Chevron: A 25-year journey towards energy sustainability in Bangladesh
Chevron has partnered with the Bangladeshi government and Petrobangla to help ensure energy security for the nation and play a part in the quest of emerging as a developed country by 2041
Chevron is one of the world's leading integrated energy companies, involved in virtually every aspect of the energy industry. Access to energy helps improve lives by driving human progress and enabling the benefits of modern society. This is why Chevron is constantly working to provide reliable, affordable and ever-cleaner energy.
Chevron has partnered with the Bangladeshi government and Petrobangla to help ensure energy security for the nation and play a part in the quest of emerging as a developed country by 2041.
Chevron Bangladesh is the country's largest producer of natural gas and condensate and has produced an average of approximately 1.5 billion cubic feet per day to supply clean energy to Bangladesh since 2016. Chevron Bangladesh operates three fields: Bibiyana, Jalalabad and Moulavi Bazar and produces over 60% of the national gas production and over 80% of condensate production in the country.
As a proud partner of Bangladesh, Chevron has invested over $3.6 billion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), including over $500 million in contracts with local suppliers and contractors, over the last 12 years.
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More than 95% of the employees of Chevron are Bangladeshi nationals. With our talented pool of employees, we are delivering world-class performance in safety, reliability and production efficiency.
Chevron strives to deliver the energy the world needs while protecting the environment. And to do that, we deploy leading technical know-how and capability in an efficient and cost-effective way.
Globally, Chevron is planning $10 billion in lower carbon capital investment between 2021 and 2028 with the goal of reducing the carbon intensity of our business and building new lower carbon energy businesses. In Bangladesh, we are pursuing projects to harness the country's natural resources and provide solutions to meet Bangladesh's future energy needs.
We work to deliver the energy Bangladesh needs while keeping our employees safe and protecting the environment. In Bangladesh, we have achieved a remarkable safety record and world-class production efficiency, while focusing on developing highly skilled Bangladeshi nationals.
Chevron Bangladesh works with communities across its operations to build long-term partnerships that foster economic development and lasting benefits. Social investments in communities are one of the core values of Chevron's global business practice. In Bangladesh, Chevron has been managing social investment programs since 2006. The key areas of social investment are health, education, economic development and emergency relief.
Chevron Bangladesh invests in activities and programs that focus primarily on livelihood support, access to education, primary health care facilities, skill development and entrepreneurship support. Chevron carries out most of these projects in partnership with leading nongovernmental organisations.
Thousands of people in the country's northeast have benefited through the partnerships the company has forged with the community and NGOs to address critical socio economic issues. As a partner with the Bangladesh government, as well as local businesses and communities, Chevron also contributes to health care, education, and economic development for mutual benefit and progress.
At Chevron Bangladesh, we refer to our common set of values as The Chevron Way. This is the foundation for what we believe and how we behave. Throughout our history, Chevron Bangladesh has been a place where trust, respect and humility define our culture and where performance, partnership and accountability guide the way.
The Chevron Way underpins our commitment to delivering affordable, reliable and ever-cleaner energy. Our strategy is clear – we are leveraging our strengths to deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. This includes contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which we view as a system of targets and objectives that build on each other to achieve a more sustainable future. We believe the next decade will be full of partnership, action and growth, and we are well-positioned to be part of the solution.
Chevron Bangladesh touches all 17 SDGs through our day-to-day operations, partnership initiatives and social investment opportunities. We work with key partners, communities, and industry groups to maximise positive outcomes and continually deepen our understanding of sustainable development.
Achieving a more sustainable energy future means drawing on our culture of human ingenuity to solve problems and deliver solutions. It also means being an outstanding partner with businesses around the world and with the communities we call home. By operating responsibly and performing with excellence, we strive to make Chevron the partner of choice.
In Bangladesh, our partnerships and investments in health, education and economic development have advanced progress and strengthened communities. We spent more than USD$15 million on community programs over the last 12 years, benefitting more than 1,20,000 people.
Chevron's Bangladesh Partnership Initiative (BPI) is our flagship, multi-year program that supports economic development for communities in the greater Sylhet region. We work with leading development organisations like BRAC, Swisscontact and International Development Enterprises, to establish business and workforce development programs.
BPI demonstrates sustainable progress by strengthening the governance of 110 Village Development Organisations (VDO) as registered cooperatives under the Jibika project. A few of these VDOs received the best cooperative award at the district and divisional levels over the last couple of years.
Uttoron is another workstream of BPI which provided technical training to more than 3,000 local youths in various trades with 68% job placement. As a long-term legacy of Uttoron intervention, BPI contributed to establishing one permanent technical training centre and one advanced welding facility in partnership with Sylhet City Corporation and Khulna Shipyard respectively.
BPI also supported 1100 micro, small and medium enterprises through the 'Uddokta' project by providing market chain development support, access to finance facilities, joint venture initiatives, promotional campaigns, etc.
For 15 years, Chevron Bangladesh has sponsored two clinics in Karimpur and Swastipur near our Bibiyana gas plant to improve access to healthcare. These two clinics serve the local communities with approximately 60,000 affordable and quality health services every year.
Since 2006, we have been implementing water, sanitation and hygiene projects for the greater Sylhet communities. Tree plantation campaigns, winter support, agriculture inputs, solar street lights, sewing machines, tool boxes, and learning materials are a few other areas Chevron has contributed to.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, we provided emergency food and hygiene packages to more than 8,000 families. We also contributed 10 oxygen concentrators and two ICU ventilators to local hospitals to help support healthcare facilities. In the aftermath of the 2022 flood in the Sylhet region, we provided one week's worth of supplies to around 15,000 families as well as an additional 2,40,000 oral saline and water purification tablets.
In addition, we support education programs. In the last 12 years, we have awarded more than 8,000 scholarships to local students. The SHIKHON project, a collaboration between Chevron and Save the Children, provides multiple years of accelerated non-formal primary school education to 1,800 previously out-of-school children and dropouts from 46 villages near our areas of operation.
We have also pioneered a partnership with the Asian University for Women (AUW) by supporting their Summer School where the brightest female high school students across Bangladesh participate in an intensive program focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Humanities subjects.
The author is the president and managing director of Chevron Bangladesh
