Total announces that its subsidiary, Total E&P USA, has signed and completed on December 30, 2011 an agreement to enter into a Joint Venture with Chesapeake Exploration, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp, and affiliates of its partner EnerVest. In the agreement, Total acquires a 25% share in Chesapeake's and EnerVest's liquids-rich area of the Utica shale play located across 10 counties on the eastern side of the state of Ohio, USA.