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.
Japanese Inpex operates the Ichthys LNG project with offshore facilities off the Kimberley coast, an LNG plant in Darwin and headquarters in Perth.
It also has a stake in Shell's Prelude floating LNG vessel.
Offshore unions have welcomed a deal with Inpex that adds two-weeks of isolation to the roster and gives half-pay to stood-down workers but slammed what they say is a Woodside proposal to work offshore for 12 weeks straight.
Casual workers taken off Ichthys offshore facilities by Inpex will be paid at least until next week under a standby deal similar to workers from the troubled Prelude LNG vessel.
Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project will cost $53 billion, $8 billion more than planned, and may not see substantial production until early next year in a blow to the Japanese operator that is waiting on the Darwin plant to more than double its cashflow.
The $US37 billion Ichthys LNG project is on track to start up next March as its two giant vessels moored about 200km off the Kimberley are readied for production.
The Inpex-led Ichthys LNG project will export $195 billion of LNG, LPG and condensate over 30 years but it will not pay Australia anything for the gas it extracts.
