OREANDA-NEWS. US independent producer Encana said it expects its natural gas production to receive a significant boost in the fourth quarter of 2017, when two new gas processing plants in Canada's Montney shale come online.

The plants, named Tower and Sunrise, belong to midstream provider Veresen Midstream, a jointly-owned limited partnership between Veresen and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

Construction is ahead of schedule, and both plants should startup in the fourth quarter, Encana executives said during the company's first quarter earnings call.

A third plant under construction, called Saturn, is scheduled to come online in the first quarter of 2018.

Encana saw strong well performance in the first quarter, which was largely attributed to design improvements, chief executive Doug Suttles said.

First quarter production was ahead of expectations at 317,900 b/d of oil equivalent (boe/d), 1pc lower than total production in the fourth quarter of 2016.

This included liquids production of 110,900 b/d, of which almost 80pc was light oil and plant condensate.

Meanwhile, natural gas production averaged 1,241 MMcf/d.