The “centre” itself would be dispersed throughout the Perth metropolitan area but would have its hub in the QV1 building in the western end of Perth’s CBD, Lyles told PetroleumNews.net.

Chevron already has about a dozen staff based in the QV1 building and aims for the centre to have about 40-50 staff by the end of this year and up to 100 employees by the end of 2008, but it is proving hard to recruit in Perth.

“We are having to bring in people from overseas and in Australia we are hiring people who are currently completing advanced degrees,” he said.

“We’re looking for people who want to make a career in technology. This is a great opportunity for Masters and PhD candidates – it will allow them to apply the knowledge that they’ve been developing at university.”

Despite the recruiting problems, Perth offered good opportunities to develop research and development alliances with universities and industry partners, according to Lyles.

“We want a Technology Centre in Perth because we need centres that give regional understandings that can lead to regional efficiencies, and we see Perth as being an important regional hub,” he said.

With the giant Gorgon liquefied natural gas project and the proposed Wheatstone gas-to-liquids plant, as well as plenty of untapped petroleum offshore Western Australia, Perth would be an increasingly important centre of operations for Chevron, the company said.

The Perth Centre would have an initial focus on upstream technologies, but Chevron expected downstream applications to emerge, Lyles said.

Chevron has two Global Technology Centres fully operating in Houston, Texas and Richmond, California, as well as another currently starting up in Aberdeen, Scotland.