Chevron is well known as the company behind two of Australia’s largest resources projects, but today the oil and gas giant released data indicating it is also one of the country’s biggest investors in research and development.
Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski told a business lunch today that the US-based company is “helping shape Perth as a gas technology centre of excellence”.
“We’re not just saying we will, we’re actually doing it,” Mr Krzywosinski told the American Chamber of Commerce lunch.
“In fact, I can announce here today that, since 2009, we have invested more than $1 billion in research and development projects here in Australia.”
The company said this total encompassed R&D activities in its exploration and development business, its WA oil operations, the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects, and environmental innovation.
Specific measures include establishing a global technology centre in Perth in 2007.
The centre employs 130 people working on energy projects across the Asia Pacific region.
Aberdeen is the only other city outside the US with a global technology centre.
Mr Krzywosinski said Chevron had also recently increased its original investment in the University of Western Australia's engineering faculty with a fresh commitment of $6 million.
This includes funding of a chair in gas process engineering at UWA’s Centre for Energy, which covers research on LNG production, CO2 sequestration and gas processing, as well as two postdoctoral appointments and two PhD scholarships in gas process engineering.
At Curtin University, the company funds a chair in petroleum geology.
Chevron has also backed the WA Energy Research Alliance, which involves UWA, Curtin and CSIRO.
The $1 billion R&D spend is separate from the $2 billion the Gorgon partners are investing in their carbon dioxide injection project.
Designed to pump carbon dioxide into sub-sea storage, Mr Krzywosinski said this was the biggest project of its kind in the world and would make Australia a world leader.
