Encana set to divest from Colorado shale

CALGARY, Alberta, Dec. 22 (UPI) -- Canadian energy company Encana Corp. said it's on pace to close on the sale of its shale assets in Colorado to a Canadian pension board by mid 2016.

Encana, which has headquarters in Calgary, is set to receive about $900 million in exchange for the sale of assets in the Denver-Julesburg shale basin in Colorado to an entity controlled in part by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

The deal is expected to close during the second quarter of 2016. Material terms, including the purchase price, remain unchanged.

Encana in February said it was reducing its capital investment plans for the year by $700 million to about $2.1 billion. About 80 percent of new spending would target four key U.S. shale basins outside of Colorado.

Last week, the Canadian energy company said it was cutting its capital program for next year by 25 percent. Encana, which focuses heavily on U.S. and Canadian shale basins, said 80 percent of its 2016 budget of around $1.6 billion would target the Eagle Ford and Permian shale basins in Texas and the Duvernay and Montney shale fields in Canada.

Combined with previous sell-offs totaling $2.7 billion, the company said it should end the year with a debt burden reduction of around $3 billion after offloading the Colorado shale.