Enerplus Corp. is looking to exit Canada so it can focus on its production operations in the United States. 

The company announced on Wednesday that it will begin the marketing process for its assets in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Those assets produced an average of about 9,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day as of the end of last year and represented seven per cent of its total output. 

“As Enerplus continues to focus on its strategic position in the Williston Basin, the company plans to initiate a divestment process for its Canadian assets,” it said in a release. 

The Calgary-based company said it hopes to complete the sale process by mid-2022, and added that it’s planning to continue having a head office in Canada. The release did not reveal if the company intends to redomicile in the U.S. 

For many Canadian energy investors, the move might ring a familiar bell, after a string of oil producers – mostly U.S. multinationals – either exited or scaled back their operations in Canada’s oil patch in the years following the 2014 collapse in crude prices.

Enerplus Chief Executive Officer Ian Dundas has been among the most vocal critics of the Canadian regulatory regime for oil and gas firms, repeatedly bemoaning the conditions in Canada compared to those in the United States. 

In interviews dating back as far as 2018, Dundas has described Canada as a “terrible operating environment” and one “in crisis”, all while the company shifted some 90 per cent of its operations south of the border.

The company has put its money where its mouth is when it comes to shifting its footprint to the United States, including its 2021 acquisition of privately-held Bruin E&P HoldCo, LLC for US$465 million in an all-cash deal. 

That deal bolstered Enerplus’ existing footprint in the North Dakota Williston Basin, the core asset base the company plans to focus on moving forward. 

Alongside Enerplus’ divestment plan, the company reported its fourth-quarter production was at the high end of its forecast at 128,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Its total production for the full year also came in at the top end of its projected range. 

Enerplus said it will change its reporting currency to U.S. dollars, from Canadian dollars, and report its output on a net production basis to account for most of its operations being in the U.S.