Chevron has named Australia as one of the key areas that will bear the brunt of 6000-7000 job losses flagged across its global portfolio, as its two large liquefied natural gas projects move into the late phases of construction.
The US giant also pointed to pressure on the late-2016 start-up target for its second Western Australian liquefied natural gas project, the $US29 billion ($40.6 billion) Wheatstone LNG project, and has confirmed the first cargo from its $US54 billion Gorgon venture will slip into the first quarter of of 2016. 
"One of the key areas for reductions is in Australia," chief executive John Watson told investors in the US at a quarterly briefing of the job reductions, which were announced as Chevron reported a 64 per cent drop in   September quarter profit to $US2 billion on the dive in oil prices. He didn't specify the job losses to happen in Australia.
The California-based company also advised of further cutbacks in capital spending, and flagged $US5 billion-$US10 billion in additional asset sales by the end of 2017.
Mr Watson said he was "pleased" with the progress in construction at both huge LNG ventures in Western Australia but slower start-ups at the plants had contributed to a downgrade in anticipated production growth for the oil major over the next few years.
Oil and gas production is expected to increase by 13-15 per cent to the end of 2017, down from a previous forecast of 20 per cent.
Mr Watson said Chevron was looking to adopt best practices used at other LNG projects in Australia, including in Queensland, to get Wheatstone back on track to start for the fourth quarter of 2016. 
"We're still targeting the first LNG cargo by year-end 2016. However, we continue to work to mitigate Wheatstone schedule pressures from previous delays to module delivery," he said.

Knock-on impact
He pointed to delays in receiving some of the modules for the Wheatstone plant from the manufacturer in Malaysia, which had a knock-on impact on the on-site construction work to assemble the plant at Ashburton North on the Western Australia mainland.
At Gorgon, which was expected to begin production in late 2014 before being revised to 2015, the final stages of commissioning are under way. An LNG cargo is due to arrive at the plant on Barrow Island in mid-  December, to be used to cool the LNG storage tanks and other equipment to prepare for the start of exports.
"Our current outlook for loading the first LNG cargo is early 2016," Mr Watson said, pointing to "good progress" on construction work on the second and third LNG production units at Gorgon. The second train is due to start about six months after the first and the third another six months later.
Chevron put 2016 capital investment at $US25 billion-$US28 billion, 25 per cent down from 2015. Spending in 2017-18 is now tipped at $US20 billion-$US24 billion, compared with $US40 billion before the oil price dropped in 2014. 
Mr Watson said he still expected rapid growth in gas demand, but acknowledged the market was suffering from oversupply.
However, more opportunities exist to pick up new supply contracts, particularly for deliveries starting early next decade, he said.