Labor upper house member Kyle McGinn has lashed US gas giant Chevron for its plans to move Australian engineering jobs to India despite its Gorgon and Wheatstone gas export projects being required to use local labour whenever practical.
The US oil and gas giant is spending $US1 billion ($1.6 billion) to have 600 engineering and other professionals working in India by the end of 2025 to "support projects across Chevron’s enterprise."
"Chevron are flying in the face of the Barrow Island Act 2003, which requires Chevron to employ local workers wherever possible," he said.
The Barrow Island Act governs Chevron's Gorgon project. A State Development Agreement imposes almost identical local content provisions on Chevron's Wheatstone project.
For work on both projects, Chevron is required to use local labour when practical and to impose similar conditions on its contractors.
McGinn said it was clearly practical for Chevron to employ Australian engineers: "They have been doing it for two decades."
"I am sick and tired of hearing companies like Chevron gloating about their profits, pretending that sponsoring an event and putting your badge on something is a social license" he said.
Chevron, which made an $8 billion profit in Australia in 2024, plans to cut its global workforceby 15 to 20 per cent by 2026, which, if applied to its about 2000 employees in WA, would result in 300 to 400 redundancies.
Chevron is expected to tell its WA employees within weeks which roles will go with the global job cull. Engineering roles transferred to India will result in further job losses in Australia later in the year.
However, this week, Boiling Cold revealed that the US major is not just ignoring the requirement to use local labour, it is insisting its contractors send a minimum level of work - as high as 55 per cent - to low-cost countries.
"Chevron are fixated on the bottom line, on maximizing short-term profits and exploiting our natural resources without putting much back into developing job opportunities or improving the lives of West Australian workers," McGinn said on Tuesday evening.
McGinn, a worker and union member in offshore oil and gas before his election in 2017, also took a shot at Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash for "demonising unions."
'The real law breakers are the white collar elites with their armies of HR bosses, accountants and lawyers," he said.
'These companies use their unlimited resources to avoid paying tax, cut corners on OHS and rip off workers, and the best in the business is Chevron."
McGinn, whose term in Parliament will end this month, said he looked forward to action being taken against "untrustworthy grubby companies like Chevron."
Read all of Boiling Cold's exclusive coverage of Chevron offshoring Australian engineering jobs:
Revealed that Perth-based Chevron engineers will have to train their Indian counterparts before losing their jobs to offshoring, which appears to disregard WA's local content provisions.
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.
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.
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.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
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.
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Peter Milne
Peter Milne
Peter Milne
