It was announced that $5 billion has been slated by petroleum-giant EnCana for oil sands production development over the coming decade.

In a Reuters story appearing on November 7th by Jeffrey Jones, EnCana was reported as projecting a twelve-fold increase in its oil sands production between now and 2015, eventually resulting in a half-million barrels a day from its bitumen projects.

It is expected that some of these increases will be from existing SAGD projects. EnCana is North America's largest independent oil and gas producer.