China sales a big plus

Article Excerpt

CHESAPEAKE ENERGY $30.68 (New York symbol CHK; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (405-848-8000; www.chkenergy.com; Shares outstanding: 654.3 million; Market cap: $20.1 billion; Dividend yield: 1.0%) has agreed to sell a third of its Denver-Julesburg and Powder River Basin shale-gas leases in northeast Colorado and southeast Wyoming to Chinese stateowned oil company CNOOC Ltd. CNOOC will pay Chesapeake $670 million for the stake, as well as up to 66.7% of Chesapeake’s share of the development costs, up to an additional $697 million. This is Chesapeake’s second sale to CNOOC. In October 2010, CNOOC bought a third of Chesapeake’s Eagle Ford shale-gas project in Texas for $1.08 billion. It will also pay up to 75% of Chesapeake’s development costs, up to an additional $1.08 billion. Chesapeake is a buy. buy…