EnCana Corp. has targeted a 10% per-share sales volume growth rate in 2004 from its existing assets, which, if achieved, would total between 805-885 MMboe/d. Gas sales in 2004 are forecast to be between 3.25-3.45 Bcf/d and oil and natural gas liquids sales are forecast between 265,000-310,000 bbl/d, a 10% increase over 2003 targets.

Achieving the midpoint of these target ranges would represent an average annual growth rate of 11% in conventional oil and gas sales volumes since the company’s inception in 2002, the company said in a statement.

“We are focused on increasing the long-term intrinsic value of each EnCana share, year after year,” said CEO Gwyn Morgan. The company’s investment objective is to target “high potential assets where we believe we can deliver industry benchmark performance. The foundation of our industry-leading growth is the North American resource plays we’ve taken decades to assemble on EnCana lands. These are known hydrocarbon accumulations, which we currently estimate have the potential to add up to 9 Tcf of gas and 650 million bbl to EnCana’s future reserves.”

EnCana’s 2004 capital investment program, forecast between C$5.3-5.7 billion, will continue to target fully-risked, after-tax rates of return of more than 20% in the development of known reserves and more than 15% in exploration and oil sands projects.

EnCana also affirmed that its total daily oil and gas sales volumes in 2003 are forecast to grow to between 740-797 MMboe, excluding Syncrude. (EnCana recently agreed to sell its remaining 3.75% interest in Syncrude.) The 2003 sales forecast is comprised of between 3-3.1 Bcf/d and 240,000 280,000 bbl of oil and natural gas liquids per day.

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