Encana sues WPX Energy over trespassing claims on Western Slope

GRAND JUNCTION — The two leading natural gas producers in western Colorado’s Piceance Basin are squaring off in court over allegations of trespass involving horizontal drilling.

Encana Corp. has sued WPX Energy, saying WPX knowingly drilled a well that passed horizontally through Encana’s mineral estate in the Parachute Creek area without getting Encana’s permission.

WPX, Encana and other companies have been increasingly using horizontal drilling to explore for and develop gas from deep Mancos-Niobrara shale formations. They have drilled down into the shale and then out sometimes miles laterally through the formation, which is then hydraulically fractured to tap the gas.

Encana’s lawsuit…