EnCana Corp is selling its oil assets in Ecuador to a Chinese consortium for $1.42 billion.

The deal with a consortium led by China’s CNPC leaves rival Indian bidder ONGC out in the cold on a major deal for the second time in weeks. Encana has been trying to sell the assets for more than a year, but was holding out for a better price. EnCana, North America’s biggest independent oil explorer, said the price was near the middle of its target range.
In May, people familiar with talks said EnCana wanted $1.5 billion, while bids were likely come in at about $1.2 billion from the CNPC grouping and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).