CALGARY - Shares in Questerre Energy Corp. jumped as much as 20 per cent Monday after Chesapeake Energy Inc. said its new shale-gas venture with French oil major Total SA may look for stakes in Canadian shale plays.

Shares in Questerre, a small firm exploring the prospective Utica shales of Quebec, rose 51 cents to $3.39 on the Toronto Stock Exchange after earlier touching $3.45. Volume was 1.28 million, more than three times the average over the past three months.

Total on Monday said it would take a 25 per cent stake in Chesapeake’s Barnett Shale gas fields in north Texas, paying $800 million US in cash and providing $1.45 billion US toward the fields’ development over up to six years.

But the companies said their new venture may also look to acquire stakes in other shale-gas regions, including, they said in their release, “joint ventures covering several Canadian natural gas shale plays in which Total has shown an interest.”

Questerre estimates its holdings in the Utica shales in the St. Lawrence lowlands of Quebec could yield the company as much as 4.3 trillion cubic feet of gas. It has partnered with Talisman Energy Inc., Canada’s No. 4 independent oil explorer, to explore its holdings there.

Shale gas plays like the Barnett shales or the Horn River region of British Columbia have revolutionized the North American natural gas industry as companies perfect techniques to exploit the vast reserves trapped in shale rock formations once thought too expensive to produce.

Asked during a conference call which Canadian shale plays the new venture would be interested in, Chesapeake chief executive Aubrey McClendon declined to be specific.

“I think the usual suspects is where we would . . . tend to be focused,” he said.