The West Australian: March Deadline Set for Gorgon

Chevron chief executive John Watson has set a March deadline to wave off the first Gorgon LNG cargo as construction of Australia's biggest resources project stutters to the finish line.

But he also warned the schedule pressures that have beset the $US54 billion Gorgon project were emerging at Chevron's other big-ticket LNG development in WA, the $US29 billion Wheatstone venture.

Having regularly stuck to a start-up date for Wheatstone of late next year, Mr Watson said Chevron was "still targeting the first LNG cargo by year-end 2016".

"However, we continue to work to mitigate Wheatstone schedule pressures from previous delays in module delivery (to the LNG plant site near Onslow)," Mr Watson told investors in the US on Friday night. 

The progress of the two Australian LNG projects and Chevron's global strategy to slash costs at a time of low oil and gas prices dominated Mr Watson's conversation with investors.

The Chevron chief executive said the US giant was trimming up to 7000 jobs, and a similar number of contractors, globally as part of its cost cutting, with a big focus on Australia. MORE