Chesapeake Energy Corp. (NYSE: CHK) reported a surprise adjusted profit, helped by lower expenses, and said it expects to exit the next two years at higher production rates.
Shares of Chesapeake, which also kept its 2017 budget nearly unchanged, rose as much as 9% to $5.80 on Nov. 3.
Decreased costs for oilfield services and more efficient drilling processes are helping oil producers extract more barrels of oil without having to spend more.
Chesapeake said on Nov. 3 it would exit the fourth quarter of 2017 with a 7% rise in total production from the end of the current quarter. Chesapeake said oil production would grow by about 10% over the same period.
Between the end of 2017 and 2018, the company expects output to climb 15%, with a 20% jump in oil production.
Barclays analysts said Chesapeake's forecasts suggest that the brokerage may need to raise its 2018 average oil production expectation by 25% to 30%.
Chesapeake, which has been trying to reduce its crippling debt load of nearly $9 billion, said it planned to sell more assets this year, including about 126,000 net acres in the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana.
The company will sell the acreage in two packages and has received bids for the first, which holds net production of about 30 million cubic feet per day of gas, CFO Domenic Dell'Osso said on a post-earnings call.
A near-60% drop in oil prices since mid-2014 has depleted cash balances at most oil companies, forcing them to sell assets and clamp down on spending.
Chesapeake added just $2 million to its 2017 budget and now expects to spend between $1.82 billion and $2.62 billion.
The company's fourth-quarter 2016 oil output estimate that ranged between 90,000 barrels per day (Mbbl/d) and 95 Mbbl/d beat Wall Street's expectation of 88 Mbbl/d.
However, the midpoint of the total fourth-quarter 2016 production forecast, ranging between 550 Mboe/d and 570 Mboe/d came in below analysts' expectation of 569 Mboe/d.
Net loss attributable to the company's shareholders fell nearly 75% to $1.2 billion from one year earlier, when the company wrote down the value of some assets by $5.42 billion.
Adjusted profit was 9 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected a loss of 3 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Total operating expenses slumped nearly 63%, compensating for a 32.6% fall in revenue.
Chesapeake's shares pared some gains to trade up 2.4% at $5.4. Up to Nov. 3's close, the stock had gained 18% this year.
Recommended Reading
BKV Prices IPO at $270MM Nearly Two Years After First Filing
2024-09-25 - BKV Corp. priced its common shares at $18 each after and will begin trading on Sept. 26, about two years after the Denver company first filed for an IPO.
Archrock Offers Common Stock to Help Pay for TOPS Transaction
2024-07-23 - Archrock, which agreed to buy Total Operations and Production Services (TOPS) in a cash-and-stock transaction, said it will offer 11 million shares of its common stock at $21 per share.
Cibolo Energy Closes Fund Aimed at Upstream, Midstream Growth
2024-09-10 - Cibolo Energy Management LLC closed its second fund, Cibolo Energy Partners II LP, meant to boost middle market upstream and midstream companies’ growth with development capital.
Post Oak Backs New Permian Team, But PE Faces Uphill Fundraising Battle
2024-10-11 - As private equity begins the process of recycling inventory, likely to be divested from large-scale mergers, executives acknowledged that raising funds has become increasingly difficult.
ONEOK Offers $7B in Notes to Fund EnLink, Medallion Midstream Deals
2024-09-11 - ONEOK intends to use the proceeds to fund its previously announced acquisition of Global Infrastructure Partners’ interest in midstream companies EnLink and Medallion.