How Chevron will ship Aussie engineering jobs to India

EXCLUSIVE

In early September 2024, engineers at Chevron's Elizabeth Quay headquarters in Perth gathered to hear how a new engineering centre in India would affect them.

They knew change was coming.

A couple of weeks before, Chevron announced it would spend US$1 billion to establish an Engineering and Innovation Excellence Centre (ENGINE) in Bengaluru, India.

It will employ 600 professionals by the end of 2025 to "support projects across Chevron’s enterprise."

The highly experienced employees who waited to hear their future are responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the vast Gorgon and Wheatstone gas export projects, which together cost $US88 billion ($137 billion).

They are two of the company's most complex and valuable assets, requiring significant and sophisticated engineering support.

The engineers heard that engineering work from across the business unit would leave Australia:

To make matters worse, some engineers will have to do "parallel runs" of remotely working with a new Indian engineer for three months, who may then, in part, replace them.

The news was not well received.

Beyond the immediate concern about their jobs, many Chevron engineers who have contacted Boiling Cold also worry about the future of their profession in Australia.

Many of the tasks to go to India require less experience. They cut their teeth on this sort of work as young engineers, and they wonder how future graduates can have the same learning path.

Job move criteria show no preference for WA

Boiling Cold has obtained the breakdown of what work Chevron will send to India for one of the nine areas targeted for "transition" - engineering support for ongoing operations.

Work to go to India: “Technical delivery of activities that can be done remotely, are routine and non-urgent in nature, can be standardised, are scalable, and will produce efficiency through consolidation."

Work staying in Perth: “Safe, reliable operations. Activities that require field execution, strategic direction, prioritisation and business planning."

The criteria for what work leaves Australia show no sign of incorporating the legislated local content requirement that Chevron must follow for all work on Gorgon:

"Except in those cases where the Joint Venturers can demonstrate it is not reasonable and economically practicable so to do, use labour available within Western Australia."

As the engineering to be "transitioned" to India is currently done in Perth, it could be difficult for Chevron to demonstrate that it is not reasonable and practicable for it to remain in WA.

Chevron's 2024 profit of $US5.2 billion ($8.1 billion) in Australia may factor into any assessment about whether it is economic to keep local jobs.

Chevron was asked how its split of engineering work for supporting operations between India and Australia complied with the local content requirement.

The question was not answered.

Chevron’s jobs to India plan to face WA government scrutiny

WA Premier Roger Cook’s core “Made in WA” election policy will be tested by his use of local content provisions to keep Chevron’s WA engineers working in WA.

Boiling ColdPeter Milne

A Chevron spokesman said the company was committed to meeting its local content obligations.

"Given our operated assets in WA, Gorgon and Wheatstone are long-term energy developments, we will continue to depend on the talent of our local workforce for decades to come,” he said.

Unlike Gorgon, which is governed by the Barrow Island Act, the WA Government applied local content provisions to Wheatstone in a State Development Agreement that is not publicly available.

Endless cuts

It has been an uncertain time for Chevron's 2000 employees in Australia.

Throughout 2024 "Project Forge" searched the Australian business unit for possible headcount reductions, only to be overtaken by a global effort announced in February to slash 15 to 20 per cent of Chevron's total workforce by 2026.

Boiling Cold undertsands within weeks Chevron's Australian employees will see a new organisation chart naming the senior managers that have survived the cull.

Soon after, a full organisation chart will reveal what roles are still required and employees will be asked to apply for three of them.

The workers are expected to hear by the end of June about their new role or be told they have been made redundant.

If the global target is applied to Australia between 300 and 400 Western Australians will lose their jobs.

That is not the end of the turmoil for the surviving engineers, who later in the year will learn if they have been displaced by the new Indian employees, adding to the 2025 redundancy tally.

Those left will not be able to relax for long, because the 600 engineers to be working in India by the end of 2025 are only the "initial recruitment wave."

Read all of Boiling Cold's coverage of Chevron offshoring Australian engineering jobs:

1. Revealed that Perth-based Chevron engineers will have to train their Indian counterparts before losing their jobs to offshoring that appears to disregard WA's local content provisions.

Chevron’s jobs to India plan to face WA government scrutiny

WA Premier Roger Cook’s core “Made in WA” election policy will be tested by his use of local content provisions to keep Chevron’s WA engineers working in WA.

Boiling ColdPeter Milne

2. This story - Chevron documents show that jobs from across the company's WA operation will be sent to India, and the criteria used have no regard for local content obligations.
3. More Chevron documents reveal the company is enforcing quotas on their contractors to push more engineering work overseas, again seemingly contrary to local content requirements.

Chevron quotas push Australian engineering jobs overseas

The US giant, which made $8 billion in Australia in 2024, is forcing its subcontractors to follow its example and send Australian engineering jobs overseas.

Boiling ColdPeter Milne

Since the first story:

• The scale of Chevron's exporting of WA jobs, its criteria for choosing which activities go to India that ignore local content requirements, and its forcing of engineering contractors to follow suit have all been made public.
• The previously confidential local content provisions for Wheatstone have been tabled in Parliament.
• WA Premier Roger Cook has told Chevron it must adhere to the commitments it agreed to in exchange for permission to construct two LNG plants in WA.