Profit rose to $169 million, or 26 cents per share, from $156 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items that included costs to redeem preferred shares, Chesapeake had a profit of 38 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected 33 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Oil and gas output, adjusted for asset sales, averaged 726,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 11 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts at energy-focused investment bank Tudor Pickering Holt had estimated Chesapeake's third-quarter production at 704,000 boepd and characterized the results as a "strong beat" in a note to clients.

(Reporting by Anna Driver, Editing by Franklin Paul and Lisa Von Ahn)