions, lifelongfriends and a lifetime partner. He loved rocks, books and a glass or two of red wine,not necessarily in that order, his daughter wrote recently, and all who knew himwould agree.
Born in England in August 1944, John attended primary and secondary school inEssex and, on his father’s advice to spread his wings, studied geology at theUniversity of Wales (Aberystwyth), gaining a BSc in 1965 and an MSc and Diplomain Micropalaeontology in 1966.
Henry Posamentier touches down in WA
Henry Posamentier presented a 2-day course in Perth on 6-7th November at PanPacific. His workshop delivered a masterclass on seismic stratigraphy and seismicgeomorphology and was based on Henry’s over 50 years of global experience andpioneering work in developing the contemporary approach to sequence stratigraphicanalyses. This attracted 18 attendees.
He also spoke at Faradays in Perth on evening of 6 th November.
Vale Vincent Paul St John Ph.D.
Vale Vincent Paul St John. Ph.D. 19.10.1947 to 16.11.2025
Long-standing PESA VIC/TAS Member, Geophysicist, Company Founder, and Mentor
PESA notes with deep sadness the passing of Dr Vincent Paul St John (“Paul”), who died peacefully at home in Albert Park, Victoria, on 16 November 2025, aged 84. Paul was a PESA VIC/TAS member for more than fifty years, first joining the Society in 1974. During that time, he contributed as an explorer, a quiet volunteer, a vigorous debater, and a distinctive and memorable presence at countless lunchtime meetings.
Paul was born in Western Australia in 1941 and after gaining a first class Honours Degree at UWA, completed his PhD at the University of Tasmania in 1967 under the guidance of Professor S.W.
PESA Queensland welcome Henry Posamentier
PESA Queensland were delighted to host 40 PESA and ASEG members for an evening lecture from famed geologist Henry W. Posamentier.
2025 PESA Distinguished lecturer Henry Posamentier is a well known name in the disciplines of seismic and sequence stratigraphy. Through his career, he has worked for Chevron, Anadarko, Arco and Exxon as well as serving as an AAPG Distinguished lecturer around the world. Thanks to sponsors Santos for bringing him to Australia so PESA members could enjoy his presentation focused on deep water deposits of the Bay of Bengal and the Norwegian Sea.
PESA...
PESA Barry Goldstein Medal Lecture Tour 2026 – Bruce Ainsworth
Our 2025 winner of the Barry Goldstein Medal for Innovation, Collaboration and Communication Dr Bruce Ainsworth will be touring our state branches early in 2026. Read on to find out more about Bruce and the presentation he will be sharing "Honouring the Humble Clinoform: Towards a Reservoir Modelling Best Practice".
Bruce is currently Head of Geology at Santos Ltd and an Adjunct Professor at Adelaide University. He is a sedimentologist and stratigrapher with a strong background in 3D reservoir modelling.