Encana Corp. had a $601 million US loss in the second quarter but says the latter part of 2016 is shaping up better than expected.

The Calgary-based oil and gas company says that some of its key expenses will be $100 million less than the previous estimate and savings will be continued into 2017.

It's also reinvesting savings and funds from the sales of key assets to increase its 2016 capital program by $200 million.

Encana expects to get $1.1 billion of proceeds from two asset sales that will close by the end of July.

The second-quarter loss, reported in U.S. currency, amounted to 71 cents — an improvement from the same time last year when Encana lost $1.61 billion or $1.91 per share.

In the three months ended June 30, it had $89 million or 10 cents per share of operating earnings that compared with a $167 million operating loss, worth 20 cents per share.