EnCana Corp. said chief executive Gwyn Morgan will step down at year’s end after leading the company for more than a decade and building it into the largest natural-gas producer in the U.S. and Canada.
Morgan, who will turn 60 next month, will be succeeded by chief operating officer Randy Eresman, the Calgary-based company said in a statement Tuesday. Morgan joined Alberta Energy Co. 30 years ago and merged it with PanCanadian Energy Corp. in 2002 to create EnCana, now Canada’s second-largest company. He will remain with the company as executive vice chairman.
Eresman, 47, has been groomed for several years to take over and will not alter EnCana’s focus on drilling for gas in North America, said Martin Molyneaux, an analyst with Calgary brokerage FirstEnergy Capital Corp.
EnCana, which bought Denver-based Tom Brown Inc. last year, is a major player in western Colorado’s gas-rich Piceance Basin.
“What you’ve seen in the last two years is what you’re going to see in the next two years,” Molyneaux said. “It’s going to be dominated by gas.”
Molyneaux rates EnCana shares “market perform” and holds an undisclosed number.
Morgan has sold or agreed to sell $5 billion of assets in the U.K., Ecuador and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in the past year to reduce debt and focus on gas reserves in North America. EnCana plans to drill 5,000 wells this year to boost output and capitalize on surging natural-gas prices. New York gas futures have more than doubled this year.
Morgan, raised on a farm near Calgary and trained as an engineer, joined Alberta Energy in 1975, initiating the company’s first drilling and production. He became chief executive in 1994.
Eresman joined Alberta Energy in 1980.
