Total announces that its subsidiary, Total E&P USA, Inc.(“Total”), has signed and completed on December 30, 2011 an agreement to enter into a Joint Venture with Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C.,a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), (“Chesapeake”) and affiliates of its partner EnerVest Ltd. 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.