Inpex and Chevron cut jobs in Australia amid Covid-19 crisis

Japanese oil and gas major Inpex and American multinational energy firm Chevron are reportedly set to trim their workforces in Australia as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

Inpex plans to cut jobs at its Ichthys liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Darwin as crude prices remain weak.

However, it did not confirm how many jobs it plans to axe.

The news agency quoted Inpex as stating: “The low oil price environment has accelerated Inpex Australia undertaking a review of its Operations division to support the future Ichthys LNG operating model. The review will impact various roles across the Operations division.”

The first LNG cargo from the Ichthys project was shipped in 2018. The plant has a capacity of 8.9 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa).

“The project continues to maintain smooth and stable production,” Inpex added.

Chevron confirmed it will also be cutting jobs in Australia as part of a global cull of up to 15% of its 45,000 employees, which it flagged in May this year.

In Australia, Chevron’s operations were hard hit this year due to an outage at its Gorgon liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The plant is facing phased shutdowns of each of its three processing units for weld repairing purposes.

Earlier this month, Chevron informed it is delaying the planned restart of its second liquefaction train at the Gorgon LNG facility.

The company delayed the restart by one month as it needs additional time to complete the repair of propane heat exchangers.

In July, Chevron’s wholly owned subsidiary, Chevron Australia Downstream, acquired Puma Energy (Australia) Holdings for A$425m ($292.2m).