Chevron working to meet $2B asset sales target in 2016

U.S. oil giant Chevron is looking to divest its assets in Bangladesh, aiming to fulfill its assets sales program set at between $5 and $10 billion in 2016 and 2017.

Earlier this year, as part of its previously announced divestment plans, Chevron sold 19 fields in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to Cox Oil for an undisclosed price.

Based on the company’s latest earnings report, the asset sales, aimed at making the company cash balanced in 2017, stood at around $1.4 billion at the end of July, 2016.

The news of the company looking to shed it Bangladesh assets has been confirmed to Offshore Energy Today by a Chevron spokesperson who said that Chevron has been “in commercial discussions about our interests in Bangladesh.”

In Bangladesh, Chevron produces natural gas and condensate from three fields in the northeast of the country.

“At this stage, no decision has been made to sell our interests. We will only proceed if we can realize attractive value for Chevron,” the Chevron spokesperson said.

Most of the Chevron’s planned asset divestments is expected to occur in 2017, with the company expecting to get around $2 billion in 2016 – according to the second quarter earnings report from July.

As for the strategy on selecting the assets to be divested, the California-based oil company has said that they all have these things in common: the assets are not essential to delivering on its strategy, their valuations are not particularly oil price-sensitive, and there are multiple interested buyers.

The $1.4 billion in sold assets until the end of July came from several transactions: New Zealand marketing, Canadian gas storage assets, pipeline assets in California, and upstream assets in the Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore Energy Today Staff