Ovintiv Inc. is a

hydrocarbon exploration Hydrocarbon exploration (or oil and gas exploration) is the search by petroleum geologists and geophysicists for deposits of hydrocarbons, particularly petroleum and natural gas, in the Earth using petroleum geology. Exploration methods Vis ...

and production company organized in

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and headquartered in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, United States. It was founded and headquartered in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, Alberta, under its previous name Encana. It was the largest energy company and largest natural gas producer in Canada, before moving to the United States in 2020. The company was rebranded as Ovintiv and relocated to Denver in 201920.

Hydrocarbon production

In 2021, the company's average production was per day, of which 26% was petroleum, 25% was natural gas liquids, and 49% was natural gas. Of 2021 production, 56% was in the United States and 44% was in Canada.

History

1880s to 2002 - Canadian Pacific and PanCanadian years

When the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...

was formed, the government of Sir

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

compensated it for assuming the risk of developing the railroad with the subsurface rights for a checkerboard pattern of most of Alberta and part of Saskatchewan. These rights were later spun off to the company's predecessors. While drilling for water near

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in Southern Alberta, southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff, Alberta, ...

, in 1883 Canadian Pacific Railway staff discovered natural gas. On July 3, 1958, Canadian Pacific created "Canadian Pacific Oil and Gas" to manage its oil and gas properties and its mineral rights which, in 1971 merged with "Central-Del Rio Oils", to create PanCanadian Petroleum Limited.

2002 to 2019 - the Encana years

In April 2002, Pan Canadian Petroleum Ltd was spun out of Canadian Pacific Limited. It subsequently merged with Alberta Energy Corporation to form EnCana. Gwyn Morgan was named president and CEO. In 2009, EnCana completed the

corporate spin-off A corporate spin-off, also known as a spin-out, or starburst or hive-off, is a type of corporate action where a company "splits off" a section as a separate business or creates a second incarnation, even if the first is still active. Characte ...

Cenovus Energy Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil and natural gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Cenovus was formed in 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies, with Cenovus becoming focused on oi ...

, which held its oil business, representing one-third of its total production and reserves, and EnCana Corporation retaining the

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

business. Investors favoured the split as it gave them the flexibility to choose between investing in oil, gas, or both. Calgary 3a (8033584466)

In December 2012, Encana announced a US$2.1 billion joint venture with state-owned, Beijing-based

PetroChina PetroChina Company Limited () is a Chinese oil and gas company and is the listed arm of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), headquartered in Dongcheng District, Beijing. The company is currently Asia's largest oil and gas pr ...

through which PetroChina received a 49.9% stake in Encana's

Duvernay Formation The Duvernay Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Frasnian age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It was first described in well Anglo Canadian Beaverhill Lake No. 2 in LSD 11-11-50-17W4M by Imperial Oil staff in 1950. The formation w ...

acreage in Alberta. This was in line with the rules that "favor minority stakes over takeovers" since Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. Harper is the first and only prime minister to come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ...

's December 7, 2012 prohibition of purchases by state-owned enterprises seeking to invest in Canadian oil. By the end of 2012, Encana's staff had increased to 4,169 employees. Encana and Cenovus' headquarters, The Bow in Calgary, was completed in 2013, becoming the tallest building in Canada outside of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. The project, owned by

H&R REIT H&R Real Estate Investment Trust is a Canadian Open-end fund, open-ended real estate investment trust, specializing in commercial real estate, and based in Toronto, Ontario. It is the third largest REIT in Canada by market capitalization (after Ri ...

, was announced as Encana's headquarters in 2006, prior to the Cenovus split. In November 2013, the company cut its dividend, announced layoffs of 20% of its employees, closure of its office in

Plano, Texas Plano ( ) is a city in Collin County, Texas, Collin County and Denton County, Texas, United States. It had a population of 285,494 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a principal city of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Hist ...

, and plans to sell assets and to found a separate company for its mineral rights and royalty interests across southern Alberta. It planned to invest 75% of its 2014 capital budget into 5 projects: Projects in the

Montney Formation The Montney Formation is a stratigraphical unit of Lower Triassic age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in British Columbia and Alberta. It takes the name from the hamlet of Montney and was first described in Texaco's Buick Creek No. 7 w ...

and the

in Alberta, the

San Juan Basin The San Juan Basin is a geologic structural basin located near the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. The basin covers 7,500 square miles and resides in northwestern New Mexico, southwestern Colorado, and parts of Utah a ...

in New Mexico, Louisiana's Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, and the Denver-Julesburg Basin (DJ Basin) in northeast Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska. In October 2019, the company announced plans to move its operations from Canada to

, where its CEO lived, and change its name to Ovintiv. The name change, notably the dropping of "Cana" was met with criticism in Canada. Encana's departure from Canada "only intensified the gloom enveloping the Canadian energy industry after foreign companies sold more than US$30 billion". Youssef Youssef, a commerce professor at Humber College in Toronto, also takes this perspective, citing the difficulty in changing a brand as recognizable as this one "(Encana) was a solid brand and it had resonance within the Canadian oil industry, and everybody knows the company, so to change the brand, it takes a lot of steps.”

2020 to present day - Ovintiv

On January 24, 2020, after receiving shareholder approval, the company completed the transfer of its corporate domicile from Canada to the United States, Ovintiv Canada ULC retains an office in Calgary. In June 2020, the company announced layoffs of 25% of its workforce.

List of notable sales, mergers and acquisitions

In October 2004, EnCana sold its UK unit, including a 43% stake in the Buzzard field (discovered in 2001 by a PanCanadian-led group), to

Nexen CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC, formerly known as Nexen, is a Canadian oil and gas company based in Calgary, Alberta. Originally the Canadian subsidiary of US-based Occidental Petroleum (known as Canadian Occidental Petroleum or CanOxy), it ...

for $2.1bn US. In January 2007, the company sold its assets in Chad to

China National Petroleum Corporation The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) () is a major national oil and gas corporation of China and one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world. Its headquarters are in Dongcheng District, Beijing. CNPC was ranked fourth ...

for $202.5 million. In May 2007, the company sold its assets in the delta of the Mackenzie River. In 2009, EnCana's oil business was spun-off as

. In November 2011, a potential buyer backed out of a $45 million deal to buy the company's gas field in

Pavillion, Wyoming is a town in Fremont County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 231 at the 2010 census. History Fracking and water quality In 2008, rural residents five miles east-northeast of complained of discolored water, foul smells and illness th ...

. In December 2011, the company sold the majority of its natural gas producing assets in the

Barnett Shale The Barnett Shale is a geological formation located in the Bend Arch-Fort Worth Basin. It consists of sedimentary rocks dating from the Mississippian period (354–323 million years ago) in Texas. The formation underlies the city of Fort Worth ...

. In February 2012,

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

paid approximately C$2.9 billion for a 40% interest in the Cutbank Ridge Partnership with Encana, which involves 409,000 net acres of

natural gas lands in northeast

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The company also sold its midstream assets in the Cutbank Ridge to

Veresen Veresen Inc. was a Calgary, Alberta-based energy infrastructure company with three main lines of business: pipelines, natural gas and power generation. It was a publicly-traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and was known as Fort Chicago ...

for C$920 million. In June 2014, the company sold its Bighorn assets in Alberta to Jupiter Resources for US$1.8 billion. In November 2014, the company acquired Athlon Energy for $7.1 billion. In May 2014, Jonah Energy LLC acquired the company's Jonah Field operations in

Sublette County, Wyoming Sublette County is a county in the U.S. state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 8,728. The county seat is Pinedale. It is a sparsely populated rural county in western Wyoming, along the Green River. History ...

. In June 2014, the company acquired assets in the

Eagle Ford Group The Eagle Ford Group (also called the Eagle Ford Shale) is a Sedimentary rock, sedimentary rock formation deposited during the Cenomanian and Turonian ages of the Late Cretaceous over much of the modern-day state of Texas. The Eagle Ford is pr ...

from

Freeport-McMoRan Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...

for $3.1 billion. In August 2015, the company sold its assets in the

Haynesville Shale The Haynesville Shale is an informal, popular name for a Jurassic Period rock formation that underlies large parts of southwestern Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and East Texas. It lies at depths of 10,500 to 13,000 feet below the land’s surfac ...

for $850 million to affiliates of

GSO Capital Partners Blackstone Credit, formerly known as GSO Capital Partners is an American hedge fund and the credit investment arm of The Blackstone Group. GSO is one of the largest credit-oriented alternative asset managers in the world and a major participant ...

and GeoSouthern Energy. In December 2015, the company significantly cut its

dividend A dividend is a distribution of profits by a corporation to its shareholders. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, it is able to pay a portion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. Any amount not distributed is taken to be re-in ...

and capital expenditures budget after a fall in energy prices. In July 2016, the company sold its assets in the

Denver Basin The Denver Basin, variously referred to as the Julesburg Basin, Denver-Julesburg Basin (after Julesburg, Colorado), or the D-J Basin, is a geologic structural basin centered in eastern Colorado in the United States, but extending into southeast Wyo ...

for $900 million. In June 2017, the company sold its assets in the

Piceance Basin The Piceance Basin is a geologic structural basin in northwestern Colorado, in the United States. It includes geologic formations from Cambrian to Holocene in age, but the thickest section is made up of rocks from the Cretaceous Period. The basi ...

for $735 million. In May 2018, the company permanently ceased production at

Deep Panuke Deep Panuke is an offshore natural gas field. It is located 250 km off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada on the Scotian Shelf. Deep Panuke is owned and operated by SBM Offshore on behalf of Encana Ovintiv Inc. is a hydrocarbon exploration a ...

. The

project produced and processed natural gas 250 kilometers offshore southeast of

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

. The platform was sent for recycling in 2020. In December 2018, the company sold its assets in the

for $480 million. In February 2019, the company acquired Newfield Exploration.

Major land assets

The company has a land position in Canada of 1.3 million net acres, of which about 773,000 net acres are undeveloped. Its assets in Canada are in the

, where it has a partnership with

to develop Cutbank Ridge,

Wheatland County, Alberta Wheatland County is a municipal district in south-central Alberta, Canada that is east of Calgary. Located in Census Division No. 5, its municipal office is located east of the Town of Strathmore on Highway 1. History On January 1, 19 ...

, and the

Horn River Formation The Horn River Formation (also ''Horn River Shale'') is a stratigraphic unit of Devonian (early Givetian to late Frasnian) age in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. It is a thick sequence of marine sediments that was first described in out ...

. In February 2022, Ovintiv absorbed former subsidiary

EWL Management Limited The successor of multiple historical Canadian mining and energy companies, EWL Management Limited was an Alberta based corporation that owned five decommissioned mines in Ontario, including three former uranium mines. The company was one of seven ...

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC; french: Commission Canadienne de sûreté nucléaire) is the federal regulator of nuclear power and materials in Canada. Mandate and history Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was established under t ...

''Order Under Section 25 or Paragraph 37(2)(f) of the Nuclear Safety Control Act''
6 May 2022.
archive
making it the owner of five decommissioned mines in Ontario: Coldstream Copper Mine, Gordon Lake Mine, Greyhawk Mine (uranium),

Dyno Mine Dyno Mine is a decommissioned underground uranium mine located at Cardiff, near Farrel Lake, approximately 30km southwest of Bancroft, Ontario. It operated from 1958 to 1960. Uranium discovery - 1922 to 1956 Uranium was first discovered in th ...

(uranium), and

Madawaska Mine Madawaska Mine (previously known as Faraday Mine) is a decommissioned underground uranium mine in Faraday, near the town of Bancroft, Ontario, which produced 9 million pounds (4,082 tonnes) of U3O8 concentrate, at an average ore grade of 0.1074 ...

(uranium) which is being rehabilitated to meet current compliant standards. In the United States, the company holds approximately 929,000 net acres of land, of which 152,000 net acres are undeveloped. It operates in the Permian Basin,

Anadarko Basin The Anadarko Basin is a geologic depositional and structural basin centered in the western part of the state of Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle, and extending into southwestern Kansas and southeastern Colorado. The basin covers an area of . By ...

Uinta Basin The Uinta Basin (also known as the Uintah Basin) is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in ...

, and the

Bakken formation The Bakken Formation () is a rock unit from the Late Devonian to Early Mississippian age occupying about of the subsurface of the Williston Basin, underlying parts of Montana, North Dakota, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The formation was initi ...

Lawsuits

Alleged collusion and bid rigging with Chesapeake Energy

From 2008 through 2010, the company accumulated 250,000 net acres in the Collingwood-

Utica Shale The Utica Shale is a stratigraphical unit of Upper Ordovician age in the Appalachian Basin. It underlies much of the northeastern United States and adjacent parts of Canada. It takes the name from the city of Utica, New York, as it was first de ...

gas play in the Middle

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years from the end of the Cambrian Period million years ago (Mya) to the start ...

Collingwood formation of the

Michigan Basin The Michigan Basin is a geologic basin centered on the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The feature is represented by a nearly circular pattern of geologic sedimentary strata in the area with a nearly uniform structural dip toward ...

at an average cost of $150/acre. In May 2012, the company paid about $185 an acre for oil and gas rights on 2,156 acres (873 hectares) at an auction by the

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor a ...

, which was "88 percent less than the average paid two years ago in the area". In July 2012, Reuters reported about e-mails between the company and

Chesapeake Energy Chesapeake often refers to: *Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian * The Chesapeake, a.k.a. Chesapeake Bay *Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula Chesapeake may also refer to: Populated plac ...

, the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S., to divide up Michigan counties state land leases to suppress land prices in an October 2010 auction. In 2013, a private landowner filed suit against the company and Chesapeake for

bid rigging Bid rigging is a fraudulent scheme in procurement auctions resulting in non-competitive bids and can be performed by corrupt officials, by firms in an orchestrated act of collusion, or between officials and firms. This form of collusion is illegal ...

. Justice Department and Michigan authorities were investigating whether state or federal laws were violated; the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory ta ...

and

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

also investigated. While the case was dropped by the DOJ, Michigan's Attorney General followed up on the accusations, and Encana ended up with a fine of $5 million, and Chesapeake paid $25 million into a victim-compensation fund.

Failed lawsuit by adjacent property owners to prevent drilling

In 2013, two property owners adjacent to a drilling unit filed suit against the

Michigan Department of Environmental Quality The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), formerly Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (Michigan DEQ, MDEQ, or simply DEQ), is a principal department of the U.S. state of Michigan for environmental issues. T ...

(DEQ) and Encana for potential harm due to proximity. In October 2013, the judge of the Circuit Court of Ingham County issued an injunction against Encana starting to drill until an administrative hearing before DEQ's supervisor of wells had been completed, re part 12 of DEQ's rules for oil and gas operations. In May 2014, the supervisor of wells found with Encana, that the petitioners did "not have standing", because they did not own land within the drilling unit and dismissed the case.

Alleged excessive water use for hydraulic fracturing

In November 2013, Ecojustice, the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Committee filed a lawsuit against Encana Corporation and the British Columbia's Oil and Gas Commission for excessive water use from lakes and rivers for its hydraulic fracturing for shale gas, "granted by repeated short-term water permits, a violation of the provincial water act".

Criticism

Wyoming water pollution

In spring 2008, residents from

, approached the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...

(EPA) about changes in water quality from their domestic wells. Encana was the primary natural gas producer in the area. In 2009, the EPA announced that it had found

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ex ...

contaminants in residents' drinking water wells.

Pipeline explosions

In Pouce Coupe

five explosions targeted Encana pipelines between October 2008 and January 2009; media reports indicate the pipeline may have been bombed by a disgruntled community member fearing the sour gas (containing

hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The unde ...

, which can be fatal if too much of it is inhaled) poses a danger to the community. Encana was fined CAD $250,000 under Canada's Environmental Emergency Act. Encana's

hydraulic fracturing Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

operations in the United States are portrayed in the 2010 documentary, ''

Gasland ''Gasland'' is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Josh Fox. It focuses on communities in the United States where natural gas drilling activity was a concern and, specifically, on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), a method ...

'', which alleges that hydraulic fracturing causes pollution of ground and surface water, air, and soil.

Deep Panuke project

Issues were raised for the

project offshore of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, when it was proposed in 2006 as a smaller version with increased ocean discharges and when Encana asked for a "streamlined regulatory process" without public hearings.

Track record of legal charges

In British Columbia, between 2007 and 2019, Ovintiv was charged for breaching provincial legislation 19 times, more than any other company, as well as being fined the highest amount.

Leadership

Chairman of the Board

David P. O'Brien, 2002–2013
Clayton H. Woitas, 2013–2020
Peter A. Dea, 2020–

President

Gwyn Morgan Gwyn Morgan (born 4 November 1945) is a Canadian retired engineer and oilman. Morgan joined the Alberta Energy Company in 1975, and in 1994 succeeded David E. Mitchell to become the company's second president. In 2002, Morgan negotiated the AEC' ...

, 2002–2005
Randall K. Eresman, 2005–2013
Clayton H. Woitas (interim), 2013
Douglas J. Suttles, 2013–2019
Michael G. McAllister, 2019–2020
Brendan M. McCracken, 2020–

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Oil companies of the United States Natural gas companies of the United States Companies based in Denver Non-renewable resource companies established in 2002 Non-renewable resource companies established in 2020 Energy companies established in 2002 Energy companies established in 2020 American companies established in 2020 2002 establishments in Alberta Canadian companies established in 2002 Canadian companies disestablished in 2020 2020 establishments in Colorado 2020 disestablishments in Alberta Oil companies Energy companies