Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

They are just being nice but in reality just have to get a lot of the fleas off the dog

For all the d-mbo dinosaurs that keep saying we are an oil company, forget about IT and digital - please think about the work that you do day to day. You’re not f-ing Billy Bob Thornton walking around the Permian making that oil money. You are AT BEST a project manager or providing some incremental analysis to a decision that has no impact to Chevron getting oil out of the ground.

It’s a bad day for Chevron if PCN or OT things aren’t working in the field, but no one cares about your offset well analysis or a comparison of why one prospect was a dry hole and your next one won’t be.

Exxon does not count subsurface HPC compute in their R&D group as “IT”. Chevron does.

@cg+1jnpr16nw You completely missed the point that the other poster was making.

IT cost is high, not because of IT employees. During 2020 transformation, the IT cost went from a billion to two billion because ALL “digital/IT” cost was thrown into the IT budget, and those included a ton of licensing, software costs and consulting costs of platforms that have historically sat in the business functions.

And then when we benchmark against other “IT” departments of other oil companies, it looks like we are expensive when we are actually super cheap. And platforms can’t afford to do anything because all the costs are slashed.

You want IT to be cheaper? Stop demanding custom systems for your BU or function and get onboard with what the rest of the BUs use. It’s far less costly to use and support a single system used by everyone instead of 9 different systems each used by a different BU

In house customization and apps got us into a big mess which resulted in ancient tools and technology haunting the company for years and then we sold our souls to MS. For end-users, it went from a locked down, only approved and vetted apps but heavily supported model to a fend for yourself, no training, no customizations, but you still don't get any access to even delete an icon off of your desktop but at least we are getting updates that are only 6-12 months behind.

$200 million for tech is ridiculous. At those spending levels you should just develop tech in house. I’m not talking about computers and phones. I’m talking software, apps, and integrated functionality. Innovate or die.

What you're describing is "end-user" problems, those were outsourced years ago. The bulk of IT people are there for bigger assets, running servers, cloud, network equipment, managing and replacing large applications and the systems and contracts they run on. Then you have the architects, data people etc that make sure those apps talk to each other, move and modify data correctly and integrate systems. Then you have the people that make sure all of that is done securely. It's a lot more than fixing your laptop and any company this size will have hundreds of thousands of people doing these things. Is there waste? Sure. Will this fix it? Almost certainly not.

@cs+1jnpr16nw T

The large scale contracts are some of the worst decisions Chevron has made to date. Choosing vendors to cut costs and then forcing business units to use their awful products reduces the ability for people to do their jobs well and accurately. I haven’t heard of a “strategic partnership” that has benefitted Chevron. Continuous weakness of Chevron to not have the right people in the room to make decisions.

This problem also gets compounded when you have people “managing the partnerships” whose PMP results are tied to its success. Of course when you talk to them or the product owners, “everything is going great”

When you need computer help it’s someone overseas because IT had their budgets cut and had to send the easier stuff offshore. Look how the offshore people struggle with even that and ask yourself if you really want them managing software implementations, upgrades or customizations to the applications you use everyday and the ones that manage your payroll. Those systems aren’t just installed and working off the shelf.

Chevron IT saves the company money through various strategic initiatives beyond optimizing licenses or reducing support staff. One significant area of cost savings is in enterprise licensing and vendor management. IT negotiates large-scale contracts with software vendors, securing bulk discounts that substantially reduce costs compared to individual purchases by business units.

Another area of cost savings is in optimizing cloud computing and infrastructure. IT consolidates data centers, reduces hardware expenses, and improves scalability, leading to lower maintenance and energy costs. Cybersecurity investments are crucial for financial protection, preventing costly data breaches, system outages, and regulatory fines that could result in millions of dollars in losses.

Beyond infrastructure and security, IT drives automation across business functions. IT utilizes robotic process automation (RPA) and AI-driven analytics to reduce manual effort and increase efficiency. IT also maintains Chevron’s global network infrastructure, ensuring secure and cost-effective communication, which reduces the need for expensive travel and inefficient collaboration methods.

Application rationalization is another key area of savings. IT continuously reviews and consolidates software applications, eliminating redundant tools and standardizing platforms across the company to lower licensing, support, and integration costs.

While many employees primarily interact with IT through frontline support teams like the help desk, the majority of IT staff focuses on higher-value initiatives such as managing enterprise systems, securing operations, and developing digital solutions that support Chevron’s core business activities in exploration, production, and downstream operations.

IT also enables advanced data analytics, helping Chevron optimize asset performance, reduce downtime, and maximize operational efficiency. Most of these contributions occur behind the scenes, ensuring smooth operations while delivering long-term cost efficiencies that may not be immediately apparent but are essential to Chevron’s success.

Bonuses are not tied to ROCE but to stock price behavior. ROCE is just one metric.

We will never have good ROCE as we sank over $100 billion into LNG+TCO. The annual return is low compared to the investment but the projects are forecast to run for decades. As we depreciate the capex, our ROCE will rise. Just wait 25 years or so and we'll look great.

Honest question, how did IT save the money? It sounds like the IT group optimized license and or just removed some licenses from other functions and group and this is the vast majority or all of cost savings ?

My big question is why is it when I need computer help or any software hardware help it’s either overseas or the 4 people downstairs at the help desk. I have no idea what the other hundreds or many thousand of other IT people do at this company. Not being negative or degrading but this is a real question.

@ad+1jnpr16nw you know we’re an oil and gas company and NOT an IT company, right?!? Those f*cking engineers and earth scientists are the ones actually finding the product that we make our money on. But yeah, tell us how we need IT more.

Let’s not call it a reorg when it’s a layoff

@aj

I use Duck Duck Go and hardly ever get a tracker, except here where I get about 350 to 700 hits just for looking at the posts.

Glad to see the cyber boys are earning their money

Good thing Cyber gets to stay in Houston we need the 89 cyber analysts to block bad websites and watch tools that record everything we do. Whew we are so lucky.

OP, it is what it is. At the end of the day, I’d take 4th place and a 50% stock option bonus over 0%. Next year, just do better. These Execs of ours are spoiled rotten, right? Gone are the days of getting a trophy for just showing up. Today, you have to win to be paid. Sc--w the trophy.

@a5+1jnpr16nw Because something like an OLGA license for modeling flow is $150K per license/user for you f-ing reservoir engineers, and that is counted as IT cost in the subsurface platform.

Because of your inability to understand how cloud compute works, earth science / geophysics running up a gazillion dollars - that is IT cost.

Anyone who thinks $200 million for all technology related costs at a multinational corporation is too much is an id--t or 150 years old

That’s a rough hit being in 4th or 5th, now I understand where they’re coming from. I’d be cutting costs too

Also why does IT even have access to $200 million, let alone saving that much.

That is what we get for having the company run by downstream leaders