On 18th July, PESA-WA held their “Winter Warmer” networking event at The Globe Lounge Bar in Perth CBD, which this year featured a Jazz Quartet. Sophie Kerr and her band (WAPPA and ex-WAPPA students) played fantastic mellow as well as lively jazz tunes. The event was really well attended (62 people). It was a great opportunity to socialise with colleagues, friends and new members, particularly on a cold Winter’s evening. There was an open bar until 10pm, with fantastic food platters and raffle prizes.
Social News
PESA Qld Technical Talk: Exploring for Hydrogen
The Queensland branch July meeting returned to the Port Office Hotel for an interesting talk on Hydrogen exploration from Dr Josh Whitcombe, VP of Development and Operations at HyTerra.
Josh took time to introduce the audience to the different types of hydrogen and where they might be found. He then dived into more detail about the exploration and appraisal work Hyterra are doing at their Nemaha Project in Kansas, USA.
Nemaha is located between Kansas City and Wichita in the centre of a major industrial and manufacturing hub.
SA Branch June technical lunch
The June technical lunch meeting of PESA SA Branch featured a fascinating presentation by Dr Markus Häring (Consultant) on “The impact of triggered earthquakes of the Basel geothermal project 2006 on Engineered Geothermal Systems.” Dr Häring was the Director of Geothermal Explorers and faced the criminal court of Basel City for causing material damage and flooding as a result of the induced seismicity - fortunately he was cleared of the charge. Dr Häring will present an expanded version of this talk as a PESA Webinar later this year, so stay tuned.
The presentation is timely as there's been a resurgence in geothermal energy exploration in SA with new licences granted over the last few years to test new exploration concepts and technologies.
PESA VIC/TAS Branch welcome a new President
Above image: The last time that Nick was in Tasmania (2017). Caution, some changes may have occurred since then!
After 10 years of sterling service, Tim O’Brien is stepping down from the branch presidency and Nick Hoffman is taking up the role. We would like to thank Tim for his dedication to the role through thick and thin, whilst also toiling hard against the Victorian government bureaucracy over onshore gas. Perhaps the tide is finally turning there as gas shortages creep ever closer to the east coast energy market?
PESA WA Core workshop in collaboration with CCUSNA
Summary by Dr Fiona Burns
On Tuesday 10th June, DEMIRES (in collaboration with PESA WA and CCUSNA) organised a core workshop entitled “Perth Basin from a CCS Perspective” which was presented by Julie Cass and Dr Arthur Mory. We spent a day at the Perth Core Library considering how our collection of cores helps us to understand CCS targets in the Perth Basin. We also delved into the importance of characterising seals, the influence of reservoir heterogeneity vs homogeneity and how diagenesis impacts pore geometry.
WA hold joint talk with SPE on CCS topics
Summary by Dr Fiona Burns
On Thursday evening, 15th May PESA and SPE held a joint evening event at the ParmeliaHotel. The key focus of the presentations were projects and insights from across Australiaon the topic of CCS, with three separate speakers invited.
Robert Root’s talk (Chevron Australia) was entitled “Gorgon Carbon Capture and Storage –Insights and Lessons Learned”. Rob provided a highly informative overview of Gorgon CCSincluding performance to date, system optimization, and key lessons for other CCS projects.
PESA Queensland Welcomes New Branch Executive
In June, PESA Queensland held their AGM and welcomed a new executive to lead the branch committee.
Sue Slater – President
Sue takes on the role of President for the second time, having previously served in the role from 2009-2014. A familiar face to those in Queensland, she has been involved with the branch committee since 2007, organising the technical event program and the annual Symposium through this time. Sue was awarded the PESA Distinguished Member award in 2017 and the Exceptional Woman in Exploration in Qld Resources award in 2019.
Sue knew she wanted to be a geologist at a young age, and studied geology at University of Queensland achieving an MSc qualification.
WA Lunch talk – all about borehole images
What you should know about borehole images but were afraid to ask…..Forty years of hard-won lessons’ By Lawrence Bourke
Lawrence Bourke of Task Fronterra Geoscience, one of the founders of image log interpretation, took us on a trip down memory lane, back to the embryonic beginnings of image logs with the with the original 8 button high resolution dipmeter of 40 years ago through the revolution (for geologists) of the high-resolution FMS and FMI micro-resistivity devices in the late 1980s and early 1990s at the PESA WA April technical luncheon.
WA evening talk on Basin centred gas accumulations
PESA WA Evening Talk: Thursday March 20th 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm @ The Shoe Bar
“Tight Gas Sand Reservoir Evaluation: Basin-Centred Gas Accumulation (BCGA) & Implications on Production & EUR” by Greg Salter, Core Laboratories
The dark art of sub-capillary equilibrium gas, better known to us as basin centred gas, was introduced to a small but enthusiastic group of geoscientists at Faraday’s in Perth on the evening of 20th March, by Greg Salter (VP Eastern Hemisphere, Core Laboratories, based in KL).
Vale Richard (Dick) Paten 21/07/1935 – 23/03/2025
Dick Paten was a well-known and highly respected Queensland geologist who contributed greatly to the petroleum exploration industry and its organisations – including PESA, QUPEX and APEA (the precursor of APPEA, and now AEP).
In 1977, along with Lee Pfitzner and Maurie Drew, he was instrumental in holding the first PESA Queensland Symposium, an event that lives on today. This event was instigated by the parlous state of petroleum exploration in Queensland at the time: In the words of VG Swindon, the Chair of that first Symposium:
In 1979 Dick was the President of QUPEX, and between 1985 to 1987 he was the PESA Federal President.