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.
Chevron's Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island began operating in 2016 has the world's largest carbon capture and storage system dedicated to emissions reduction.
Chevron has been denied a two-year free pass on Gorgon greenhouse gas emissions by the WA Government that could cost it more than $80 million, and there may be a future bill for Wheatstone as well.
Chevron boss Mike Wirth is not distracted by renewables as he pushes for more and lower cost production and looks to move gas through Woodside's Scarborough project.
Chevron has paid the Australian Taxation Office $US654 million ($866 million) under a partial settlement of its dispute with the tax office over intercompany loans and slashed the interest rate it charged its Australian subsidiary.
The Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects are now enjoying cash margins of more than $US30 a barrel at a $US50 price and production from the $111 billion mega-projects is expected to increase.
Chevron chief executive John Watson says his company should have done more engineering and planning before it sanctioned the Gorgon LNG project in 2009.
Too much hot air around the LNG trains on Barrow Island has caused Chevron to flag a production cut at Gorgon as the US giant tackles problems onshore and offshore.
In early 2017 Chevron's rush to ship the first LNG from the $US54 billion Gorgon project to meet its chief executive's deadline had disastrous consequences.
Australia's Petroleum Resources Rent Tax has incredibly generous annual uplifts in allowable deductions that will likely see little or no payments from its offshore LNG projects.
The first two processing facilities at the Gorgon LNG project are operating near capacity and commissioning of the final train is under way, with production expected early in the second quarter of 2017.
