New Delhi, Feb 13 (PTI) Energy giant Chevron is setting up a USD 1-billion engineering and innovation centre in India, its second biggest in the world, as it looks to tap the country's engineering and technology talent to support its global operations and projects, its India head Akshay Sahni said.

The Chevron Engineering and Innovation Excellence Center (ENGINE) in Bengaluru is not a back office but a centre that will do works ranging from understanding geology for oil and gas production and carbon storage to developing digital twins for oil refineries and advanced process monitoring to improve supply reliability, he said on the sidelines of the India Energy Week here.

It will be the company's largest centre outside of the US.

"ENGINE is a state-of-the-art technology hub to support Chevron's global projects and operations. This is where we plan to build a diverse and inclusive workforce that will deliver technology solutions to support affordable, reliable and ever cleaner energy for a growing world," he said.

It's very well aligned with India's vision as well to have affordable supplies of energy and the people at the ENGINE will work on higher end technology solutions to support this vision, he said.

Chevron ENGINE aims to hire 600 employees by the end of 2025, with further expansion planned, building a diverse and inclusive workforce that will address today's energy demands while contributing to a lower-carbon future, he said.

The recruitment drive is progressing as planned, targeting mechanical, chemical, petroleum, civil, structural, electrical, and computer science engineers, as well as geologists and environmental science majors.

Employees will work with cutting-edge technologies, including AI, IoT, and edge computing, enhancing their technical expertise while collaborating with seasoned experts worldwide to advance key projects.

"It will support the higher end technical functions. This is where we plan to do high-end engineering work, with support from, obviously, AI and data science staff." Chevron ENGINE will leverage the ingenuity of India's engineering and technology talent ecosystem to support Chevron's global efforts to deliver affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner energy.

The USD 1 billion investment in India will happen over the next several years.

He said technology is central to Chevron ENGINE's business operations, with a strong focus on digital solutions, high-performance computing, AI, and robotics, where Chevron has made significant advancements in recent years.

By responsibly leveraging AI, Chevron ENGINE can unlock insights in the subsurface to enhance exploration and production while identifying the best reservoirs for carbon capture projects. Innovation at ENGINE also includes the development of digital twins for refineries and advancements in process monitoring to improve operational reliability.

An AI accelerator at ENGINE will focus on predictive maintenance where machine learning will be used to analyse vibration monitoring, temperature, and pressure for real-time predictive analytics. It will do seismic data processing to reduce data processing time for geological analysis. ENGINE will stream live operational data from around the world for real-time decision-making.

ENGINE will work across the entire energy value chain, he said.

This would include supporting high-pressure, high-temperature deepwater projects such as the Anchor Project where drilling depths exceed 34,000 feet below sea level, assist carbon sequestration projects including large-scale storage initiatives like those in Australia, analysing subsurface geology for oil and gas exploration and carbon sequestration and develop and refresh digital twins for LNG plants to monitor processes to improve reliability and efficiency. PTI ANZ HVA