TOKYO: Chevron Corp is selling its three Bangladesh gas fields, worth an estimated $2 billion, to a Chinese consortium as the US oil and gas group looks to shed non-core assets this year. The deal, if completed, would mark China’s first major energy investment in the South Asian country, where Beijing is pumping in billions of dollars in a race with New Delhi and Tokyo for influence. The gas fields, which account for more than half of the total gas output in Bangladesh, are being sold to Himalaya Energy, Chevron said. Himalaya is owned by a consortium comprising state-owned China ZhenHua Oil and investment firm CNIC Corp. CNIC, set up in Hong Kong in 2012, is a government investment platform that focuses on supporting Chinese companies’ overseas investment. Reuters reported in February that ZhenHua Oil had signed a preliminary deal with Chevron to buy the Bangladesh natural gas fields. “The agreement is for the sale of Chevron’s Bangladesh companies, which hold our interests in Bangladesh,” a company spokesman told Reuters by email on Monday. “The value of the transaction is not being disclosed and we are not at liberty to share the details of the agreement.”