Encana cuts won’t affect Deep Panuke: president

Cuts announced by the Encana Corporation on Tuesday won't affect the company's multi-million dollar Deep Panuke project off Nova Scotia's coast, according to president Doug Suttles.

The natural gas giant announced it will cut its workforce by 20 per cent. At the end of the last fiscal year, Encana had 4,169 employees, so a 20 per cent reduction would work out to just over 800 people.

Suttles wouldn’t say how that will directly affect the two dozen people who work for Encana in Halifax.

He said their focus is on getting the four wells off Nova Scotia into full production.

"Well I think the best thing about it is it sells into a premium market. This is one place where the gas sells for above the Henry Hub or the Nynex price so it's an attractive piece of business to have,” he said.

The Calgary-based company said it also plans to narrow its production focus to five oil-related projects in North America from as many as 30.

The Deep Panuke project received regulatory approval in 2007 and was initially supposed to go into production by late 2010.

The gas field is about 250 kilometres southeast of Halifax on the Scotia shelf.