Tech Talk (public)

PESA WA May Evening Talk – Laurence Letki

29/05/2019 Posted by Alison McLeod

Laurence Letki’s presentation highlighted wave-equation based techniques, such as full waveform inversion (FWI), as an integral addition to the modeling toolbox. The talk demonstrated how modern computing power allows the use of high frequencies in FWI and the resultant resolution of finer details. The presentation was held at “The George” on Tuesday 21^st May. Many thanks to Discover Geoscience, our evening talk sponsor.

PESA WA May Branch Luncheon

21/05/2019 Posted by Alison McLeod

“If you’ve got an unconventionals focused geologist in your company, go talk to them, you might be surprised at the learnings applicable to conventional hydrocarbon accumulations”. That was the takeaway from Avon McIntyre’s WA Branch May luncheon talk - “Bursting Source Rock and Strange Hydrocarbon Occurrences Around the World”. The presentation challenged attendees' thoughts on maturation, migration and charge-timing (all may be later than we think) through analysis of unconventional geology. Photos of explosively delaminated source rocks and abandoned gilsonite mines complimented an excellent talk. Many thanks to Spectrum, Searcher and DownUnder Geophysical for sponsoring the event.

PESA WA April Evening Talk – Rosine Riera

06/05/2019 Posted by Alison McLeod

Rosine Riera’s talk outlining her current PhD thesis analyzing the Oligo-Miocene subtropical carbonate overburden of the Northern Carnarvon Basin was very well attended. This was PESA WA’s third evening talk for 2019 and was held at “The George” on Tuesday 30^th April. Many thanks to Discover Geoscience for sponsoring the evening and to the University of Western Australia for allowing Rosine to present to PESA WA. Perth’s first cold evening for the season saw pre-talk drinks and networking at the bar welcomed by attendees. The talk was an excellent review of carbonate depositional environments, presented as sequential time periods and…

PESA QLD Luncheon “Making Good Decisions under Uncertainty” – Prof. Steve Begg

22/03/2019 Posted by Alison McLeod

On a sweaty Tuesday morning in Brisbane’s February, a diverse group of industry individuals piled eagerly into a training room at Santos’ office, ready to improve their abilities to “Make Good Decisions under Uncertainty”. Under the wise tutelage of Prof. Steve Begg, a man whose experience in the industry and in academia totals more years than most of our student members, participants from companies including Arrow, Central, Geosolve, Santos, Senex, Shell, and others, quickly found out that decision-making is more complex than a first glance would suggest. Opening the course with a questionnaire revealed just how dire the situation was.…

PESA WA Evening Talk – AAPG President, Denise Cox

19/03/2019 Posted by Alison McLeod

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. Denise Cox presented on sustainable development within the petroleum industry…

Kevin Hill’s course on Structural Geology for Petroleum systems

23/11/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

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. With structural examples…

QLD Branch October Technical Meeting – Mark Casey, Senex Energy

19/10/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

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. The presentation focussed on the recently drilled and…

2018 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecturer in Perth

19/10/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

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. ASEG and PESA WA presidents Heather Tompkins and Helen Debenham facilitated the event…

PESA QLD 2018 Symposium Exploration: Back in the game

19/10/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

September 6th saw the return of the PESA Queensland annual Symposium. The theme this year was Exploration: Back in the Game, a fitting theme as increasing oil price sees an increase in activity within the state. The festivities kicked off on Wednesday evening at the Southbank Beer Garden with an Icebreaker where the presenters, organisers, attendees and sponsors mingled. This casual affair was enjoyed by all and has been a regular feature of the Annual PESA QLD Symposium. As delegates arrived Thursday morning, they were greeted by the aroma from the Comet Ridge Limited sponsored coffee cart and a selection…

PESA WA Branch September Lunch – Salt Tectonics within the Petrel Sub-basin

19/10/2018 Posted by Alison McLeod

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. During the lower Palaeozoic a thick section of…