Total gets 9% discount with joint venture payment to Chesapeake

By Noah Brenner

 18 November 2011 01:29 GMT

US natural gas producer Chesapeake has given Total a discount on the drilling carry associated with its joint venture in the Barnett Shale after the French giant agreed to pay the money up front, rather than wait until it was needed for operations.

Total parted with $471 million to pay its current expenses and all of its future drilling carry — a 9% discount, according to a Chesapeake regulatory filing. The pair signed the orignal joint venture deal in early 2010.

The latest news created speculation that Total may be Chesapeake’s unnamed joint venture partner in the wet-gas window of the Utica Shale play in Ohio.

Chesapeake announced a $2.44 billion agreement for a 25% stake in 650,000 net acres (162,500 net acres) across 10 counties in eastern Ohio ($15,000 per acre) but did not identify…

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