Oil major Total SA signed a $2.3 billion deal with
Chesapeake Energy Corp and EnerVest, continuing a trend of European and Asian
oil and gas companies buying into U.S. shale plays.
The deal will give Total a 25 percent stake in a joint
venture with the two U.S. companies in the liquids-rich Utica Shale area of
eastern Ohio, the French company said in a statement on Tuesday.
North America has in recent years seen a boom in energy resources
such as shale gas, raising the prospect that the world's largest economy may
lower its dependence on imported energy.
Total has paid $610 million to Chesapeake, while EnerVest is
receiving $290 million. Chesapeake will receive a further $1.42 billion
contribution to drilling and well completion costs, expected by the end of
2014, it said in a separate statement.
"This is consistent with our strategy to develop
positions in unconventional plays with large potential and, in this case, with
value predominantly linked to (the) oil price," Total Exploration and
Production President Yves-Louis Darricarrere said.
He added that the venture would provide Total with "a
material position in a valuable long-term resource base under attractive
terms."
Total, which already has a joint venture with Chesapeake in
the Barnett Shale area in Texas, has said it is looking to boost its position
in U.S. shale basins that have crude oil or natural gas with a high liquids
content, making it more valuable than dry gas.
Chesapeake, the second-biggest U.S. producer of natural gas,
had previously announced a joint venture with an undisclosed major
international energy company on some of its prospective acreage in the Utica
Shale area in November.
LARGE POTENTIAL
The latest joint venture with Total covers about 619,000 net
acres, of which 77,000 were contributed by Houston-based EnerVest, Chesapeake
said.
Analyst Dominique Patry at brokerage CA Cheuvreux wrote in a
research note that the deal was not cheap, with Total -- whose shares he rates
as "outperform" with a target price of 46 euros -- paying $14,800 per
acre.
"This deal is consistent with Total's strategy to
develop positions in unconventional plays with large potential especially when
they are linked to oil prices," Patry wrote.
"There is no production to date but 13 wells have been
drilled across the acreage with very promising results seen from each well in
terms of productivity and liquid content."
Thin profitability, due to low U.S. gas prices, has not
diminished foreigners' enthusiasm for the controversial energy resource.
Statoil last October paid $4.4 billion for Brigham
Exploration BEXP.O to boost its unconventional energy resources in the United
States, one of its key growth areas. India's Reliance is also looking to invest
more in the U.S. shale gas sector.
Concerns about water table pollution, tremors and gas
leakage are slowing the expansion of shale gas, but with the biggest oil and
gas reserve holders limiting foreign investment in their energy sectors, the
big western oil and gas majors are increasingly focusing on OECD countries such
as the United States andAustralia.
Total shares were little changed, down 0.2 percent at 39.93
euros by 0853 GMT.