OTTAWA, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Encana Corp., one of Canada's largest energy companies, announced on Thursday that it is moving its corporate headquarters from Calgary, Canada to the United States.

The company, which is also changing its name to Ovintiv Inc., said that having a U.S. address will expose it to increasingly larger pools of investment in U.S. index funds and passively managed accounts.

It said the changes will not affect any Canadian staff, result in any layoffs, or divert investment strategies in oil and gas formations in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia.

The company said it is hoped that the plan, which still requires shareholder, stock exchange and court approval, would be in place early next year.

Thursday's announcement came after Encana announced a third-quarter profit of 149 million Canadian dollars (about 114 million U.S. dollars), up from the previous year's profit of 39 million Canadian dollars (about 30 million U.S. dollars).