Mr Krzywosinski said that the proposed ETS essentially subsidised more carbon intensive industries and left the LNG industry bearing the full economic costs. The massive undeveloped Gorgon project, which has been delayed for several years, is a joint venture between Chevron - which is the largest stakeholder and operator - ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell. The operation is expected to produce about 15 million tonnes of LNG per annum over a 30 year period, with some analysts estimating a development cost in excess of $20 billion. Meanwhile, Chevron said it would commit to its exploration spend of about $US23 billion ($A33.21 billion) this year, despite the turmoil in financial markets. "Chevron Corporation is committed to following through with our global capital and exploratory spending in 2008 of roughly $US23 billion - a record amount for our company and triple what we spent in 2004," Mr Krzywosinski said.