Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P. Agrees to Acquire Gas Gathering Assets in Marcellus Shale from Chesapeake Energy Corporation for $865 Million

Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:CHKM) ('CHKM?) today announced
it has agreed to acquire Appalachia Midstream Services, L.L.C. ('AMS?),
the wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Midstream Development, L.P.
that holds its Marcellus Shale midstream assets, for total consideration
of $865 million. Chesapeake Midstream Development, L.P. is a wholly
owned subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK)
('Chesapeake?). The addition of the Marcellus assets makes CHKM the
industry′s largest gathering and processing master limited partnership
as measured by throughput volume.

Through acquiring AMS, CHKM will own approximately 47% of an integrated
system of assets that consist of approximately 200 miles of gathering
pipeline in the Marcellus Shale, including the liquids-rich Marcellus
South region. Throughput for these assets at December 15, 2011 was just
over one billion cubic feet per day. AMS operates the assets under
15-year fixed fee gathering agreements with leading Marcellus natural
gas and liquids producers. The gathering agreements include significant
acreage dedications and annual fee redeterminations that target a
mid-teens return on all invested capital in the acquired assets.
Chesapeake has committed to generating EBITDA of not less than $100
million in 2012 and $150 million in 2013 from the Marcellus assets for
the benefit of CHKM.

The acquisition, which is expected to close by December 30, 2011, will
be financed by $600 million of cash drawn from CHKM′s revolving credit
facility and equity consideration of $265 million (9.8 million CHKM
common units), increasing Chesapeake′s limited partnership ownership of
CHKM to 46.1% from 42.3%. On December 20, 2011, CHKM completed an
amendment of its credit facility that increased total borrowing capacity
to $1.0 billion.

Terms of the transaction were unanimously approved by the Board of
Directors of CHKM′s general partner and by the Board′s Conflicts
Committee, which is comprised entirely of independent directors. The
Conflicts Committee engaged Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Securities,
Inc. to act as its financial advisor and Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A.
to act as its legal advisor.

Management Comments

J. Mike Stice, CHKM′s Chief Executive Officer, commented, 'We are
excited to expand our footprint into the Marcellus Shale, further
increasing our basin diversification and, more importantly, exposing us
to the increased drilling activity in the liquid-rich regions in the
Marcellus South. With the closing of this transaction, we will have
completed two significant acquisitions from Chesapeake in just 18 months
since our IPO and will have created the industry′s largest gathering and
processing MLP. Given Chesapeake′s dynamic growth potential and
industry-leading leasehold position in the Lower 48, CHKM expects to
pursue a substantial number of asset dropdowns from Chesapeake in the
years ahead.?

Aubrey K. McClendon, Chesapeake′s Chief Executive Officer, added, 'We
are pleased to announce our second gathering asset sale to CHKM.
Combined with our Springridge Haynesville asset sale of $500 million in
December 2010, we have now dropped down gathering assets of
approximately $1.4 billion into CHKM. Combined with the $1.2 billion
Barnett, Permian and Mid-Continent gathering assets contributed to the
formation of CHKM′s predecessor in September 2009, Chesapeake has
successfully monetized $2.6 billion of its extensive midstream asset
portfolio at a more attractive valuation than if these assets had stayed
on Chesapeake′s balance sheet.

'These Marcellus assets are a truly unique platform for growth that will
benefit CHKM for decades. An asset of this scale and quality highlights
the significant value CHKM realizes as an MLP sponsored by the most
active driller in the U.S. and the largest leasehold owner in the Lower
48. We look forward to continuing to build Chesapeake′s midstream
systems in the Haynesville, Eagle Ford, Greater Anadarko (including the
Cleveland, Tonkawa and Mississippian), Niobrara and Utica plays, all of
which will be available to CHKM for future dropdowns.?

Conference Call Information

A conference call hosted by CHKM′s management to discuss the acquisition
and an outlook for 2012 has been scheduled for Thursday morning,
December 29, 2011 at 9:00 a.m. EST. Presentation materials to be
referenced during the discussion will be available just prior to the
call and can be accessed by going to the main page of CHKM′s website at www.chkm.com.
The telephone number to access the conference call is 719-457-2662 or
toll-free 888-282-4591. The passcode for the call is 2460591.
We encourage those who would like to participate in the call to dial the
access number between 8:50 and 9:00 a.m. EST. For those unable to
participate in the conference call, a replay will be available for audio
playback from 12:00 p.m. EST on December 29, 2011 through 12:00 p.m. EST
on January 12, 2012. The number to access the conference call replay is 719-457-0820
or toll-free 888-203-1112. The passcode for the replay is 2460591.
The conference call will also be webcast live on the Internet and can be
accessed by going to CHKM′s website in the 'Events' subsection of the
'Investors' section of the website. An archive of the conference call
webcast will also be available on the website.

Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:CHKM) owns, operates,
develops and acquires natural gas gathering systems and other midstream
energy assets.Upon completion of the acquisition of
Marcellus assets announced today, CHKM will be the industry′s largest
gathering and processing master limited partnership as measured by
throughput volume.Headquartered in Oklahoma City, CHKM's
operations are focused on the Barnett Shale, Haynesville Shale and
Mid-Continent regions of the U.S.CHKM′s common units are
listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CHKM.Further
information is available at www.chkm.com
where CHKM routinely posts announcements, updates, events, investor
information and presentations and all recent press releases.

Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK) is the second-largest
producer of natural gas, a Top 15 producer of oil and natural gas
liquids and the most active driller of new wells in the U.S.
Headquartered in Oklahoma City, the company's operations are focused on
discovering and developing unconventional natural gas and oil fields
onshore in the U.S. Chesapeake owns leading positions in the Barnett,
Haynesville, Bossier, Marcellus and Pearsall natural gas shale plays and
in the Granite Wash, Cleveland, Tonkawa, Mississippi Lime, Bone Spring,
Avalon, Wolfcamp, Wolfberry, Eagle Ford, Niobrara, Three Forks/Bakken
and Utica unconventional liquids plays. The company has also vertically
integrated its operations and owns substantial midstream, compression,
drilling, trucking, pressure pumping and other oilfield service assets
directly and indirectly through its subsidiaries Chesapeake Midstream
Development, L.P. and Chesapeake Oilfield Services, L.L.C. and its
affiliate Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P. (NYSE:CHKM) Chesapeake′s
stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CHK.Further information is available at www.chk.com
where Chesapeake routinely posts announcements, updates, events,
investor information, presentations and news releases.

This press release includes forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements give our current expectations or forecasts of
future events.They include the closing of the announced
acquisition of Marcellus midstream gathering and processing assets and
the expectation to pursue future asset acquisitions from Chesapeake.We
caution you not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date of this release, and we
undertake no obligations to update this information.The
Marcellus acquisition may not be completed as described or at all and
future acquisitions from Chesapeake are uncertain.Although we
believe the expectations and forecasts reflected in these and other
forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance they
will prove to be correct.They can be affected by inaccurate
assumptions or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties.Factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected
results are described under 'Risk Factors? in our 2010 Annual Report on
Form 10-K.

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Chesapeake Midstream Partners, L.P.

Investor Contact:

Dave
Shiels, CFO, 405-935-6224

dave.shiels@chk.com

or

Chesapeake
Energy Corporation

Media Contact:

Michael Kehs, 405-935-2560

michael.kehs@chk.com

or

Jim
Gipson, 405-935-1310

jim.gipson@chk.com