Chesapeake’s net income up 200 percent on strong production

U.S. Midcontinent producer Chesapeake Energy saw its production soar in the 2003 first quarter, helping to propel net income to $70 million or 32 cents per share, up nearly 200 percent from $23.7 million in the prior quarter and up more than seven-fold from the year-ago quarter.

The exploration and production independent, helped by property purchases and a supercharged drilling program, increased production to 631,000 million cubic feet a day of natural gas equivalent, up 17 percent from 538,000 million cubic feet in the prior quarter and up 35 percent from 466,000 million cubic feet in the year-ago period.

Daily production for the current quarter is expected to increase to about 678,000 million cubic feet of gas equivalent, representing a 7 percent increase from the first quarter, the company said April 28. The company has now averaged 6 percent production growth over the past seven quarters.

“We believe Chesapeake’s production and reserve growth trends are sustainable and should enable the company to continue generating significant increases in shareholder value,” Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon said.