Season's Greetings from MGPalaeo!

As 2024 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to catch our breath and look back on what has been an extraordinary year for MGPalaeo, and to thank you all for your continued support. This year has flown by, hasn’t it? How can it be December again already!

Here’s a look at some of the highlights from 2024:

A Year of Global Operations: International operations surged ahead this past year, with us managing multiple rig site operations and international office-based projects at the same time. From PNG, SE Asia, the USA, NZ, and beyond, we have certainly been kept busy. In May, we joined Andy Livsey (Horizon Geoconsulting) to showcase the benefits of biostratigraphy at the?48th Indonesian Petroleum Association Convention and Exhibition (IPA Convex)?in BSD City, Indonesia, which was an exciting experience.

Our second lab in Jakarta is now well-established thanks to the help of our Indonesian partner Intertek, paving the way for even greater regional capabilities across SE Asia, too. This year marked the second year of our successful partnership with Intertek, and you can read more about that here.

Brisbane and Adelaide Adventures: This year marked a significant development in our eastern states’ operations, with our Brisbane and Adelaide offices teaming up on multiple projects across Queensland, South Australia, and beyond. From image log work, core logging projects and workshops, to palynological projects and stratigraphic reviews, it was fantastic having Carey Hannaford (Adelaide), John Lignum , and Amely Allg?wer (Brisbane) combining forces on different projects. Carey has flown the flag for MGP over east for so long, so finally being able to expand what we can take on has definitely been a highlight for us.

Double the Sedimentology Power:?With Antoine Dillinger joining us in March, we have been able to tackle more sedimentological projects right across Australia, too. And despite being on opposite sides of the country, they teamed up for their first joint core logging project this December in Brisbane.

Our Growing Lab Team – and Lab: In October, our team grew further with the addition of Hayley King, our new lab technician. Hayley has quickly become an integral part of our operations, and we’re thrilled to have her on board.

And it’s lucky Hayley joined us when she did, as another exciting achievement this year was our new lab, three times the size of our previous space. Our lab manager Daniel Mewett did an amazing job overseeing that rebuild. With brand new equipment and a ton more room, we can expand our capabilities and take on more complex projects. We’ll share more about this new facility early next year, so keep an eye out for that!

Diversification Across Industries: Our services have continued to expand into different sectors, including tackling larger and more complex projects in CCUS, groundwater, mining and minerals, helium, archaeology, and even civil engineering. A standout moment was a conference presentation at the AGS Perth Symposium 2024, where one of our clients showcased the integration of palynology in geotechnical applications. These projects have highlighted the versatility of palynology and sedimentology, and their critical role in supporting the global transition to clean energy.

No doubt there’s more we have missed, but as we said, the year has been a whirlwind of adventures!

Looking Ahead to 2025

The coming year promises even more excitement, with perhaps the biggest one being the 10-year anniversary of MGPalaeo being run by the current directors after founder Roger Morgan retired and Jeff Goodall stepped down in 2015. It’s been a wild ride that has endured massive downturns and a global pandemic, but we’re still here, somehow bigger and better than ever. We will be celebrating this milestone in some shape and form, so stay tuned…

But beyond that, we’ll have a booth at the Australian Energy Producers Conference and Exhibition (AEPC) in May over in Brisbane and hope to see many of you there. Our team will also be at other conferences across Australia and SE Asia throughout 2025, and we will let you know where to find us as the year progresses.?

The online viewer for our AUSTRALIS database is currently having a facelift and is set to go live in January. A cleaner, more user-friendly interface will make it so much easier to understand what data we have for >3,000 wells across Australia. This database is the only fully reviewed and QC’d palynological database available, and we’re excited about the new look.

While we are talking facelifts, we will be launching new sedimentological website content in early 2025 to better reflect our growing sedimentology capabilities, with a wide array of services available across the… country? World?

A couple of large-scale research projects are kicking off early in the new year, and we’re pretty excited about these and what they may lead to. Both combine sedimentological and palynological data and even cover the same geographical extent. While they both developed independently from one another, there is a definite synergy between them that will provide powerful datasets to a range of industries.

On the international front, our teams will remain at rig site during 2025, enjoying rig site life and all that entails. Nothing beats the thrill of providing palynological results for ongoing drilling operations.?But we will also continue expanding on the international foundations we put in place this year.

And finally, we have been involved with AI (like everyone else) and hope to make an exciting announcement regarding that soon. This technology has certainly surged ahead in 2024, and no doubt 2025 will also see further amazing developments.?

From all of us at MGPALAEO we wish you a joyful holiday season and a prosperous New Year. Thank you for being part of our journey — here’s to more success together in 2025!