Barnett Shale France’s Total has beaten a private equity firm to Chesapeake Energy’s Barnett shale assets. The energy major last week said it had exercised its pre-emptive right to acquire Chesapeake’s 75 percent in the assets that the two companies held jointly in North Texas. The deal suggests that there may still be a future for Barnett shale, considered by many observers to be a goner as production has declined substantially in the last couple years thanks to the drop in gas prices. First of all, it’s worth looking into what made Chesapeake exit the North Texas play: the reason has little to do with Barnett itself, but it has everything to do with Chesapeake’s debt and its ability to continue servicing its gas gathering and transportation contract with pipeline operator Williams Partners, which gathers and ships 80 percent of the gas that Chesapeake produces from Barnett. Last month, […]