Teaming up with PetroChina

Article Excerpt

ENCANA CORP. $31.43 (Toronto symbol ECA; Shares outstanding: 735.3 million; Market cap: $23.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.6%; www.encana.com) has agreed to form a 50/50 joint venture with PetroChina Company Ltd. (New York symbol PTR) to operate its Cutbank Ridge natural-gas property along the B.C. and Alberta border. Under the terms of the deal, PetroChina will pay $5.4 billion (Canadian) for half of Encana’s Cutbank Ridge assets. PetroChina will also pay half of the Cutbank Ridge’s future development costs. That cuts Encana’s risk. As well, teaming up with PetroChina should help Encana increase exports of gas from the Cutbank Ridge to Asia. This property produced 401 million cubic feet of gas per day in 2010, or 12% of Encana’s total daily production of 3.3 billion cubic feet. Petro-China’s involvement should push that higher. Encana is a buy. buy…