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PESA NSW: April 2026 Technical Lunch
Guest Speaker(s): Max Williamson
Max is now retired after 60 years service. He was one of Sydney’s senior taxation consultants having been almost exclusively involved with the resources industry for 55 years in Australia. During those years he worked as a senior partner in major accounting firms, taxation manager of large listed companies and as a tax and business advisor. His consulting practice has focused on the resources sector for listed and un-listed public companies.
These roles have generated a useful blend of theoretic and practical knowledge that he brings hands on to his assignments.
He has worked for petroleum exploration, production and service companies in Australia and overseas including New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. Their operations were based all over the world including Australia, France, Japan, Singapore, Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Max has been Federal and NSW President and Federal and NSW Treasurer for the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia.
His qualifications include
Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia
Fellow of Australian Society of Certified Public Accountants
Fellow of Securities Institute of Australia
Fellow of Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.
Chartered Tax Adviser of Taxation Institute of Australia.
Over the years he has provided papers and presented for the following conference organizers in Australia:
WA and Queensland Chambers of Mines.
Australian Energy Producers Association (APPEA)
Minerals Council of Australia.
Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia.
IIR Conferences.
IBC Conferences
Australian Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Net Zero
PESA NSW invite you to our technical luncheon. Presented by Max Williamson. The Branch AGM will also be held before the lunch.
Introduction
Net Zero (aka Net Zero Emissions) is a widely used and abused term in today’s environment conscious world. The term has been grabbed by many professions in our developed society to mean many things, but all about justifying their actions, pronouncements and member requirements. Industries have been created based on the simple two words.
Quoting from Wikipedia:
“The idea of NET ZERO came out f research in the late 2000s into how the atmosphere, oceans and carbon cycle were reacting to CO2 emissions. This research found that global warming will significantly slow down only if CO2 emissions are reduced to net zero, although existing greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere will still contribute to continued warming. Net zero was basic to the goals of the Paris Agreement. This stated that the world must “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gasses in the second half of this century”. The term “net zero” gained popularity after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (SR15). This report stated that “Reaching and sustaining net zero global anthropogenic (human caused) CO2 emissions and declining net non-CO2 radiative forcing would halt anthropogenic global warming on multi-decadal time scales (high confidence).”
Todays realities
In Australia alone, there are copious seminar papers, technical journals, comprehensive books etc written by members of various technical, legal, accounting, engineering and environmental bodies including scientists, professors, barristers, lawyers, chartered accountants and of course journalists. So much is self-promoting care has to be taken to recognise bias and the need to ensure the individuals remain in paid employment or keep their consulting roles. Having said that it is also fair to say there are some seriously well written and technically supported items that deserve attention from members of bodies such as PESA and SPE.
Meaning it is important to make up your own mind on the correctness and reasonableness of anything out there meant to be influencing or causing changes in society reactions, laws and investments.
Quoting from Wikipedia
“Net Zero claims vary enormously in how credible they are, but most have low credibility despite the increasing number of commitments and targets. While 61% of global carbon dioxide emissions are covered by some sort of net zero target, credible targets cover only 7% of emissions. This low credibility reflects a lack of binding regulation. It is also due to the need for continued innovation and investment to make decarbonisation possible.”
PESA Presentation
This PESA presentation about looking at:
1/ what really is meant by NET ZERO in a legal, accounting and recording sense for oil and gas operators. More particularly defining both aspects of the costs/debits imposed by emissions on the one hand and the credits such as carbon credits; and
2/ various positions of the more public participants, determining any bias factors, discounting or elevating opinions of relevance.
While it is impossible to ignore politicians and their influencers in this scene, the intention is to focus away from political rhetoric and focus on realities including real world calculations, legal obligations and accounting disclosures.
PESA NSW Branch Committee Nomination Form 2026
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