Chevron signed a major partnership agreement with The University of Western Australia (UWA), elevating the existing Chair in Gas Process Engineering (GPE) from a three to five year fixed term agreement to endow the Chair in perpetuity.
The $5.75 million investment over five years is part of Chevron’s global University Partnership Program which partners with universities around the world to foster academic excellence, research capacity and to build key relationships.
Chevron Australia managing director Roy Krzywosinski welcomed the decision and said the endowment boosted the company’s partnership with UWA and would help shape Perth as a gas technology centre of excellence.
“ This builds on Chevron’s continuing investment in the industry’s research and development and reflects the company’s commitment to developing its world class gas assets located in North Western Australia ,” Krzywosinski said.
The new elevated Chair will support UWA in establishing a teaching laboratory for chemical engineering and a laboratory for natural gas research at the Australian Resources Research Centre. It will also help develop an LNG operator training program, extend student recruitment programs beyond Western Australia and offer between three and six secondments of UWA’s GPE academic staff to Chevron. The endowment will allow the GPE Chair to continue in perpetuity after Chevron’s initial five year investment.
Krzywosinski added, “ The endowment will ensure long-term strategic leadership at UWA’s Centre for Energy. The Chair, Professor Eric May, and his research team will expand the impact of the Centre’s research programs through interdisciplinary collaboration, education, and outreach as well as development, testing, and deployment of advanced natural gas production and processing technologies .”
Chevron’s Energy Technology Company president Paul Siegele said the announcement would strengthen the work of Chevron’s Global Technology Centre which opened in Perth in 2007.
“ Our Global Technoogy Centre provides value-adding research, development and technical support for the company’s Asia Pacific and worldwide operations and endowing the Chair in perpetuity adds to this effort ,” Siegele said.
Chevron signed the initial partnership agreement with UWA in 2008 and committed to investing $2.3 million over three years to fund a new Chair, two postdoctoral appointments and two PhD scholarships in gas process engineering at UWA.
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LNG World News Staff, December 12, 2011; Image: Chevron