Chevron has named Australia as one of the key areas that will bear the brunt of 6000 to 7000 job losses flagged in 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 it 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 which jobs would be lost in Australia.
The California-based company also advised of further cutbacks in capital spending, and flagged $US5 billion to $US10 billion in additional asset sales by the end of 2017.
Mr Watson said he was pleased with the progress in construction at both 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 to 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.