Encana to acquire shale oil producer Newfield for $5.5bn

After years of slimming down its oil and gas holdings, Canada’s Encana is reversing course with a $5.5-billion acquisition of a US shale producer in what will be the company’s biggest-ever deal. Encana agreed to purchase Newfield Exploration, which will give it positions in the Stack and Scoop shale fields in Oklahoma, the Bakken region of North Dakota and the Uinta play in Utah. The all-stock deal also will create North America’s second-largest shale explorer, the companies said in a statement on Thursday. Encana’s stock plunged the most on record.