Business News brief

Chesapeake picks up pace

Chesapeake Energy says in its latest quarterly operational update that it expects to drill approximately 170 new wells in the Marcellus Shale this year, using 31 drilling rigs. The company said average daily net production was 40 percent higher than in the last quarter of 2009 and current production is up by about 50 percent over the first quarter 2010 average.

Chesapeake said its three most notable new wells in the Marcellus were drilled in Bradford County.

Chesapeake said Tuesday that its net income was $590 million, or 92 cents per share for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of $5.75 billion, or $9.63 per share, in the year-ago period when tumbling gas prices forced it to write down the value of its gas and oil properties.

With approximately 1.5 million acres under lease Chesapeake is the largest leasehold owner in the Marcellus Shale play that stretches from central New York, through much of Pennsylvania and into northern West Virginia.

Goldman settles with SEC

Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $450,000 to settle regulators’ allegations that it violated a rule related to short-selling of stocks in 2008-09, it was announced Tuesday.

The banking company did not admit or deny wrongdoing in paying the civil penalties in agreements with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the New York Stock Exchange’s regulatory arm.

The case involving Goldman’s stock-trading business is unrelated to the SEC’s civil fraud charges filed against the firm last month over mortgage securities transactions it arranged.

Ski season was sunny

A ski industry group’s preliminary report says visits to U.S. ski resorts rose 4.2 percent to 59.7 million last season.

The National Ski Areas Association said Tuesday that preliminary figures show the 2009-10 season was the second-best on record, after 60.5 million visits in the 2007-08 season.

A visit is one person skiing or snowboarding one day.Resorts in the northeast had a 2.7 percent decrease. Visits in all other regions increased by 3.2 to 7.2 percent.

ADM profit swells

Archer Daniels Midland Co. said Tuesday its third-quarter net income soared on growing global demand for grains and biofuels.

The company, which in 2008 opened a cocoa processing facility in Hazleton, said it earned $421 million, or 65 cents per share, compared with just $3 million, or breakeven per share, in the same period last year.

The results from the latest quarter were buoyed by increasing global demand for U.S. soybeans, with AMD’s oilseeds processing unit delivering $405 million in profit.