Chevron Appoints New Australia Head as Gorgon Full Start Up Nears

Chevron has appointed Nigel Hearne, currently deputy managing director of Chevron Australia and its Australasia Business Unit (ABU), as the new managing director of the ABU.

Hearne will take charge from June 1, 2016. He was appointed deputy managing director earlier this year.

In turn, the company said Thursday that Roy Krzywosinski, currently managing director of the ABU, has been appointed to the new position of vice president of Engineering in Chevron’s Energy Technology Company (ETC) in Houston, TX.

The changes have been initiated as Chevron’s multi-billion dollar Gorgon LNG project nears full start up. On March 21, 2016, first cargo departed Barrow Island in northwest Australia aboard the tanker Asia Excellence for Japan. However, the company has been struggling to maintain sustained production from its first 5.2 million tonne a year production train.

On April 6, 2016, Chevron said production has been temporarily halted due to mechanical issues with the propane refrigerant circuit on Train 1 at the plant site. Late last month, Chevron said production will most likely restart later this month.

The second and the third trains are under construction and are expected to begin production in six to twelve months.

Chevron is also building a second mega LNG project at Wheatstone. The Wheatstone project will include an onshore facility located at Ashburton North Strategic Industrial Area (ANSIA), 12 kilometres west of Onslow in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The foundation project includes two LNG trains with a combined capacity of 8.9 million tonne per annum (MTPA) and a domestic gas plant.

Steve W. Green, president of Chevron Asia Pacific Exploration and Production called Krzywosinski’s achieved in developing Gorgon and Wheatstone as extraordinary.

Hearne, who will report to Green, joined Texaco in 1989 as a power engineer at the Pembroke Refinery in the United Kingdom.