Fuel Fix

1. Shale gas prompts $72B in planned chemical investments
   As many as 46,000 permanent jobs in the chemical industry will be created if all of the chemical and plastics projects that have been announced to take advantage of plentiful and low-cost supplies of natural gas are built, according to a study released Monday by the American Chemistry Council.
2. Oil probe widens to trading houses
   The European Commission has days sent requests for information to Swiss-based commodities traders Glencore, Vitol and Mercuria, and possibly others
3. Drumbeat: May 20, 2013
   Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath of the aquifer has already gone dry. In...
4. Freeport-McMoRan sweetens Plains Exploration buyout deal ahead of key vote
   Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.’s bid to buy to buy Plains Exploration and Production Co. got a boost just ahead of a key shareholder vote Monday as it agreed to let Plains pay its investors a special $3-a-share dividend provided the combination goes through.
5. Actavis to buy Warner Chilcott for $5bn
   All-stock deal worth $8.5bn including debt brings an end to a recent series of merger talks around Actavis
6. Dell seeks clarity on Icahn takeover bid
   The rival offer contained no details of how a deal would be financed, and has been with scepticism by many people close to the deal
7. US lawyer expelled from Russia
   Former Justice Department official was kicked out this month after he apparently refused to co-operate with Russia’s domestic spy agency, the FSB
8. Yahoo buys start-up Tumblr for $1.1bn
   Tumblr, launched in 2007, has married short-form blogging with social media sharing to create a service but its growth rate has slowed this year
9. Chesapeake names Anadarko executive as new CEO
   Chesapeake Energy has named Anadarko Petroleum executive Robert Douglas Lawler as its new CEO.
10. Paper: Drilling damage in 161 Pa. water supplies
    Oil and gas development damaged the water supplies of at least 161 Pennsylvania homes, farms, churches and businesses between 2008 and the fall of 2012, according to state records obtained by a newspaper.