The Cable
The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Amid Scramble for Influence, China Scoops Up Chevron’s Gas Fields in Bangladesh

China, India, and Japan are all courting the South Asian nation.

By , a journalist covering China from Washington. She was previously an assistant editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy.
MIAMI - MAY 24: A gas tanker passes a Chevron petroleum storage tank at Port Everglades May 24, 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The port is a major petroleum storage and distribution hub for South Florida. U.S. oil prices today rose to within a few cents of a new 21-year record on Monday as traders and analysts doubted whether Saudi Arabia's weekend pledge to raise output was enough to meet demand. U.S. light crude futures settled up $1.79 to $41.72 after climbing as high as $41.82 at midday. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
MIAMI - MAY 24: A gas tanker passes a Chevron petroleum storage tank at Port Everglades May 24, 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The port is a major petroleum storage and distribution hub for South Florida. U.S. oil prices today rose to within a few cents of a new 21-year record on Monday as traders and analysts doubted whether Saudi Arabia's weekend pledge to raise output was enough to meet demand. U.S. light crude futures settled up $1.79 to $41.72 after climbing as high as $41.82 at midday. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
MIAMI - MAY 24: A gas tanker passes a Chevron petroleum storage tank at Port Everglades May 24, 2004 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The port is a major petroleum storage and distribution hub for South Florida. U.S. oil prices today rose to within a few cents of a new 21-year record on Monday as traders and analysts doubted whether Saudi Arabia's weekend pledge to raise output was enough to meet demand. U.S. light crude futures settled up $1.79 to $41.72 after climbing as high as $41.82 at midday. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

China looks set to make its first big energy move in Bangladesh, as it competes with India and Japan for clout in the South Asian nation.

China looks set to make its first big energy move in Bangladesh, as it competes with India and Japan for clout in the South Asian nation.

A Chinese consortium, composed of state firm China ZhenHua Oil and investment firm CNIC Corp, has made a deal with Chevron to buy its three gas fields, according to Reuters. Chevron’s holdings together produce 16 million metric tons of oil equivalent each year, coming to just over half of the South Asian nation’s gas output.

It’s the latest move by China in a battle for influence in the region. China and India have sought to curry favor with nearby countries through infrastructure projects and energy cooperation. In March, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a Chinese-led multilateral institution, approved $60 million in loans to help finance a gas project in Bangladesh which would help improve the country’s gas supply.  In the past two months, meanwhile, India and Bangladesh have reached several agreements in nuclear power cooperation. A planned coal power plant in Rampal would import Indian coal.

Japan, too, has gotten in on the game. In June 2016, it provided Bangladesh with a $1.5 billion loan package to fund several major projects, including a coal power plant and a rapid transit system in the capital Dhaka. In November 2016, Japan and Bangladesh created a petroleum sector joint venture firm.

China and India have near-insatiable energy appetites, making them dependent not just on foreign energy sources but also on shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. But China isn’t ready to pipe in gas from Bangladesh just yet. China and Myanmar just opened a cross-border crude oil and gas pipeline which runs between Myanmar and a refinery in Kunming, in China’s Southwest. But there is currently no gas pipeline in the works that would connect China to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh is a net importer of petroleum products, and faces frequent energy shortages as its population continues to grow. Under its current agreement, Petrobangla, Bangladesh’s state energy firm, buys the output from Chevron’s fields. China seems likely to come to a similar arrangement.

Energy is just one area of big-power competition in Bangladesh. China, India, and Japan have tried to woo Bangladesh with competing proposals for deep sea port construction. China has previously pledged $9 billion to expand Bangladesh’s Chittagong port. There has also been talk of a Yunnan-Chittagong overland road, and of a grand intercontinental rail network connecting China to Europe through Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey. But concrete proposals have yet to materialize.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian is a journalist covering China from Washington. She was previously an assistant editor and contributing reporter at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @BethanyAllenEbr

More from Foreign Policy

The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy

The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.
Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now

In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet

As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.