* Posts Q3 net loss on $1.07 bln writedown charge
* To spend $150 mln more than planned on Permian basin in Q4
* Q3 oil and gas-liquids output up 35 pct
(Adds comment, Deep Panuke details)
By Nia Williams
CALGARY, Alberta, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Canadian oil and
natural gas producer Encana Corp ECA.TO ECA.N reported a
quarterly loss on Thursday but reported an increase in oil
production and said it is speeding up spending in the Permian
basin in Texas.
Encana plans to spend an extra $150 million in the Permian
shale field in the current quarter that was originally earmarked
for 2016. The company expects total capital spending of $2.2
billion this year, the upper end of its earlier forecast.
Even so, Encana is continuing to clamp down on costs as the
oil price slump drags on.
"I'm very confident our efficiencies will be even better
next year than this year. We'll build off the operating
performance we've achieved," said chief executive Doug Suttles.
Encana has cut its workforce by 40 percent since the end of
2012 and Permian horizontal drilling and completion costs are
down about $2 million per well this year.
It has been restructuring its portfolio to diversify
production away from low-value natural gas towards oil and
expects asset divestitures to total $2.8 billion in 2015.
In August, Encana sold its Haynesville natural gas assets in
northern Louisiana for $850 million and said in October it would
sell its Denver Julesburg basin oil and gas assets in Colorado
for $900 million. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N1282YA
The Calgary-based company has booked impairment charges of
$3.62 billion so far this year, including $1.07 billion in the
third quarter, to write down the value of assets amid a
prolonged slump in global crude prices.
Encana's oil and gas-liquids production rose to average
140,400 barrels per day in the third quarter, 35 percent higher
than a year earlier. However, natural gas output fell 30 percent
to 1.55 billion cubic feet per day.
In the last two weeks Encana restarted its Deep Panuke
platform offshore Atlantic Canada, which shut down in May
because of excess water in its natural gas reservoir.
Suttles also said Encana's next well in the Duvernay oil and
gas formation in Alberta would be deferred until the Alberta
government completes reviews into royalty rates and climate
change policies.
Encana reported a third-quarter net loss of $1.24 billion,
compared with a profit of $2.81 billion a year earlier.
Its operating loss, which excludes most one-time items, was
$24 million, or 3 cents per share against a year-earlier profit
of $281 million, or 38 cents per share.
Encana shares were up 1.6 percent at C$10.05 on the Toronto
Stock Exchange.