At the end of the day, what willbe the net loss in position? A portion of the jobs vacated by must-move expats will be assigned to B1 visa foreign expats going back to their home countries. But many of those positions will be eliminated. A good portion of the returning US expats will fill open positions in the US. A portion of the open positions will be filled by current US employees, mostly by incumbents. A portion of the open positions will be eliminated as part of the reorganization. It is reasonable to expect that most B1 visa foreign expats will go back to their home countries, a good number of them left standing. So what will be the total count at the end of the day? And what will that distribution be like between US expats, US domestic and non-US B1 expats? Something to think about. One thing for sure, If the company wants to cut costs with the least loss of people, It will have to be by converting expat positions to non-expat as many as possible globally.
10 replies (most recent on top)
1jpp : you hit the nail on the head. And if you were not a YES-man or woman, you'd find yourself with a lower ranking and laid off later. The company is comprised mostly of YES-men and women, and purges itself constantly of any non-conforming souls. I suppose this is what they named the Chevron Way!
Actually gas was at 17 an M. Henry Hub is only used domestically. Natural gas followed price of oil in the east where Gorgon market is. Qatar was used to setting price as they were the biggest producer of gas. They sold as RasGas and a month ago sold at 12 an M to India. They just cut the price to 6 an M as they want to keep market share as contracts expire. Also many were just refusing shipments and buying spot. This is incredibly bad as was stated in a previous post. The bench is now $6-7 an M about 70% less than what Chevron used for the economics to go with project. This cut is seen as stable for a DECADE. Chevron as well as Shell...with BG.....are truly shitting there pants. Cost doubled and price down 70%. You can't win with those numbers. In any other industry spending 125 BILLION in cash over 3 years and getting a huge negative net return would make you toast.
A look back will show that the top execs like Kirkland and the hundreds of engineers and project planners were on the band wagon for Wheatstone and Gorgon. There apparently are few financial analysts making risk assessments, following the futures of domestic natural gas and the supply glut, or they would have projected the huge production spike in natural gas in the US due to shale fracking and horizontal drilling.
I remember when Gorgon was supposed to be the best thing Chevron was ever going to see. For Christ sake, it seemed like George Kirkland couldn't contain himself everytime he was peddling the project or was talking about it in town halls and conferences. Back then, natural gas was over $4 MMBtu. The project was deemed a Crown Jewel of enormous proportions and Wheatstone was the golden nugget to top things off. But look how things have now reversed so quickly. Gorgon will break even at best and Wheatstone s anyone's guess at this stage.
Come on, everyone knew Gorgon would not make a return ... it was always and always has been a strategic project.
So I was involved in the Liberia E&P project. Chevron of course is pulling out of Liberia as no cash to develop. Well, a senior manager involved in the project, talks in a constant stream of consciousness lol. He says stuff that will floor you. He is in the know and here is part of the nuggets of 4 hours of banter. Chevron is bracing for negative cash flow for last quarter. Just 3 weeks in this quarter Chevron knows cash flow will be negative. Chevron gave away some portion of long term investment hedging large gas contracts from Gorgon. Chevron won't see positive cash flow at these prices but MAY cover expenses. Qatar cut price of an M to $6.50 setting it as a bench. Gorgon was based on $21 an M and 29 billion in cost. This leaves its biggest investment as a dud. Chevron will consolidate BU's in North America. They will still keep the names in spirit so they dont have to say the word close. Chevron is not worried about laying off OC as they can hire back even more qualified candidates when a turn around takes place. Houston and San Ramon will have another ROM in the late summer early fall. I think we know this much but it was confirmed by the conversation.
Everyone reciever the email when ROM was just CNAEP. It stated then that the Majority of the cuts would be in North America. And in Chevron fashion the whole scope changed as it is an enterprise ROM with no specifics in process of what thatvmeans. Bank on 6,000 jobs being eliminated in CNAEP. Also Chevron has settled the score in it's own ranks and sun 30 oil price is set for budgeting. Price fluctuation won't be considered. This is a very strange time. PG 28 and below are affected and it is clearly communicated that any budget information, ROM, reorg dissemination will be a terminating offense. This message is the layoffs will be huge, devastating, drastic, draconian. We all know the end game. 1 in 4 stay.
I think OPs question is simple, how many and where is it going to come from, Nobody knows the exact number. You may have to go back to the originally announced 6000 number and work it from there based on how many have been cut. The exact number may also depend on the oil price in the next few weeks. You know, if it holds steady here or shows improvement.
What are you trying to predict? Or expecting Watson to come here and break it down for you? It all comes down to who you know.