PESA Gazette

WA Basin’s workshop to be held 1st-2nd Dec at Curtin University

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The 2025 Basins Workshop will take place on Monday 1 and Tuesday 2 December 2025 at Curtin University, Perth in association with PESA WA Branch.  The aim of the workshop is to provide an informal forum for the exchange of insights and ideas regarding the evolution of sedimentary basins in Australia and around the world, and the diverse resources they contain, including hydrocarbons, minerals, geothermal energy, natural hydrogen, and the potential for CO2 and hydrogen storage.

Talks are limited to 10 minutes in duration, with ample time for discussion, so we are looking for thought provoking ideas, rather than polished conference presentations.

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OPINION PIECE – Climate Change and the Demise of PESA – By Dennis Morton

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By Dennis Morton - Member NSW branch https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennis-morton-a7587121/

Australia’s petroleum exploration and production industry has been in decline for decades and professional societies like PESA-Australia are suffering. Membership is falling, meeting and conference attendance is low and branch budgets are under pressure. Without significant change branches in Victoria and NSW may fold. The ACT branch merged with NSW after Geoscience Australia discouraged employee involvement, citing federal government policies that demonise fossil fuels.

Academia has also been affected with most Earth Science faculties in Australian universities closing.

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PESA QLD Welcome Dr Brian Willis

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PESA Queensland were thrilled to host Dr Brian Willis for an evening lecture on his whistle-stop tour of the Australian states and territories.

Dr Willis is a recognised expert on fluvial systems, with more than four decades spent studying the sedimentology and stratigraphic organisation of these depositional systems.  This time, his focus was on the terminal end of the system with three-dimensional architecture of wave-dominated delta deposits the topic of the presentation.

Dr Willis, and his co-authors Tao Sun and Bruce Ainsworth, are using numerical models to challenge long-held rational for interpreting sea level variations in wave-dominated shallow-marine successions.

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MGPalaeo Honour Australia’s most famous Palynologists with Artwork at New Lab

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MGPalaeo are excited to announce their fully rebuilt laboratory offering significantly more space for an expanding suite of services. They have also taken the opportunity to decorate the place with a mural including selected palynomorphs honouring some of Australia’s most famous palynologists. Read on to learn more about their motivation and the palynologists their artwork honoured.  

Time for a rebuild

The original lab was built in 2012 after relocating the main office from Maitland (South Australia) to Perth (Western Australia).

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New PESA Webinar Library and Pete’s Webinar Picks

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Peter Hoiles – PESA Webinar Coordinator

PESA Webinar Library

It is hard to believe that we have nearly five years under the PESA Webinar Series belt.  Over this time, we have heard from many speakers on a number of topics of interest to PESA members, from oil and gas exploration in Australia and from across the World, to visiting several facets of the “Energy Trilemma”.  Many of these speakers have graciously given their permission for their video recordings to be made available to PESA members for viewing at their leisure.

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WA evening talk – US Double act on fluvial systems

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A good crowd again assembled for Perth PESA evening talk on August 14, a double act on fluvial systems by John Holbrook (Texas Christian University) on the “Back-water Effect” on fluvial systems and Steve Hasiotis (University of Kansas) on the Neoichnology of the De Grey ephemeral river delta, Northwest WA

John Holbrook’s talk on the backwater effect provided an interesting discussion on fluvial architecture styles and an emerging tool and a work flow for predicting reservoir architecture, dimensions, volumes and heterogeneity in fluvial systems. 

Steve Hasiotis described the diagnostic patterns of plant and animal traces (and diversity),...

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WA branch volunteers man the PESA booth at AEGC

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PESA are proud to be joint organisers of the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference (AEGC) 2025, taking place in the beautiful city of Perth, Australia from 8-11 September 2025. AEGC is the premier event for petroleum and mineral geoscience in Australasia and promises to be an exciting and enriching experience, bringing geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and industry professionals from across the globe.

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ADNOC Eyes Santos: A High-Stakes Bid That Could Reshape the Asia-Pac LNG Landscape

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In a bold strategic maneuver, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned oil giant, ADNOC—via its international arm XRG, in partnership with ADQ and global private equity firm Carlyle—is pursuing the acquisition of Australia’s Santos Ltd. The A$30 billion (US$18.7–19 billion) all-cash bid, unveiled in mid-June 2025, emerges as the largest takeover proposal in Australian corporate history.

This acquisition aligns with ADNOC’s ambitious goal: becoming a top-five global player in LNG by 2035. Santos’ assets—including Darwin and Barossa LNG projects, a stake in PNG LNG, and significant exploration acreage like Beetaloo Basin—provide essential footholds in the Asia-Pacific region

ADNOC has made...

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GA releases plans for the 1st 10 years of “Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity” initiative

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Geoscience Australia have showcased their planned projects for the first 10 years (2024-2034) of the Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative in an online webinar, where the Minister for Resources and Minister for Northern Australia the Hon. Madeleine King MP announced the location of the third deep dive project in the Georgetown-Julia Creek region, Queensland.

The 35-year $3.4 billion investment by the Australian Government was established to accelerate the discovery and development of the resources needed to support Australia’s net zero transition and resources management through 4 interrelated components.

Held on Tuesday 26 August 2025, the webinar went into detail about what to expect from the wide range of projects over the next 10 years and how they fit under the 4 components.

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SAExploration Finalizes Acquisition of Australia’s Leading Seismic Contractor, Terrex Seismic

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Houston-headquartered SAExploration Holdings has acquired Terrex Seismic, a leading Australian seismic contractor, a deal that returns to SAE to the Australian land market and gives Terrex deep global support to continue its four-decade tradition of innovation and quality in seismic exploration.

SAE said Terrex is recognised for its innovative approach to projects in challenging environments, as well as its deep expertise in land-based seismic operations.

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