Chesapeake

CNOOC, China's top offshore oil producer, plans to buy one-third of Chesapeake Energy's oil and natural gas acreage in the Eagle Ford Shale project in South Texas for $1.08 billion in cash. The companies believe the deal will clear regulatory hurdles, even though CNOOC's efforts to buy a U.S. oil company five years ago were blocked.

These days, everyone wants a piece of the rock -- domestic shale, that is. With oil-drilling costs north of $3.5 million per well and natural gas trading below $3, global energy companies are all about American shale. In November, Europe's second-largest supplier of natural gas, Norwegian-based...

This series explores aspects of America that may soon be just a memory -- some to be missed, some gladly left behind. From the least impactful to the most, here are 25 bits of vanishing America. Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in Chesapeake Bay. Last year Maryland saw the...