Chesapeake Profit Beats Street
U.S. natural gas producer Chesapeake Energy Corp reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its 2017 production estimate, helped by an uptick in crude prices after a more than two-year slump.
Chesapeake shares were up 3.8 percent at $5.75 in premarket trading on Thursday.
The company raised the lower end of its full-year production forecast to 197.5 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), from 194 million boe. It maintained the upper end of the range at 205 million boe.
Chesapeake said average realized oil price rose 37 percent to $51.72 in the first quarter ended March 31, while natural gas prices rose about 32 percent.
However, the company's total production fell 21.3 percent to 48 million barrels of oil equivalent in the quarter.
Chesapeake reported a net profit available to shareholders of $75 million, or 8 cents per share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $1.11 billion, or $1.66 per share, a year earlier.
The year-ago quarter included an impairment charge of nearly $1 billion as the company wrote down the value of some oil and gas assets.
Excluding items, the company earned 23 cents per share, above analysts' average estimate of 18 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total revenue rose 41 percent to $2.75 billion in the quarter, well above estimates of $2.30 billion.
Reporting by Arathy S Nair
