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CALGARY — Western Canada’s Montney oil and gas region would be two to four times more productive if it was in the United States with its more efficient regulatory systems, says the CEO of Encana Corp.

The enormous hydrocarbon-bearing formation that underlies the northern Alberta-B.C. border can compete with premier Texas shale oilfields, said Doug Suttles on Wednesday.

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But it’s being held back by a “cumbersome” regulatory system, along with the inability of smaller Canadian producers to access development capital.

The “complexity and uncertainty in the regulatory process is orders of magnitude higher” in Canada, where Encana produces about one-third of its oil and gas, compared with the U.S., Suttles said.

“The Montney now is the biggest area of growth in Canada — it’s where we’re focusing our attention — and if it sat in the United States it would probably be producing two, three, four times what it is producing today,” he said.