NORTH AMERICA Chesapeake Files for Possible Oilfield-Services Spinoff - Bloomberg Chesapeake Energy Corp.

(CHK), the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer, filed paperwork for the possible spinoff of its oilfield-services unit. The transaction will be tax-free to its shareholders, the company said today in a statement. Prior to the completion of the spinoff, the unit will convert into a corporation and change its name to Seventy Seven Energy Inc. Fuel Fix US energy boom demands $641B in infrastructure, study finds Companies will need to invest $641 billion over the next two decades in pipelines, pumps and other infrastructure to keep up with the gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids flowing from U.S. fields, according to a study released Tuesday. Fuel Fix Environmental report says Texas facility will cause headaches for residents FERC, tasked with deciding whether the facility can be constructed and operated, found that the projects biggest impacts wont be pollution, but rather, the day-to-day stress for residents of a Freeport. Fuel Fix BP makes first bids on Gulf drilling rights since post-spill suspension A deal last week between BP and the Environmental Protection Agency to lift the 16-month suspension paved the way for BP to participate in Wednesdays sale. It is the first time BP has been part of a U.S. offshore lease sale since June 2012, when it paid $47.9 million in high bids for 43 separate blocks. Fuel Fix Environmentalists challenge Obama on natural gas exports More than a dozen environmental groups on Tuesday called on President Barack Obama to reject his previous support for natural gas and the controversial technology used to produce the fossil fuel. In a letter to Obama, the organizations also insisted that the administrations handling of a proposed natural gas export facility on the Maryland coast is a test of the presidents commitment to combating climate change. Fuel Fix Report: Cheap gas will fuel US manufacturing job surge through 2020 Sinking natural gas prices have stung U.S. energy producers, but they are linked to more than 196,000 new manufacturing jobs in major metropolitan areas and a $124 billion boost to sales for energy-intensive products like fabricated metals and plastics, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors report on the nations industrial growth. LATIN AMERICA Cahill to Build $241 Million Waste-to-Power Plant in Barbados - Bloomberg The plant will have a capacity of 30 megawatts to 35 megawatts, the company said today in an e-mailed statement after signing an agreement with the Barbados government. The facility will operate by the end of the second quarter of 2017. AFRICA Navy SEALs Seize Tanker Seeking to Ship Illicit Libya Oil - Bloomberg Navy SEAL commandos seized the tanker southeast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus at 10 p.m. Washington time yesterday, or early this morning local time, the U.S. Defense Department said in an e-mailed statement. The Morning Glory, which left the rebel-held Libyan port of Es Sider on March 11 after loading crude, will be re-routed soon, with U.S. sailors on board, to a port under the Libyan governments control, the Defense Department said. MIDDLE EAST DNO Jumps Most in Month as New Wells Push Tawke Output to Record - Businessweek DNO began output from the wells at a combined flow rate of 37,000 barrels of oil daily, pushing Tawkes, a field in the Kurdi stan region of Iraq, production to a record 129,000 barrels a day on March 5, it said today in a statement. GTL plant planned for Kazakhstan - Oil & Gas Journal Kazakhstan and CompactGTL have signed a memorandum of cooperation to develop and implement associated gas processing technologies for the worlds first commercially deployed small-scale gas-to-liquids plant. The proposed GTL plant, to be built in Kazakhstan, will have process up to 820,000 cu m of associated gas to produce about 3,000 b/d of synthetic diesel for local consumption, according to a release from CompactGTL.