Chevron has reached an agreement with a Chinese consortium, Himalaya Energy, owned by state-owned China ZhenHua Oil and investment firm CNIC Corp., to sell its three gas fields in Bangladesh for an estimated US$2bn. The Bangladesh government has the right of first refusal in any asset sale and the transaction will require the approval of the Ministry of Commerce of China.
Chevron is the main foreign company active in gas production in Bangladesh, with around 40% of total gas output; in 2015, it produced an average of 20 mcm/d (7.4 bcm) and 3,000 bbl/d (1.1 mbl) of condensate from three fields, namely Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Maulavi Bazar. The entire output is sold to state-owned oil company Petrobangla under production-sharing contracts.
In April 2012, Chevron launched the Muchai compression project, which supports additional production from the Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavi Bazar natural gas fields.
The transaction is in line with Chevron's strategy to sell about US$10bn of assets by 2017, including its Bangladesh gas fields and geothermal projects in Indonesia and in the Philippines.