Addressing growing speculation, Chevron said Thursday it would only proceed with a sale of its interests in Bangladesh if it can get a good value in return.
A spokesperson for Chevron confirmed to UPI that the company was in discussions to dispose of its interest in Bangladesh.
“At this stage, no decision has been made to sell our interests,” the spokesperson said. “We will only proceed if we can realize attractive value for Chevron.”
Chevron began streamlining its portfolio and cutting staff after losses in the fourth quarter of 2015 marked the first contraction for the U.S. supermajor in more than 10 years.
The company reported a loss of $725 million compared with earnings of $2.6 billion during the first quarter of 2015. Its net oil equivalent production of 1.9 million barrels per day represented a 1 percent decline year-on-year. Spending, meanwhile, was almost 25 percent lower than first quarter 2015 at $6.5 million.
The company unveiled plans in October 2015 to sell about $10 billion worth of assets by 2017.
The company produces mostly natural gas from three fields in Bangladesh and employs about 2,000 people from the country.
Chevron’s subsidiary in Bangladesh started operations from an expansion project at the Bibiyana gas asset in the northeastern part of the country in 2014. The additional development boosted production capacity from Bangladesh by more than 300 million cubic feet per day to 1.4 billion cubic feet per day.
Asian economies, China and India in particular, are growing at nearly twice the rate of their Western counterparts. That growth translates to higher demand for oil and natural gas.
-UPI.com
