Encana selling northern Alberta natural gas assets for $2B
by Canadian Manufacturing Staff
Sale of Bighorn natural gas assets comes as Encana looks to streamline operations, refocus on oil production
CALGARY—Encana Corp. has continued its asset sell-off, announcing a $2-billion deal with fellow Calgary-based energy firm Jupiter Resources Inc. for a swath of land in the Deep Basin play.
The company announced it has agreed on a deal with Jupiter that will see Encana sell its Bighorn natural gas assets, including roughly 360,000 net acres of land, as well as its working interests in all related pipelines, facilities and service arrangements.
“Bighorn is a high quality asset that has not been receiving significant investment in 2014,” president and chief executive Doug Suttles said in a company release.
The sale of the assets in the massive resource play that extends from northwestern Alberta into northeastern British Columbia comes on the heels of a pair of major United States natural gas land sales by Encana this year as it looks to refocus on oil production.
Encana also sold its U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit in April.
In May, the company announced plans to buy a massive oil play in south Texas in a deal worth US$3.1 billion as part of its restructuring plan.
A strategic review last year found Encana had more land in its portfolio than can be “optimally developed,” particularly dry natural gas assets.
Suttles took the reins in June 2013 and immediately got to work streamlining the company, slashing 20 per cent of Encana’s workforce.
