Message from the CEO
In 2010, our first year as a pure-play natural gas producer, we developed numerous initiatives at Encana that refined, evolved and sharpened the way we do our business and how we earn and maintain the trust of the people with whom we deal. In this report we invite you to take a closer look at Encana. Is our company a safe and healthy place to work? Do communities welcome our investment and activity? What happens to the environment in and around our operating areas? What benefits do we bring to those places where we operate? These are the types of questions that help to measure how responsible we are.
I encourage you to page through the various stories and illustrations of how we have evolved in 2010. Leading the way was a revision to our corporate responsibility policy, which involved developing stand-alone policies on environment, and health and safety. Along with these expanded policies, we established our Ethos management system, a new tool that helps us measure, track, and understand our environment, health & safety performance.
At the very core of our culture is a clear dedication to earning people’s trust. When people see the Encana name or logo, we want them to know Encana is a trustworthy company, one staffed by people who can be relied upon to act with integrity, as a natural gas producer that keeps safety top of mind, mitigates environmental impact from its operations, and has meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
Underpinned by risk management
Wrapped in a framework of risk management practices, our on-going pursuit of responsible operations is aimed at a series of key strategies and objectives that include: minimizing our impact on the environment, maintaining a premium safety culture, operating ethically and within the law, being a good neighbour and a respected operator, ensuring we hire and retain the best and the brightest and always striving to provide a positive impact on the communities where we operate. On page four of this report, our Chief Risk Officer, Tony DiMaio, answers key questions on our risk management approach.
Water protection at the core of Encana natural gas development
Recently, there has been much public debate about how natural gas companies use water and hydraulic fracturing in their operations. We employ proven engineering, design and operational practices to ensure we protect groundwater and minimize our environmental impact before, during and after our drilling processes. On page 16 of this report, on our website and in our 2010 Annual Report, we outline real water management projects and operations that illustrate how we responsibly source, use, transport and dispose of water. We are also supporting independent research that we know will help advance and improve our practices in the years ahead.
Improved safety performance in 2010
One of our most fundamental goals for each year is to improve our safety performance. At Encana, our core safety principle is: if we can’t do something safely, we don’t do it. In 2010 we achieved our lowest recordable injury rate in Encana’s history and we had no fatalities in our operations. This is a strong achievement and we hope to continue this trend.
Investing in education and innovation
Also in 2010, we refined our approach to community investment, sharpening our investments to focus on environment and education. Part of this education includes helping the public understand the benefits of expanding natural gas use in our society, particularly in power generation and transportation. While these are long-term initiatives that grow incrementally, it is this investment in education and environmental innovation that empowers individuals to make informed choices that will protect the environment. We believe natural gas use is one of those highly beneficial choices.
Improving project efficiencies and reducing environmental impact
As we look ahead to 2011 and beyond, we will continue to relentlessly strive to improve our environmental performance and the efficiency of all our operations. In our most focused operations, resource play hubs, we are drilling and completing several wells from a single pad location. This innovative approach to natural gas development captures numerous efficiencies and is directly aimed at helping achieve our core focus of lowering production costs. This means that savings in emissions or water use not only benefit project economics, but also reduce our environmental impact; this is a win-win for all.
While Encana is a leading natural gas producer, we are also an energy consumer. So I invite you to take a closer look at what I believe is one of our most promising opportunities for enhancing not only our own environmental performance, but also in influencing a global transition towards new and less impactful energy solutions. The fuel supply systems on several of our drilling rigs and our field trucks have been modified to burn natural gas. This has resulted in an instant reduction of about 25 percent in carbon emissions compared to burning diesel. We have also taken some initial steps to improve the environmental performance of our own transportation needs. By the end of 2011, we expect to have completed the construction of five natural gas fuelling stations in Louisiana, Colorado, Wyoming, Alberta and British Columbia. Others are joining in, as one of our water hauling service companies in Louisiana has ordered 200 new trucks fuelled by liquefied natural gas. Governments and municipalities across North America are looking for new ways to save money and cut emissions by converting more fleet vehicles to run on natural gas, and the major automakers are exploring the production of trucks and vans fuelled by compressed natural gas. This is just a start, but it marks a promising path that can help all of us contribute to a more sustainable world.
While our report contains numerous stories of how we are continually working to improve our performance, an important measure is independent assessment of our company’s performance. For the fifth year in a row, Encana was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and we earned the title of “sustainability leader” in the oil and gas industry. While we hope to continue to earn such notice from independent organizations, it is vitally important that similar approvals continue to come from every person that comes in contact with our company and our people.
Randy Eresman
President & Chief Executive OfficerEncana Corporation