Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) Chief Executive Aubrey McClendon said Wednesday that the natural gas producer is in talks with international energy companies about joint ventures in the U.S.

"There is a high degree of international energy company interest in shale plays in the U.S.," McClendon said during a conference call.

Chesapeake has already completed a number of joint ventures last year - entering into partnerships with BP PLC (BP), StatoilHydro (STO), and Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP). All of those ventures involved natural gas-rich fields known as shales. Under those agreements, the companies paid cash and agreed to cover part of Chesapeake's drilling costs in exchange for acreage.

Shales are dense rock formations that companies such as Chesapeake, Devon Energy Corp. (DVN) and Petrohawk Energy (HK) have learned to perforate and free the gas trapped within. Shales contain huge natural gas reserves and have been credited with creating a surge in U.S. natural gas production that has helped bring down prices for the commodity.

Natural gas prices have lost about 70% of their value since peaking July 2 at $13.694 a million British Thermal units. The U.S. recession has also caused a decline in industrial gas demand, which accounts for about one-third of U.S. consumption.

McClendon said that the company is in conversations with multiple international energy companies about joint ventures involving the Barnett Shale in North Texas and other U.S. gas fields. Chesapeake holds large acreage positions in the Haynesville Shale in Texas and Louisiana, the Marcellus Shale in Appalachia, and the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas.

Dan McSpirit, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, said that through joint ventures in these gas fields, international companies gain expertise and establish a cost structure to exploit these shale formations.

"I think you will see one in the Barnett by the end of the year," McSpirit said.

McClendon said that Chesapeake wasn't interested in buying the assets of oil and gas producers distressed by the downturn in commodity prices and tightness in the credit markets.

"We are focused on one market we think is a market of our making, which is the international joint venture market," McClendon said.

Company executives also predicted that service costs would decline by more than 25% in 2009.

"Nearly every day vendors are approaching us with new reduced rates and we are negotiating with each and every one of them earnestly," Mark Rowland, Chesapeake's chief financial officer, said.

The executive's comments came during a conference call to discuss Chesapeake's fourth quarter earnings.

Chesapeake, the top producer of U.S. natural gas by volume, swung to a fourth-quarter net loss amid a $1.8 billion write-down on its natural gas and oil assets because of a drop in energy prices, but it reported surging revenue on strong natural gas and oil sales.

The results highlight how energy companies are facing increasingly difficult short-term pressures amid the global economic downturn. Still, Chesapeake, which just months ago was seen as being in danger of collapse, has improved its position recently. It sold some $12 billion of assets in the second half of 2008 after a debt-fueled growth spurt was halted by the credit crunch and slumping natural gas prices.

Chesapeake reported a net loss of $866 million, or $1.51 a share, compared with a year-earlier net income of $303 million, or 33 cents a share. Excluding items, earnings fell to 73 cents from 93 cents a share.

Last month, Chesapeake said it would record $1.8 billion in write-down charges, joining other major energy companies in reassessing the value of assets that are no longer worth as much as once thought.

The prior year's quarter included a mark-to-market loss of $180 million.

Revenue increased 43% to $2.98 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected per-share earnings of 74 cents on revenue of $2.58 billion.

Average daily production rose 4.4%, as total natural gas production increased 4.4% and oil production grew 4.1%.

The average realized price for gas dropped 12%, and oil prices were down 24%.

Chesapeake ended the quarter with reserves of 12.1 trillion cubic feet per natural gas equivalent, up 11%. Natural gas made up 92% of the company's total production, even from a year earlier.

Shares were up 0.5% to $17.20 in after-hours trading. The company's stock has lost over three-quarters of its value from its all-time high of $74 in July, as a plunge in prices and the credit crunch pummeled producers' share prices.

-By Jason Womack, Dow Jones Newswires; 713-547-9201; jason.womack@dowjones.com

(John Kell contributed to this report.)