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United States News Title: Chevron cutting 2,000 jobs in refining restructuring (Blood Dancing in high gear!) Chevron cutting 2,000 jobs in refining restructuring Explore related topics Gas/Utilities Canada Chevron Corp Exxon Mobil Corp By Steve Gelsi, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Chevron Corp. said Tuesday it plans to cut 2,000 jobs this year as part of an effort to realize savings in its refining operations, as the oil major signals that recent woes in the business of making gasoline and diesel fuel will persist well beyond 2010. Separately, Chevron plans to boost its production by about 1% a year for the next four years, as it ramps up mega-projects such as the Gorgon LNG facility in Western Australia. Chevron /quotes/comstock/13*!cvx/quotes/nls/cvx (CVX 74.70, +0.06, +0.08%) plans to solicit bids for operations in Europe, including its Pembroke, Wales, refinery, as well as the Caribbean and select Central America markets. It's also reviewing operations in Hawaii and Africa, outside of South Africa. Dow Jones Industrial Average component Chevron said first-quarter charges for severance are currently estimated to be in the range of $150 million to $200 million on an after-tax basis, with more charges to follow since staff reductions will occur through 2011. Shares of Chevron rose 20 cents to $74.84 on Tuesday afternoon. 'Given the weak refining market, mergers and acquisitions in the sector may be hard to come by.' Brian Niemiec, Susquehanna Research Group The job cuts would amount to about 3% of the company's worldwide staff of 64,000, according to its 2009 annual report. The figure includes 4,000 service station employees and 31,500 workers in its U.S. operations. "Downstream market conditions are likely to be difficult for the next several years," said Mike Wirth, Chevron's executive vice president, global downstream. "We intend to further concentrate our downstream portfolio in North America and Asia-Pacific. "These are markets in which we have our greatest competitive strength. We are also rapidly and aggressively lowering costs, reducing capital spending, improving efficiency and simplifying our organization." Aluminum: All the Perils of Commodity Investment Aluminum prices are being supported by an artificial supply shortage. Despite a market steadily working its way higher, the possibility of a significant price correction is real, whether an economic recovery takes hold or not. Meeting with Wall Street analysts on Tuesday, Chevron executives said management's plans are to complete 25 new capital projects over the next three years with an investment of $1 billion. While Chevron managed to boost production by 7% in 2009, its target for 2010 production growth is much slimmer -- just 1%. Brian Niemiec, analyst with Susquehanna Research Group, said San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron may have a tough time selling its refineries. "Given the weak refining market, mergers and acquisitions in the sector may be hard to come by," Niemiec said in a note to clients. "We won't sell anything unless it creates value for Chevron," Chevron's Wirth said. Chevron said margin in the refining side may improve by the end of 2012.
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