A few months ago, Ralph Eads III, (pictured) the top energy investment banker at Jefferies & Co., presented Oklahoma City natural gas explorer Chesapeake Energy Corp. with an idea: approach French oil giant Total SA about doing a joint venture in North Texas' Barnett natural gas shale.

Eads believed it would be a good fit. The French oil giant was thinking about entering the shale business in the U.S., and it was interested in properties that already had significant production. And Chesapeake had made no bones about the fact that it was looking for someone to help it develop the assets. "I thought they'd be an excellent partner for them," Eads says.

So senior executives from the two companies met and announced an agreement on Jan. 4. Total would buy 25% of Chesapeake's Barnett shale properties for $800 million and pay 60% of Chesapeake's drilling and completion expenses up to $1.45 billion through 2012.

Eads had worked with Chesapeake before. He had put together the company's joint ventures in 2008 with Plains Exploration & Production Co. in eastern Texas' and northern Louisiana's Haynesville shale (worth $3.3 billion) and with Statoil ASA in Appalachia's Marcellus shale (worth $3.38 billion).

Eads, 50, claims he's the grayest head in the energy investment banking business. He may be right. He's done stints at S.G. Warburg & Co., Leh-man Brothers Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc., where he led the energy investment banking practice and ran El Paso Corp.'s unregulated businesses as an executive vice president before joining Randall & Dewey Inc., now part of Jefferies, in 2003.

Eads' deals include El Paso's combinations with Coastal Corp., Tenneco Energy and Sonat Inc.; Stone Energy Corp.'s acquisition by Plains for $1.46 billion, as well as Remington Oil and Gas Corp.'s acquisition by Cal Dive International Inc. for $1.4 billion, both in 2006; and Parallel Petroleum Corp.'s buyout by Leon Black's Apollo Global Management LLC just this past September for $483 million in cash and assumed debt.

Eads has been amply rewarded for his efforts. In June 2008 he was promoted to vice chairman of Jefferies and from co-president to chairman of the firm's' energy investment banking group after his fellow co-president, Claire Farley, a former Texaco executive, resigned to return to industry.

For the Total deal, Chesapeake relied on longtime counsel Ray Lees at Commercial Law Group PC in Oklahoma City for legal advice. Like Eads, Lees worked on Chesapeake's joint venture with Statoil ASA.

David Asmus in the Houston office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP represented Total in the agreement. Asmus was head of oil and gas at Baker Botts LLP before joining Morgan Lewis this past June.