While it still faces a shortfall in skilled workers to serve the oil and gas industry, Cambodia has made gains in training of domestic employees, Pen Ngoeun, an adviser to the country's council of ministers has told the Pnomh Penh Post.

He told state officials that Chevron will need 600 highly skilled staff to man its operations once they are brought on stream.

Mr Ngoeun iterated that these will not be manual positions but engineering posts that will require specialist training, adding that it is of great importance that Cambodians can fill these positions.

"One benefit [of having local skilled engineers] is that we won't have to watch as wages flow out of the country, which would happen if they were foreign employees," he told the paper.

Chevron began exploration activities in Cambodia in 2002 and also has an interest in lubricants distribution in the country through its Caltex subsidiary.

5th Global Education and Training event for Oil and Gas: Exploration and Production