EnCana Corporation Q2 2009 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-07-24 18:00:41.0

Tags: U.S., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Environment, Call Transcript, Earnings, Seeking Alpha, EnCana Corp.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs.

Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs

When you think about your lower long-term gas forecast of $6 to $7 combined with the improved productivity from the Horn River and Montney plays, how do you think about your own Canadian production growth in that environment as well as Canadian production, gas production, growth overall?

Randy Eresman

Corporately we've been targeting a long-term production growth for natural gas in the 4% to 6% range, the target we've had for the last number of years, and then, of course, as you know, in this environment we've slowed it down a bit.

In that environment we have a lot of plays such as our Montney, a lot of our Shell gas plays that have much lower supply costs than the bottom end of that range and can do potentially quite well. In the meantime and over the last couple of years we've been continually divesting of some of our more mature conventional assets that possibly won't be able to compete as well in that long-term environment.

So I think we're in pretty good shape to at least maintain that same target and I'm saying overall for the company, not specifically Canada or the United States, with the possibility that it could actually rise in the future as a result of having a more concentrated base in these lower-cost plays.

Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs

And do you see Canadian production overall as less competitive relative to the U.S. either within your own portfolio or, more likely, overall?

Randy Eresman

You know, it really is a play specific situation. There are and have been certain challenges historically being in Canada with a higher overall cost structure and challenges oftentimes with changes, rapid changes in exchange rates and the access to supplies and services. That situation has largely been reduced right now and we're seeing significant opportunities arise in Western Canada. The royalty structure of the Alberta government works in our favor today, so there are plays that are actually becoming more competitive compared to the U.S.

Generally, wherever you have the most concentrated resources and the lowest cost development, lowest operating cost, those are the ones that are going to be developed first in the future in this kind of a dynamic environment.

Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs

And lastly, could you provide some more color on the production that's either shut-in or uncompleted, the 300 to 400 million, of the half of it that you mentioned takes a little bit of time to come back on, at what price and how long would it take to bring back? And maybe if you could provide a U.S.-Canada split of that 300 to 400 million?

 

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