Meetings have been set between White House officials and US oil company representatives, as the Trump administration seeks funding to boost Venezuelan oil production and spur exports to the US.
UK electric vehicle (EV) sales are up but still falling short of government targets, with one industry leader calling for a review. Meanwhile, new tech in the sector, including driverless cars and robotic workers, have been unveiled at one of the world’s largest consumer shows.
Trump pressed US investment in Venezuela
US officials are scheduling the first formal calls with US oil companies to try and persuade them to invest in Venezuelan oil infrastructure.
Sources told CBS that representatives from Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil are slated to meet with the Trump administration later this week.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said that “all of our oil companies are ready and willing to make big investments in Venezuela that will rebuild their oil infrastructure, which was destroyed by the illegitimate Maduro regime”.
Under Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan oil production was nationalised, with assets seized from US companies and allowed to degrade over subsequent decades. Despite holding the world’s largest stock of oil reserves, production has declined over the period.
Industry officials anonymously told Politico that there’s been much discussion about the type of incentives they would require to return to the country, such as US government contracts guaranteeing payment and security or the creations of public-private enterprises.
One executive told Reuters that White House meetings with multiple company representatives raised antitrust concerns, as well as wider concerns about production levels.
Government subsidies
Speaking to NBC yesterday (5 January), Trump suggested that the US could also subsidise the return:
“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue.”
The White House also hopes the American Petroleum Institute – a trade association representing US oil companies – can be persuaded to join a task force with government focused on addressing reviving flagging Venezuelan production.
He added that, with investment from the oil companies, he believed operations in Venezuela could be "up and running" within 18 months.
The discussions follow the US’ dramatic operation to remove Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro last week (2 January), extracting him to the US where he’s currently facing drug charges.
Consumer Electronics Show
The world’s largest tech companies presented their latest innovations at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday, promising to revolutionise supply chains through automation and robotics.
Hyundai debuted Atlas, a humanoid robot, capable of taking on potentially dangerous tasks and working alongside human worker to ease their physical strain, according to the South Korean tech firm.
It plans to roll out Atlas “across [its] global network” by 2028, with the company’s vice chair, Jaehoon Chang, attempting to assuage fears about job losses by telling Reuters that humans will still be needed to train their robot counterparts.
Jensen Huang, CEO of the world’s most valuable company, US chipmaker Nvidia, unveiled several new products at the show.
Alpamayo, a tech platform powered by the firm’s AI, is set to support more sophisticated self-driving cars, “bring[ing] reasoning to autonomous vehicles, allowing them to think through rare scenarios, drive safely in complex environments, and explain their driving decisions”.
Driverless cars containing the tech and built by Mercedes are set to be released initially in the US, and then across Europe and Asia, in the coming months
Huang also told audiences at the Las Vegas show that the company’s next generation of semiconductor chips is in production, and would boast five times the power of the previous iteration, currently used to power AI applications.
Electric car doubts
The head of the UK’s largest automotive industry body has warned that discounts on EVs are “unsustainable” and has called on the UK government to review its Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate sooner than 2027.
The BBC reports that the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) chief executive Mike Hawes praised last year’s EV sales – at 473,340, they represented almost a quarter of the market, but he added that sales weren’t rising fast enough to meet government targets. Last year’s target was 28%.
The SMMT estimates that in a bid to meet these targets, discounts offered by manufacturers on EVs totalled £5bn last year, the equivalent of £11,000 per car.
Hawes called for a review of the mandate, factoring in supply chain impacts challenging manufacturers, such as increasing costs for raw materials and higher energy prices.
While the industry is not “diverting course”, he said that “you need to make sure the market reflects more closely the actual level of demand".
Elsewhere in the headlines
- Having topped a record-breaking 10,000, the UK’s FTSE 100 continued to rally, with Goldman Sachs increasing its 12-month forecast for the index
- US military intervention in Venezuela helped the FTSE, with defence firm BAE Systems up 1.5%
Yesterday in trade
Global Trade Today looked ahead to what you can expect from 2026, including the ‘definitive phase’ of the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, more tariff uncertainty and the UK’s Spring Forecast.
