PESA Gazette

Who is really running PESA?!?

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If you were to be a fly on the wall at PESA executive meetings you might be excused for thinking that all the real decisions were being made by a cat.

A one eyed black rescue cat named Boyd never misses a meeting, and does his best to be centre of attention and eclipse that pesky human (Helen Debenham) who thinks she should perhaps be visible.

Digging deeper we see that he commands a full feline committee across the country, With Chairman Pippi in South Australia, doing her best to prevent Elinor Alexander from working, Vice president Meisha, a 20 year old veteran who has stolen Janny Spilsbury-Schakel's back issues of PESA news, or should we say "PESA Mews".

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PESA Deal Day

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The 2025 PESA Deal Day is set to be a pivotal event for the international oil and gas industry, bringing forward high-quality exploration, appraisal, and development opportunities from both Australia and beyond. With a growing focus on sustainability, we hope this year’s event will include exciting prospects beyond traditional oil and gas, such as the search for hydrogen, helium, geothermal and other energy forms in addition to exploration and development projects for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

Held in conjunction with the 2025 Australian Energy Producers Conference and Exhibition, PESA Deal Day ensures attendees have access to a wide range of industry leaders and experts.

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Natural Hydrogen in Western Australia

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Leon Normore, Geological Survey of Western Australia

Abstract

The nascent field of natural hydrogen investigations is expanding rapidly worldwide. Recent studies in Australia have documented hydrogen in natural gas samples in both sedimentary basins and cratonic settings, and discussed multiple abiogenic sources for natural Hydrogen (Boreham et al., 2021a,b).

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PESA WA Lunchtime talk by Leon Nomore

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On 20th February the WA branch lunch was held at the Hilton. The topic was “Natural Hydrogen in Western Australia” by Leon Normore, Geological Survey and Resource Strategy Division, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, Government of Western Australia.

Leon provided an up-to-date summary of recent studies in Australia on hydrogen in natural gas samples in both sedimentary basins and cratonic settings and also discussed multiple abiogenic sources for natural hydrogen.

He summarised GSWA studies of open file data which focused on historical occurrences of hydrogen within the onshore sedimentary basins with petroleum wells the primary data source in Canning Basin, Perth Basin and Southern Carnarvon Basin well.

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Mark Bentley visits WA and gives a course and evening talk

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On 13th February 2025,  Mark Bentley (Langdale Geoscience, UK) delivered a short course to the WA Pesa Branch members on “Good Models: Bad Models – How can we Tell?”. This course was well attended and a summary of this course is provided below.

Mark also delivered a presentation to the WA Pesa Brach on “Modelling for CCS - new tricks for old dogs”.  Thirty or so young and ‘old dogs’ enjoyed an engaging, educational and stimulating evening with Mark who presented on the new paradigms required in reservoir modelling for CO2 storage.

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2025 SA HICCUP Tournament Summary

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The HICCUP cricket tournament, sponsored by PESA (Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia), has a rich 45-year history as a social tradition in the South Australian Oil & Gas industry, bringing together government, private, and academic personnel.

HICCUP is appealing due to the relaxed environment of playing a social, yet competitive, format of cricket after work in the Adelaide parklands while providing a fantastic avenue for strengthening working relationships between colleagues and peers from opposition teams.

Teams play with 12 players, and everyone gets to have a bowl and a hit in the 20 over format.

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South Australia branch Lunch

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On 27Th Feb James Komenza gave a talk to the South Australian Branch titled “Seismic interpretation of the Petrel sub-basin for CO2 storage opportunity (G-11-AP)” The image above shows Dr Paul Strong awarding an appreciation gift to him.

The Branch was also pleased to award Cecilia Vanina Loyola (Uni Adelaide student) with the 2024 SA/NT  Scholarship prize. This image below shows Dr. Mark Bunch (Uni Adelaide and chair of SA/NT Branch Scholarships committee) presenting it to her.

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PESA Members Free Access to Knowledgette and Pete’s Webinar Picks

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by Peter Hoiles – PESA Webinar Coordinator

As reported in the last gazette, the PESA webinar program has re-commenced for 2025.  Recordings of most PESA webinars are available on the PESA website for members to view (more about this in a future gazette notice).  In addition, PESA offers members free access to lecture and webinar recordings through Knowledgette.  Knowledgette is a knowledge sharing platform that offers content from across the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts (SPWLA), the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG), and PESA. 

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Your logo here!

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Want to advertise in the PESA Gazette? We have sponsorship packages available to suit any budget!

Email secretary@pesa.com.au for details

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Meet the new WA Branch President – Dr Fiona Burns

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Fiona Burns took over the role as PESA President of the WA Branch during December 2024. She is a Sedimentologist/Ichnologist and Borehole Image Specialist, with over 30 years’ experience in the energy sector working on petroleum reservoirs. She works with the team at TaskFronterra in Perth and  has been involved in projects throughout Australia and worldwide including Indonesia, West Africa, offshore China, North Sea and NZ. Prior to her time at TaskFronterra she worked through her company Firmground.

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