CALGARY – Encana Corp. (TSX:ECA) says it will meet corporate production guidance this year despite losing an average of 3,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the third quarter from U.S. operations it suspended while hurricane Harvey rampaged through Texas.
The Calgary-based oil and gas producer says the earlier-than-expected startup of a natural gas processing plant in B.C. this week will boost Canadian production enough to make up for the setbacks in Texas, as well as natural gas production lost due to recent third-party gas plant and pipeline outages in Western Canada.
It says the new plant near the Alberta border in northeastern B.C. will allow its production of light oil produced with gas from the Montney underground formation to double in the fourth quarter of 2017 compared with the same period of last year.
The plant wasn’t expected to come on stream until after the end of September. Encana plans to quickly fill the plant to capacity by drilling and completing wells in the area.
Another Calgary producer, Baytex Energy Corp. (TSX:BTE), reports its third-quarter production will be down by about 2,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day due to its suspended operations in Texas during the storm which hit in late August.
In both cases, the lost production amounts to one per cent or less of overall annual output.