Thread regarding Chevron Corp. layoffs

Wow. The butthurt deadwood is out in full force. Don't you guys have anything to do with yourselves? Trying working on your resumes. You need them spruced up. Chop Chop!! The axeman cometh!

Why did you repeat my comment and change it just because I am a clueless liberal Douche-Bag Leech? I am in love with crooked liar murderer Hillary. I will vote for her regardless of how many people she is responsible for the death of, the list is long, and goes back way before Benghazi. I need my handouts like a good little parasite liberal and I need Hillary to tax the corporations and rich people like O& G employees to death so that I can I can continue to be a leech on society and get more free stuff. My kids need an education and health care and other people should pay for it. I think that other people OWE me something because they are big and mean and bad republicans who all make more money than me.

Seems like most people commenting here are just clueless Hillary supporters. Expats are just a way for the parent company to exert some control over the organization worldwide, maybe a certain percentage of the expats are necessary, say 10% the rest are just liberal parasite leeches. I used to work for Shell here in Houston and you cannot believe the amount of Dutch and British experts in the U.S holding several managerial and technical positions that an American can easily hold. It's funny the same way you all are talking about the Nigerians and Angolans in Chevron Nigeria/Angola is the same way the Dutch see the Americans in Shell North America - incompetent and running Shell to the ground without the Dutch expats to run things.

Seems most people commenting are clueless Trump supporters. Expats are just a way for the parent company to exert some control over the organization worldwide, maybe a certain percentage of the expats are necessary, say 10% the rest are just leeches. I used to work for Shell here in Houston and you cannot believe the amount of Dutch and British experts in the U.S holding several managerial and technical positions that an American can easily hold. It's funny the same way you all are talking about the Nigerians and Angolans in Chevron Nigeria/Angola is the same way the Dutch see the Americans in Shell North America - incompetent and running Shell to the ground without the Dutch expats to run things.

Rotating is fine if all you are doing is daily wrench turning. Every day a new day. (Of course, no reason not to nationalize those jobs as soon as people can be trained up). But if you are a knowledge worker, making analysis and decisions, rotation is insane. May as well be two different jobs as they wont do it the same.

What boggles my mind is expats in Australia. Are ozzies so clueless we can afford to pay triple the cost for an American to do the work?

Here's a simple reality! Virtually all CVX International Upstream operations are joint ventures and most are JV'd with the national oil company. Agendas for national payroll just isn't the same as it is for a CVX employee. Truly, you can't expect a national staff to carry the concerns of what is best for CVX. As stated in an earlier post, a good percentage of the national staff in CNL, believe it exists for their employment (and benefits accumulation). Making money for the CVX stockholder isn't part of their equation.

In some instances, I'm sure that BUs hire an elevated national population just to satisfy the required ratios in order to keep the numbers/disciplines/management levels in place to watch out for CVX's best interest.

There has been a lot of controversy on resident vs. rotational because rotational draws 2 people for a position. From what I observed in almost 2 decades of rotation (before retiring), the total cost of ownership for a resident position is actually more than 2 rotating when logistics associated with family are included.

OP here. I understand each BU is different. There cannot be a one size fits all solution. What might work for ASBU might not work for CABGOC. The extent of local worforce maturity will determine that. And also it is a matter of degree. But my point was Chevron has to find more effective alternatives to just keep beefing up the expat paroll in an irresponsible manner. By the way, I am happy to see that my initial post has blossomed into a nice debate. Keep it going.

OP, you make it sound so neat and easy. What is your solution with the locals do not want to learn or are incapable in how to manage their assets? I'm thinking CABGOC.

FGP is not the same as LNG. FGP needs to get through Construction first and sadly... Not sure that help from a bunch more brainwashed PRC bureaucrats coming off Gorgon is a positive.

2uct- You are totally correct...I am friends with several ExxonMobil and Shell secondees to Gorgon (mid-tier managers), based in Houston that rotate to Barrow. Shell and ExxonMobil both agree that the Chevron management is incompetent and many of the best Chevron contributors were laid off. LNG process engineering was hit hard and we are paying the price (hundreds of millions in delay costs) now in the start up. Management bragged about learning lessons from Gorgon for the upcoming FGP, but we laid off key people (mostly expats) who learned lessons on Train 1 and Wheatstone. We will need to relearn the lessons on Train 2 and 3, with a whole new Australian team. Wheatstone start-up is going to be a mess. Then we will lay them off before lessons learned can be handed over to FGP. Woodmac is now quoting expected overuns in billions. Typical Chevron

@IJUnTvD-2ukf "Dude", like "Wow Brah" You're trolling a layoffs forum on a Sunday morning and have absolutely nothing to add to the thread topic, which is Expats still in the workforce and their effects on company financials. Next time you feel like criticizing someone, take a look in the mirror and have at it. That will keep you occupied for quite a while until you have something constructive to post.

-2vrn- Dude your ranting incomprehensible gibberish. There may be some medications that can help bring you back in touch with reality, but first you need to reach out for help!

ABU saw a majority of technical expats (GTC) sent home, while the mid-tier leadership expats still here claiming massive benefits and not doing much to either progress national population learning, nor make the hard decisions to right the ship. A lot of animosity due to expat leaders and plenty of respect for expat technicals who try to make a difference. Sadly, the wrong population was sent home.

The end of capitalism is near.

Yes indeed. I trust people like Shillary who will make deals with enemy nations then turn around and lie to the faces of the American populace about it. Yes Indeed. Hillary is getting to the point where when her lips are moving, she's lying. I want her in charge of the country. I am a naive liberal douch-bag sheep. I will vote for anyone as long as I can get something that I did not earn, since I am a liberal parasite leech.

It's much better than racist woman hater Trump. I believe that he is a racist woman hater because my liberal douche-bag media types say that. I have not seen any examples, but I am just a liberal sheep, I don't need any proof. If my liberal masters say it, it must be true. It doesn't matter that Trump has more African Americans and women in managment positions in his companies than in any other corporations in the US and has good working relationships with them and has never done anything racist or misogynistic like Bill and Shillary. . That means nothing to me, I only believe what my liberal masters teach me since I can't think for myself. I will vote for more hand-outs since I am a liberal sponge bag. The Republicans can work so I don't have to and can sit on my liberal demoncrap tush!!

@2dha, you know when. Smartass.

-2Rsl- "focus on the main issues again"... Again?...when was that?

@2jmg, I'd assume you live in Texas (or maybe Louisiana)? If so, your opinion of Trump is moot. Both are majority Red states and are slam dunk Republican in November. Last I looked, Trump is on the winning ticket there. The focus is on Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida this year. It's up to how those states vote. I'm hoping Trump starts focusing on the main issues again and leaves the side shows by the wayside.

-2ztb. Sorry dude. I tend to vote republican (fiscally conservative social libertarian) but trump is megalomaniacal bat sh-- crazy with oligarchical tendencies that scare me way more than anything Hillary is likely to do. Full stop!

Better to trust Trump over Hillary this year, 1cwe. He's not perfect, but is the only choice if you want the USA to still be the Home of the Free and the Brave.

Pro-Expact camp seems dominated by Trump supporters, so I do not trust their judgement;-).

1bzy ... That would seem to have already been the plan this year ... an even hair cut across the board.

To be fair, let's get rid of half the Expats and half of everyone else.

Good diversity of opinions, either send the fat lazy expacts home to save some money or get rid of everyone else because expacts are the only one that know what they are doing. Go figure?

Well put, 1dly. Totally agree.

@IJUnTvD-1svr. Outside of the foul language, well put. Unfortunately, CVX is under requirement of their JV agreements to nationalize. Fully understandable as an "attempt" to develop the country's internal self-sufficiency. Sadly, on the dark continent, doing business is just in a different dimension than the Western World model. Ironically, the folks in Australia have a similar idea about workforce origin...from what I understand driven by strong union mentality?

ETC's as a stand-alone organization is something that needs to be rethought, regardless of physical location. With today's modern communication and networking, I don't see the need for a huge group of technocrats waiting for somebody in the operating world to call them for advice. Simply, put technical expertise in locations where they add day-to-day value and use the Intranet. ETC could be about couple of dozen "super-smarts" that technically oversee the lot!! I'm sure that idea will draw the ire of many ETCers...LOL.

@1svr, I would back you as the new Managing Director.

OP, you should get outside of your bubble every once in a while. Your Mamby Pambyland idea of flying in a few trainers every now and then to train nationals clearly demonstrates your ignorance. Angolans and Nigerians are without a doubt completely incapable of managing a successful oil and gas company or any business for that matter. Taking out expats is like removing schoolteachers from the classroom and replacing them students. This will NEVER work. Chevron should wake the F up and stop the nationalization efforts in Malongo and Luanda. You would need to hire 6 Angolans to replace a good American expat with. I agree with the post about getting rid of Brits. They are lazy as F and claim they know an order of magnitude more than they do, plus their teeth are all F'd up, and they drink too much....oh yeah, and get rid of the fat, drunk, loud, tattooed, vulgar SheBrits too along with the lazy a$$ South African mafia. Now that, my friends, is a recipe for success.......

I understand the need to keep expats in BUs, but even now, an organization like ETC still has over 100 expats. ETC expats are experts at a-- kissing upper management and killing time...

To the previous poster, it's happening in Angola with the expected results, disaster, and it will be a long road to recover if CVX doesn't sell CABGOC.

@IJUnTvD - while you may have a valid point regarding a rationalization of expats in foreign operations, it is very much in the best interest for CVX to maintain expat presence in all overseas operations. One of the key things that non-upper management has been charged with is national staff development. That doesn't come with shipping in a few trainers now and then. CVX has also started bringing nationals to the US and cross-exchanging between BUs. (Note: You may have seen that there were some folks here in the US angrily calling for repatriation of those green card holders during the peak of the lay-off earlier this year).

Regarding the Big 3 ...

I worked in Angola and I can assure that there is no way for that organization to be self-sustaining because a large majority of the nationals (technical professionals) get a few years with CABGOC and then go to work for SONANGOL. CABGOC is more like a training ground for the national oil company. Having residents in Luanda is outrageously expensive!

I also worked in CNL (Nigeria). Now there is an organization that would completely internally consume itself if an outside influence didn't have control of the cash register! During one of the many union strikes, I had one of my reports tell me categorically that that the ONLY reason CNL existed was to employ Nigerians. Making money had no part in his equation. If CVX could find a way to offload that operation without killing the reserves booked it would be better off...the exception might be Agbami (which is a separate company).

Folks in RoK are technically as intelligent as most expats, but still suffer from Soviet mentality dibilitation. It would very difficult for TCO to run without a strong outside upper management control. That said, the workforce there is well over 90% nationalized in the O&M/technical/supervisory ranks. If anything, where TCO needs to take a look is dumping a bunch of long-term British contractors that act like a carpet-baggers and generally lack respect for their host country.

Remember... CVX IS an International Oil Company. Get over it if you are a "lifer" thinking the oil business exists for San Ramon or Houston.

The same brain drain happened in the oil crash of 86. The crisis demands immediate emphasis on cash flow and preserving capital/minimizing losses. Chevron and all the other oil and service companies will worry about tomorrow when it gets here. Everything now is strictly short term thinking. The lessons of 86 have all been forgotten. No one ever thought it would happen again.

I am guessing 90% of ETC expacts were pulled home, and I suspect not for the better. Probably little obvious impact to date due to a general focus on finishing projects already started, but as things ramp up again down the road expect more train wrecks. I am not saying ETC is the key to success mind you, but this just one part of a huge brain drain across all BUs from exploration to operations. It might right now seem good that so may highly compensated Sr. folks took a package the last two years, but on the other side we are likely to find the great crew change occurred and on one took any note before they departed.

Have you been to Angola? Get the locals to manage more of the work would be a disaster.