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Ovintiv Inc. (OVV)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 15, 2018

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Encana Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2017 Year-End Results Conference Call. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. For members of the media attending in a listen-only mode, you may quote statements made by any of the Encana representatives. However, members of the media who wish to quote others who are speaking on this call today, we advise you to contact those individuals directly to obtain their consent. Please be advised that this conference call may not be recorded or rebroadcast without the express consent of Encana Corporation. I would now like to turn the conference call over to Corey Code, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Mr. Code.

Corey D. Code - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to our fourth quarter and year-end 2017 results conference call. This call is being webcast, and the slides are available on our website at encana.com Before we get started, please take note of the advisory regarding forward-looking statements in the news release and at the end of our webcast slides. Further advisory information is contained in our annual report and other disclosure documents filed on SEDAR and EDGAR. I also wish to highlight that Encana prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, and reports its financial results in U.S. dollars. So references to dollars means U.S. dollars, and the reserves, resources and production information are after royalties unless otherwise noted. This morning, Doug Suttles, Encana's President and CEO, will open the call. Sherri Brillon, our CFO, will highlight our financial performance. Mike McAllister, our COO, will then describe our operational results and then Reneé Zemljak, our EVP of Midstream, Marketing & Fundamentals will reinforce our commercial mindset and approach to marketing and risk. We will then open the call up for Q&As. I will now turn the call over to Doug Suttles.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Corey, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We closed out 2017 with some great results, and we are set up for 2018 and beyond. The transformation we started four years ago has arrived. The strategic principles we began with back in 2013 have remained the same, and our execution has put us in a position to deliver leading returns. We are excited to announce a $400 million share buyback starting in the first quarter that we will fund with cash on hand. This demonstrates our commitment to our shareholders and the confidence in our plan. We have an inventory in four of the most exciting plays in North America. Our Permian asset continues to deliver better and better well results across multiple benches, while only drilling 3% to 4% of our premium inventory each year. Our Montney is a world-class liquids-rich condensate play that has been self-funding its own significant liquids growth. Our Eagle Ford asset continues to produce strong well results with innovative completion approaches. And the Duvernay is an asset that the world is quickly appreciating for its true potential. Our balance sheet is in very good position with absolute debt levels decreasing and leverage dropping steadily. We expect our leverage ratios to be near our mid-cycle leverage targets by the end of 2018. We have been extremely disciplined in allocating capital to only our core assets, consistently investing over 90% into the core. This has accelerated margin growth by ensuring capital allocation choices are supporting this strategy to focus growth on the high-value liquids and expand our margins. At our Investor Day last October, we outlined an impressive 5 year plan. This plan will deliver a cash flow compound annual growth rate of 25% with returns that climb into the mid-teens driven…

Sherri A. Brillon - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Doug. Our focus on only premium return projects in some of North America's best plays is paying off. In 2017, our financial results are significantly higher compared to 2016. Net earnings and cash flows were up, and our leverage metrics continue to come down. As a result of the U.S. federal tax rate reduction from 35% to 21%, Encana recognized a non-cash deferred tax charge of $327 million in the quarter. Going forward, we are encouraged that these lower tax rates will improve our project level returns. Our transformed portfolio is better focused on driving higher margins with increased oil and condensate production. This focus on a higher-margin product mix combined with the continued cost structure improvements and stronger benchmark pricing has contributed to 81% cash flow margin growth. Early in 2017, we indicated our cash flow margin should be better than the $10 per BOE for the year and our full-year 2017 came in at $11.75 per BOE. We are expecting another 20% growth in this metric in 2018. Our leverage continues to improve as our cash flow grows. Our net debt to adjusted EBITDA metric ended 2017 lower by almost a full turn, heading toward a mid-cycle level of about 1.5 times. Building on our strong delivery in 2017, the benefits of disciplined capital allocation, cost control and continued margin expansion, we expect to deliver competitive results and returns in 2018. We expect to spend between $1.8 billion and $1.9 billion and fund our activity with full-year cash flow. We have confidence in our ability to execute with key requirements such as frac crews, drilling and materials secured for 2018. Our production outlook continues to get better. At our October Investor Day, we outlined Q4 2018 production in our core assets up 380,000 to 420,000 BOE per…

Michael G. McAllister - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Sherri. 2017 was another great year of execution as we met or exceeded all of our guidance targets. When we outlined our original guidance for 2017, it was about Encana's return to growth in the core assets of greater than 20% on a Q4 2016 to Q4 2017 basis. At midyear, we raised that guidance to 25% to 30%, supported by strong well results across the portfolio. We ended the year above the top end of this range at 31%, while managing capital within the original guidance range. We delivered production well above initial guidance despite numerous industry headwinds related to service availability, weather events, and pipeline impacts. This success was made possible by our sophisticated planning, supply chain management, and great well performance in 2017. Our cost control on a per unit basis was successful despite headwinds such as foreign exchange rates and third quarter production outages. Our execution in 2017 puts us on track to deliver on our 2018 objectives. 2018 will be another year of strong growth, coupled with expanding our margins. All of our core assets are expected to generate free operating cash flow this year. We expect our total production to grow about 30%, driven primarily by our Permian and Montney assets. The 2018 growth profile will be weighted to the second half of the year. This is a result of two additional liquids hubs coming online in the fourth quarter in the Montney. In the Permian, we expect strong year-over-year growth of approximately 30% for less capital than we spent in 2017. This puts us on track for our 5 year plan. The shape of our 2018 program will be weighted towards the back half of the year as new wells that saw peak production in Q4 start to decline. We expect to…

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Reneé. The business we have been working extremely hard to build since 2013 is here. Our strategy has remained the same since 2013. We have been focused on building a business which can generate quality returns through the commodity price cycle. Our strategy and plans have not prioritized volume growth. Our four pillars, best rocks, execution excellence, markets and fundamentals, and capital allocation were chosen because they are the core building blocks to consistently delivering quality returns. These key principles have been in place for almost five years now and haven't changed with the volatility in the market. In fact, our commitment to growing shareholder value across the commodity cycle is a key reason why we were set to prosper now even before the recent improvement in oil prices. Since 2014, we have dramatically reshaped our portfolio, aligned our organization structure and culture with our strategy, and continue to execute efficiently and consistently quarter after quarter. We began with a portfolio that was about 95% weighted to natural gas and one that had 27 plays that received capital. Today, we have a leading North American unconventional resource portfolio with some of the best positions in four of the best plays: The Permian and Eagle Ford in the United States and the Montney and Duvernay in Canada, and liquids production of over 150,000 barrels per day. This transition was accomplished while decreasing debt by $3 billion. All of the work that we put into organization design, leadership development, and culture are what underpins the innovation in our operations and commercial activities and the results that we deliver. At our 2017 Investor Day, we laid out a terrific plan that had a cash flow per share compound annual growth rate of 25% and generated significant free cash flow of about $1.5…

Operator

Operator

We will now begin the question-and-answer session and go to the first caller, Greg Pardy from RBC Capital. Your line is now open.

Greg Pardy - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning. Just a couple of quick ones for you. The Montney guidance you pointed to of the 55,000 to 65,000 barrels per day was certainly on the higher end of what we would have expected. Could you talk about how Pipestone fits into that, Doug?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Greg. Thanks for the question. I'll flip it to Mike here, but maybe just a reminder of the big piece. One is, as Mike mentioned, that we have two more pieces of Montney infrastructure coming online in 2018. That's our liquids hub in Cutbank Ridge and then a liquids hub in Pipestone. And then, we actually don't have the next piece of infrastructure expansion until the back-end of the 5 year plan, which is also in Pipestone. But, Mike, maybe you have a few comments about Pipestone.

Michael G. McAllister - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Doug. Yeah. So the Pipestone liquids hub comes on in Q4. That contributes to – it contributes to the growth. It represents about sort of in the range of about 25% of the liquids production that we'll be seeing in that quarter coming out of the Montney. Our well results in Pipestone have been really, really encouraging, and we have actually tested two other benches in Pipestone over and above the Montney G, which, again, give us a lot of confidence in that asset's ability to grow.

Greg Pardy - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Okay. Perfect. And then maybe just the second one is for Reneé, but just on the T&P side, like on a unit basis, should we be thinking about that number as being relatively stable from here on out, or is that a number that potentially continues to drift up on a unit basis?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Greg. I think that, just as a reminder, and Reneé will fill in the details here, but we started that service to Dawn late in 2017, and actually the service out on the Echo pipeline to Houston officially starts in April. We've actually started to flow down it early, which is tied to the Vitol sale. But, Reneé, maybe fill in the details here. Reneé E. Zemljak - Encana Corp.: Yeah. Thanks, Greg. We do expect the transportation costs on per unit basis to stay pretty steady as we go forward. And that being said, we'll continue to look at opportunities to expand our margin through transportation as we diversify our markets. As an example, maybe for the Permian as our gas finds are growing, you might – would see us later, look at taking additional transportation if that made sense. Our transportation that we have added to the portfolio has extremely expanded our margins. The costs to access the markets as you can see on the transportation has added about an extra dollar on a per BOE basis, but we do get a $2 uplift in our realized gas prices, which gives us an expanded margin of about a dollar. So we will continue to look at for opportunities like that to add to our portfolio.

Greg Pardy - RBC Capital Markets

Analyst

Perfect. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Brian Singer from Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thank you. Good morning.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Good morning. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Doug, you spoke to the benefits to free cash flow from $55 WTI relative to $50. And looking at today's prices and environment, that's certainly understandable. I wanted to see, are you shifting your outlook and longer-term planning assumptions to $55, or just highlighting the near-term impact and 2019 impact at that price?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Brian, to be real honest, I'm not sure that we can tell that much of a difference fundamentally between $50 and $55. We're encouraged by the recent trends. Our internal view is we expect crude prices to generally strengthen towards the end of the decade, but the pathway there could be pretty bumpy. So I think what we're just trying to reflect is kind of current market conditions and actually show what it could do. The other thing we didn't highlight too much on the call was is we have a pretty large hedge book in 2018 now. So we're not really exposed to too much volatility in commodity prices over the balance of the year. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Okay. Thank you. And then you talked about the backend-loaded growth profile this year, partly on decline from flush wells brought online in the fourth quarter. Can you talk more about how that decline rates from your liquids-rich Montney wells and the production mix there are performing versus your expectations, and then in the Permian, how decline rates from the wells using the cube strategy are coming in versus your expectations?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Brian, good questions, and I'll ask Mike to comment. But I think that the shape of the year, it looks a little bit like last year but not as extreme. Partly, it's just due to couple of things. One of the things I know we've talked to you about before is our goal here is to create the maximum value. So we kind of think about this as how do you maximize returns and recovery. And that can lead to some lumpy behavior, because if we bring a couple of cubes on at the end of one quarter, the next quarter looks particularly strong. And if we skip a quarter in that because of the schedule, it flattens out some, but it generates the best value. And then, of course, similar to last year, we do have in the Montney some infrastructure coming along. But, Mike, maybe comments on both liquids-rich Montney well performance and cube well performance in the Permian.

Michael G. McAllister - Encana Corp.

Analyst

You bet. Hi there, Brian. Yeah. So just maybe I'll start with the Permian. So the number of wells that we've brought on, that reached their peak production in Q4 was actually double than what we would've seen in Q3. So we had a lot of production coming on and would be seeing sort of first year decline rates that has that impact in the first half of 2018. That being said – and we're very, very pleased with the performance of those wells, with our tighter cluster spacing, we're seeing significant improvement over where we were on type curve. When I look at the Montney, again well performance there has been stronger than we've planned. In fact, we're seeing higher condensate rates than we actually had in our type curve, so again a lot of confidence from that standpoint as well. It's a function of the wells coming online and filling the available facility capacity in the Montney that drives the profile that you're seeing there. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Right. So you kind of call this normal course, in line decline rates and just the timing as you describe for recent for example.

Michael G. McAllister - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Okay.

Michael G. McAllister - Encana Corp.

Analyst

You bet. And I wanted to add one other point that I think I'm particularly proud of, we really focus our field operations on managing the base and making sure we're offsetting our base decline as much as we possibly can through artificial lift optimization and really attention to detail on terms of managing downtime. And we had a significantly strong year in 2017, we beat our base production by – I think we had budgeted sort of 38% and brought that in at 34%. The teams did a, I think, a fantastic job there. Brian Singer - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC: Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Gabe Daoud from JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Gabriel J. Daoud - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey. Good morning, everyone. Doug, you hit on this through your prepared remarks, but could we maybe just talk a little bit about buyback versus increasing the dividend today, and how you would kind of rank increasing dividend versus buying back additional shares, and then also how this program potentially impacts how you think about M&A?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Gabe. Yeah. Good question. I mean, as I outlined, we really see as the business begins to generate free cash and additional financial capacity, the three big buckets, and the last one I listed in the prepared remarks was about resiliency. We feel we're in pretty good shape there. We've got our debt. It's come down dramatically. We like where the leverage is going. On a run rate basis, we ended the year at 1.9. Our plan would have us ending it at about 1.4, so well within our range. When we look at how we're protected with the combination of market diversification and our hedge book, so we feel like the resiliency piece is in a good place. So doing things like buying back commitments or debt doesn't look particularly attractive right now. When we look at the combination of buybacks versus dividends, the one thing we're very aware of when – if we raise the dividend, we don't want to pull it back again. So as we think about it – two things we're watching is as commodity prices as we see how they play out kind of related back to Brian's question, they are still volatile so market's trying to find its rebalance point. And the second thing is, is as the business – the cash flow is growing pretty dramatically. But clearly, we want to be very confident that it's there and it's going to continue to grow from there, which is combination of performance and pricing before we do that. So we've always stated, we're committed to the dividend, but we looked at it carefully. So we think the buyback program is prudent. And then lastly, on anything we do with the portfolio, what we've said is, is that very clearly it has to be accretive to the 5 year plan, and if it's not, it wouldn't make any sense. And that's a fairly high bar, if you think about our portfolio and our development plan. So we went through that and had lots of debate and discussion – great discussions with our board. We came to the conclusion that the best choice today was a modest buyback program and that's why we picked it.

Gabriel J. Daoud - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. That's helpful. Thanks, Doug. And then, I guess just sticking with the bigger picture question, can you talk a little bit about the San Juan and expectations there and just any update on what you're thinking on that?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Gabe, we probably sound like a broken record when it comes to portfolio decisions. We just have a very strong view that it doesn't really make sense to talk about portfolio changes until you do them. And we've been very clear we like the San Juan asset, the wells we drilled last year, the six wells – the five in the key producing zone have performed very well at or above our expectations. And ultimately, we will decide whether we're going to develop this asset or exit it. But that decision, you'll see it either in our development program capital or if we had a purchase and sale agreement, we think that's the best way to manage the business. In the meantime, that piece of the business is producing approximately 5,000 barrels a day today and the well performance is strong and our operating team's out there doing a great job of maintaining efficiency.

Gabriel J. Daoud - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Perfect. I'll just end with one more, if I could, just on 2018 CapEx. How much of the budget is, I guess, earmarked for midstream, I guess particularly in the Permian? And then, the $5.6 million in D&C in the Permian, is that a current AFE or does that assume savings from in-basin sand?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Gabe, really the only spend we have in the midstream is a little bit to do with our water infrastructure, but it's quite small this year. I mean, one of the things I'm really pleased about is with kind of our innovative approach to how we manage things like water, we've been able to do that very cost efficiently, and that those D&C cost are expected for the year. And as Mike mentioned, we have approximately 80% of our services across the portfolio, not just in the Permian, already under contract. It was under contract before we entered into 2018. And actually, the other thing that gives us confidence, that equipment is on an Encana location right now working. So this isn't stuff we're going to mobilize, which you have risk with availability and crew performance. It's on a location today operating effectively. And there is, in some of those services, there is increasing pricing. But I think as Mike mentioned, in other areas we see efficiency savings. In the Permian, as an example, both sand and water cost are dropping in 2018 over 2017. And we're absolutely certain that's going to occur. It's either in under contract or it's a result of what we've done with our water management activities. So that's what gives us confidence that in a like-for-like well, we can hold them flat, because even though there is inflation, we have other areas we can offset that inflation with efficiency.

Gabriel J. Daoud - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst

Awesome. Thanks a lot, Doug.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Gabe.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Josh Silverstein from Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.

Josh Silverstein - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Hey. Good morning, guys. Just wanted to reconcile some of the stuff you were talking about on free cash flow and the direction of the different operating units. You talked about $700 million roughly in 2019 in the Montney. And I'm assuming you guys are talking about roughly a flattish outlook for the Duvernay and the Eagle Ford, which gets you to the roughly $1 billion of free cash flow next year at those three operating units. Should we assume that the Permian is roughly flat from there and there's roughly $500 million of taxes and interest expense? Is that how you guys are kind of looking at 2019?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Josh, and I'll give you a big frame and if you need to you may have to follow up with Corey and the team. But yeah, one of the things we were trying to highlight there is as we exit 2018, we've essentially reached our target production level in the Montney. The only thing that happens until late in our 5 year plan is just a small increase in liquids production as some of our dry gas wells decline and are replaced with richer gas wells. And then if you will, the maintenance capital, not a phrase I'm particularly like, but the maintenance capital is quite low. So what we're showing is even using an AECO basis of $1.50, this asset throws off a lot of free cash through the period and we saw this coming. And in fact, it's in the corporate deck that's online. We still have some of the carry from our deal with Mitsubishi extends now into 2019 as our efficiencies continue to improve, which helps with that as well. And then as Mike mentioned, we were running the Duvernay and the Eagle Ford as free cash positive assets. The Permian is actually ops cash flow positive this year. So our capital is less than our ops cash flow while we're growing at 30%. I'm not sure many people can say that about their Permian asset today. And then the last piece of the puzzle there is actually what we committed to a few years ago, is as we grew, we would keep our corporate cost flat or declining, which means our corporate margin expands. And that's exactly what you're seeing as we go from 2018 to 2019, is that the corporate costs, we were projecting basically stay flat. And as the volume grows, it means the margin expands.

Josh Silverstein - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Okay. Okay, so that kind of reconciles to the $500 million number there then. Got it. Okay.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. And then the other, it's back to one of the earlier questions, when we were in October, we showed that with a price deck of $53 and $1.20. What we've said now is if you use $55.3 and $1.50. So we've widened out basis in that forecast and you get yourself to the $500 million, approximately $500 million next year.

Josh Silverstein - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Great. Thanks. And then I just wanted to follow up on the leverage capacity target that you were referencing earlier, that you could be at 1.5 times and then have an additional $1.5 billion of financial leverage at that point. Is that at the end of this year that you could then used for additional share repurchases or dividends to stay at that leverage, or is that over time that you can use that?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, that's actually cumulative. So if you stand at the end of the 5 year plan, if you look at the free gas generated over the five years, which is about $3 billion, and then you look at where our leverage would be at that point, which actually this was true back in the October Investor Day. We didn't highlight it but it was imbedded in it, is we've actually become significantly de-levered, and we've been very public about saying it mid-cycle pricing, very similar to what I'd say as today's price, then a leverage of 1.5 times is about right. So if you then say add that in, that's another $2 billion and that's how you get to the $5 billion. So $3 billion of free cash flow over the five-year period and then $2 billion of financial capacity you have available at the end of the five-year period.

Josh Silverstein - Wolfe Research LLC

Analyst

Great. Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Menno Hulshof from TD Securities. Your line is now open.

Menno Hulshof - TD Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks and good morning. So you mentioned a sale through Vitol into the European markets. And I might have missed it in the prepared remarks, but can you elaborate on the size of that transaction, how that deal was structured, and finally, whether or not we can expect to see more of that in the coming quarters?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Menno, appreciate that question. I mean, and Reneé talked about this. One of the things we put in place a few years ago is what we call a margin model. So every part of our business, every single quarter, we look at what the margins are doing. And what that drives is, is every corner of the enterprise trying to maximize value. And as Reneé highlighted, in some cases, we'll increase our T&P cost to get a higher realized price which expands our margin and in many cases reduces our risk. And what happened here was we had I think announced this last year that we had taken out service on the new enterprise AECO pipeline to Houston. That line is now up and running. Our firm service begins April 1, I believe. But we had the ability to ship some crude down that line early and then our marketing team was able to do a transaction with Vitol of Brent pricing on an exported cargo. It is 300,000 barrels. We will continue to look for those opportunities, because we're always trying to maximize the margin that we get in the business. So where we can do that, we will. It's embedded in fundamentally our strategy in Western Canada. And I'll tell you another piece of the business. So you remember we still have our REX pipeline commitment. But through this winter, we have that capacity, and we've been able to purchase gas in the Rockies and sell it into Chicago and make a margin on that production. And this is all part of our margin model, which is all driven off value. And it's actually one of the reasons why I suspect we had such a big cash flow beat in the fourth quarter.

Menno Hulshof - TD Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. And then just wanted to follow up. Moving on to Duvernay, I believe you mentioned your capital carry has gone down in that place. So does that change at all how you look at the play in terms of commitment levels longer-term?

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

No. In our 5 year plan, it's always been there, and in fact when we talked about being a core asset, we said that was based on a heads-up analysis, not as a function of the carry. The net impact, though, in the short-term beginning in 2018 is our net capital is going up year over year in the Duvernay, even though the gross activity is slightly lower. It's just because we're now heads-up. But as Mike mentioned, one of the things about that asset, which emphasizes the quality of it is, it's free cash positive. So even though on a heads-up basis, it's roughly – its production is roughly flat and it's generating free cash flow. Because this asset has margins that are just a little bit below the Permian at today's prices. And I think that might surprise people, but the margin per barrel in the Duvernay is only a few dollars behind the margin that we realize in the Permian. And remember, we're paying about 5% royalty in the Duvernay versus 25% in the Permian.

Menno Hulshof - TD Securities, Inc.

Analyst

Thanks a lot, Doug. That's it for me.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Menno.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Benny Wong from Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open. Benny Wong - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Yeah. Thanks. I think most of my question has been asked. But the one thing I did wanted to ask was about the buyback. Just wanted to get a sense of how you guys came up with – came to $400 million? Is there a target, a payout ratio or a cash balance sheet you're targeting? And also, how are you thinking about the pace of it? Do you think it'd be pretty ratable or do you think you can be a little bit opportunistic around it? Thanks.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. Benny, what we really looked at, there's a whole series of things you have to assess and then through that, drive a lot of judgment. And this is where, for instance, the experience and judgment of the board is particularly useful to us. And what we did is looked at a combination of financial capacity leverage, the amount of protection we had on the confidence in the business, and through that said this felt appropriate. It's $400 million of $5 billion. It feels quite reasonable. We also don't – aren't exposed to very much price volatility this year and we're comfortable on our current leverage and where we expect it to end at the end of this year. So we looked at all of that. That's how we got to that number. In terms of the execution, there are rules around how you do that. We'll be disciplined about that process. We have every intent to execute the program. But with our broker dealer, we'll obviously try to optimize that program as best we can to generate the best value for our shareholders. Benny Wong - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. Thanks. And maybe just a nitty question around your 2018 CapEx, if my math is right, if I add up the D&C spend across the core plays, it's a little under the $1.8 billion, $1.9 billion. Just wondering if you can maybe bridge the difference there. I'm assuming some of it's towards the Montney infrastructure. Just wondering if there is anything else you're spending on as well.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah. There's not much else there. I mean, we have a little bit of the Pipestone infrastructure and then we have capitalized G&A, is kind of the remaining pieces inside that. But one of the things we've been really pleased about and what we've been able to do is grow the business, have competitive returns and margins and not have to put a lot of money into the midstream. And that's been very successful for us and we have every intent to continue doing that. Benny Wong - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Great. Thanks, Doug.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Thanks, Benny.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Mike Dunn from GMP FirstEnergy. Your line is now.

Michael P. Dunn - GMP FirstEnergy

Analyst

Thanks. Good morning, everyone. Folks, I'm just wondering if you could comment on I guess the lack of production interruptions due to cold weather in the Midland Basin. Some of the other operators there had some freeze-offs or whatnot late in the year, early in January as well. Did you have any significant issues in January and maybe just talk to what you've done to mitigate that? I know obviously you guys have lots of experience producing in cold weather regions. Thanks.

Douglas James Suttles - Encana Corp.

Analyst

Yeah, Mike. I think a part of this is actually our experience in cold weather regions. And if you look at our Permian team, it's an interesting mix from skills across the company. In fact, a lot of the members of that team actually came from our Piceance asset who are very, very used to managing cold weather and freeze-offs. And actually our operations manager for the Permian is from Alberta. So I think this is something that we have some particular expertise in and can anticipate, because actually people in some parts of the country may not realize this, but you get freezing weather in West Texas every year and it actually snows almost every year. And in fact this year, we had ice storms in South Texas in our Eagle Ford asset. So it's really – this whole concept about moving the knowledge in the business all around the portfolio, because if you operate in British Columbia and Alberta, you better be able to deal with freeze-offs, otherwise, you wouldn't operate very well.

Michael P. Dunn - GMP FirstEnergy

Analyst

Thanks, Doug.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I will turn the call back to Mr. Code.