Chesapeake cuts back on gas

Article Excerpt

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $23.02 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 659.3 million; Market cap: $15.2 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) plans to cut its daily natural gas production by 8% due to low gas prices. That will take about 500 million cubic feet per day off the market. Chesapeake is the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S. Chesapeake will now shift the focus of its drilling to oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs), which are broken down into ethane, propane and butane and sold to a variety of customers. For example, ethane is used to make a host of everyday products, like grocery and garbage bags, toys, medical tubing and so on. NGLs are typically priced in relation to crude oil. Chesapeake Energy is still a buy. buy…