Chesapeake Posts Surprise Q3 Profit

U.S. natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp reported a surprise quarterly adjusted profit on Thursday as lower costs helped cushion the impact of weak commodity prices.

The company, whose shares were up 7.5 percent at $5.71 in premarket trading, said total operating expenses slumped nearly 63 percent in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

Chesapeake, which has been trying to reduce its crippling debt load, also said it was planning to sell more assets this year, including a portion of its Haynesville Shale acreage in Louisiana.

The company's net production in the quarter fell 3.3 percent to 59 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), largely due to asset sales.

Chesapeake said net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to $1.20 billion, or $1.54 per share, in the quarter, from $4.70 billion, or $7.08 per share, a year earlier.

The company wrote down the value of some oil and gas assets by $5.42 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Chesapeake's adjusted net income was 9 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected a loss of 3 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Total revenue fell 32.6 percent to $2.28 billion.

Reporting by Swetha Gopinath and Vishaka George