Encana

Among the largest natural gas companies in North America, based in Calgary, Alberta.

Encana Corporation was a Canadian independent petroleum company that existed from 2002 to 2020. The company, stylised as EnCana until 2010, was created by David P. O’Brien of PanCanadian Petroleum and Gwyn Morgan of the Alberta Energy Company through the merger of their companies. At the time of its creation Encana was the world’s largest independent petroleum company by measure of its value, production, and reserves. Morgan ran the company from its inception through the end of 2005. During its early years, Encana established its reputation as Canada’s flagship energy company and an icon of Western Canadian business. In September 2005 it became Canada’s largest corporation by market capitalisation for a brief time.

At the beginning of 2006, Morgan ceded the presidency to Randall K. Eresman. During the new president’s first year, the company’s profits were CAD 6.4 billion, which was the largest corporate profit in Canadian history. In 2009 Encana spun off its oil producing operations as Cenovus, thus becoming exclusively a natural gas producer. Eresman resigned abruptly in early 2013 and was replaced by the American Douglas J. Suttles. The new president streamlined the company’s operations and shifted its focus to the United States. Suttles also oversaw the company’s return to crude oil production via shale plays in the US.

In October 2019, Suttles, who had moved from Calgary to Denver in 2018, announced the company would undergo a corporate restructuring that would see its residency moved to the United States and its name changed to Ovintiv. On 14 January 2020 shareholders voted 90 per cent in favor of the move, and on 24 January the restructuring was completed.
Wikipedia

The Michigan Land Use Institute reported that In 2006 the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission fined Encana $370,000 for flawed drilling practices. Residents said the drilling contaminated Divide Creek with methane and benzene.

Alan Boras, Encana’s spokesman, said in an interview that the leak was “a rare circumstance” caused by flaws in the cement that holds the well casing in place.

“Within less than a week of being alerted, the problem was rectified,” Mr. Boras said.

Lisa Bracken, on Journey of the Forsaken, reported on June 30, 2010 that,

“EnCana has recently submitted twenty well permits (with at least twenty more on the horizon) to infill drill in our neighborhood… despite 1) low natural gas prices, despite 2) EnCana suing the state of Colorado over new public safety rules (which are by the way utterly toothless) and which they say are driving them from Colorado; and, 3) despite the persistent, increasing and largely un-investigated presence of leaking hydrocarbon toxins into groundwater and private water wells.

Why the renewed surge in activity? Could be because China is dumping investment dollars into EnCana’s bank account to facilitate extraction of gas for export to China?”

EnCana Buries Hydraulic Fracturing Pit Sludge in Unlined Pit May 14, 2009

See also: Lisa Bracken Website: Journey of the Forsaken.

See also: Will Koop. Encana’s Cabin Not So Homey: Cumulative Environmental Effects – An Unfolding and Emerging Crisis in Northeastern British Columbis’a Shale Gas Plays. British Columbia (BC) Tap Water Alliance. (PDF 13. 4 MB, 58 pp.). November 9, 2010.

The new ‘flow’ regime of gaseous carbon money. Horn Basin Shales gas sales strategy map diverting British Columbia “trapped” gas now “rescued” or “freed” to Alberta, and, possibly, some to be diverted to the dirty tar sands. (Map source: Encana public relations document.) (Archived) Documents filed with the National Energy Board on the Horn project.

Rich, delicate, muskeg wilderness forested landscape habitats and wetlands are in jeopardy. Below, Oklahoma-basedDevon Energy Corporation’s operations on large recently cleared pads about 10 kilometres southeast of Two IslandnLake (80 kilometres north of Fort Nelson). The lower multi-well pad (most likely the 8-well, Komie 87-G pad) is actively being fracked, with large volumes of fresh water removed from nearby sources. The two round large tanks are filled with toxic waste waters from the fracking. A pad holding Devon’s small work force camp is off to the upper left. Devon has a 27 percent working interest in EnCana’s Cabin Gas plant. (Garth Lenz photo, below)

See also: The true cost of oil | Garth Lenz | TEDxVictoria

What does environmental devastation actually look like? At TEDxVictoria, photographer Garth Lenz shares shocking photos of the Alberta Tar Sands mining project — and the beautiful (and vital) ecosystems under threat. For almost twenty years, Garth’s photography of threatened wilderness regions, devastation, and the impacts on indigenous peoples, has appeared in the world’s leading publications. His recent images from the boreal region of Canada have helped lead to significant victories and large new protected areas in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Ontario. Garth’s major touring exhibit on the Tar Sands premiered on Los Angeles in 2011 and recently appeared in New York. Garth is a Fellow of the International League Of Conservation Photographers

Read the letter written to the Vancouver Sun by Fort Nelson First Nation Chief, Kathie Dickie. Dec. 22, 2009. (Koop, p. 21)

Chief Kathie Dickie. Premier’s climate-change hypocrisy could doom first nation’s way of life. 21 Dec 2009. Vancouver Sun.

Calgary-based EnCana Corporation, Canada’s largest gas producer, along with a consortium of seven other oil companies, is planning to build the biggest gas processing plant in North America in the heart of our 1910 treaty territory.

We’ve been told many things by the B. C government as we’ve tried to participate in the environmental assessment process. One official said that because our 100-year-old treaty doesn’t specifically address clean air, we have no say on clean air when it comes to the construction of the biggest greenhouse gas creator in B.C. Imagine being told by a government official in 2009 that you have no say on the quality of air you or your children breathe! What parent would stand for it?

We understand the value to the province of shale gas development in the Horn River Basin. But such economic development, whether for our community or yours, should not come at the expense of a gutting of the land, water, and air where a community lives.

We are the only Treaty 8 Nation that lives within the Horn River Basin, and this gas plant, designed to open the basin to drilling, pipelines and gas development, will have an immense effect on our rights and interests. Without the capacity to determine and plan for this development, the survival of the Fort Nelson First Nation is in jeopardy. This plant and the development that it brings must not mean the end of us.
Chief Kathie Dickie. Premier’s climate-change hypocrisy could doom first nation’s way of life. 21 Dec 2009. Vancouver Sun.

See also: Julie Green. “The Game Changer.” June 2010. UpHere Business.

…In mid-April, Dickie signed an agreement with Spectra. “It’s more than an impact-benefit agreement,” says Spectra’s Duane Rae. “It formalizes the relationship we already have and talks about how we’re going to continue working together.” The band is working on similar agreements with TransCanada and EnCana. Dickie has a list of substantial fears about shale development and water is at the top.

See: Journey of the Forsaken

See: EnCana Buries Hydraulic Fracturing Pit Sludge in Unlined Pit May 14, 2009

See: Fracking Disaster in the Making: A Report

See: The Tragedy of the Commons

See: Ceres Principles – Corporate Environmental Conduct

See: The Next Drilling Disaster?

See: Natural Gas Industry Shills Use the Media to Mislead the Public – Here’s How to Spot Them

See: This Website is a Crash Course In Fracking

See: Affirming Gasland

See: Hydraulic Fracturing Applicability of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act Science Advisory Board Discussion

See: EPA Findings on Hydraulic Fracturing Deemed “Unsupportable”

See: Coalbed Methane Development: The Costs and Benefits of an Emerging Energy Resource