Venezuela Overthrows Chavez-era Oil Laws

Justin

Political

Stocks

Commodity

Summary:

Venezuela's national assembly today unanimously passed changes to its oil laws that allow more private-sector ownership in its fields and provide more investor assurances, as US administration officials have demanded.

The changes included repealing a group of six regulations that were in addition to the last major hydrocarbon law package passed in 2006, under late former President Hugo Chavez. Those laws had regulated the nationalization of major oil projects in the Orinoco heavy crude belt and assets of oilfield service companies, seizures that led to long-running legal claims from companies including ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips.

"Every aspect of the oil business will no longer be 100pc state-owned, like Chavez wanted," Dolores Dobarro, who was deputy oil minister when Chavez implemented the laws around 2006, told Argus. "I'm for it, I think it's fine."

The changes mean that in some oil projects the government's take, in taxes plus royalties, will not automatically be of 83.33pc, but will instead hover from 65-80pc and perhaps even less, once other modifications are factored in.

Royalties in oil projects will no longer be a set 33.33pc but will instead be calculated on a sliding scale depending on the project, from 15-30pc, according to the changes to the hydrocarbons law itself passed today.

The tax rate is also no longer set at 50pc, independent of the project. A new tax rate was not specifically set, but this could come in later regulations.

Companies investing in oil and natural gas will also be exempted from a series of national, local and state taxes. The total financial impact will need to be tallied, experts told Argus, but it is a significant change.

"A lot has been left to the discretion of the authorities with these modifications," another former oil minister told Argus. "But I think by and large oil companies such as Chevron will see this as a positive."

The law as proposed by interim vice president Delcy Rodriguez had passed in a first debate on 22 January with no changes. The new legislation comes after the US has claimed the direction of Venezuela's oil policy in the wake of its capture of former president Nicolas Maduro.

Source: Argus Media

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Olivia Brooks

Political

Economic

Installations at the El Palito refinery of Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, after the National Assembly approved a major reform of the country's main oil law, in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, January 22, 2026. REUTERS/Gaby Oraa

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Thursday eased some sanctions on the Venezuelan oil industry as it seeks to expand production there after U.S. forces ousted the South American country's President Nicolas Maduro on January 3.

The U.S. Treasury issued a general license authorizing transactions involving the government of Venezuela and state oil company PDVSA that are "ordinarily incident and necessary to the lifting, exportation, reexportation, sale, resale, supply, storage, marketing, purchase, delivery, or transportation of Venezuelan-origin oil, including the refining of such oil, by an established U.S. entity."

The decision to issue a general license marks a shift from a previous plan to grant individual exemptions to sanctions for companies seeking to do business in the country.

Following the U.S. capture of Maduro, U.S. officials have said Washington would ease sanctions imposed on Venezuela's energy industry.

The administration of President Donald Trump is pursuing an ambitious $100 billion reconstruction plan for the country's oil industry, and intends to manage the oil sales "indefinitely."

As part of that effort, the U.S. and Caracas reached an initial $2 billion deal in January to export Venezuelan crude oil, including to U.S. refiners.

Oil producers Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab, Repsol (REP.MC), opens new tab and ENI (ENI.MI), opens new tab, refiner Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), opens new tab, and some U.S. oil service providers have sought licenses in recent weeks to expand output or exports from the OPEC member.

The companies are partners and customers of state oil company PDVSA.

The large number of individual requests to the U.S. government had delayed progress on plans to expand exports and get investment moving quickly into Venezuela, two sources said this week.

Reporting by Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Marianna Parraga, Christian Martinez and Daphne Psaledakis;Editing by Rod Nickel and David Ljunggren

Source: Reuters

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Manuel

Stocks

Chinese artificial intelligence chipmaker Axera Semiconductor is aiming to raise HK$2.96 billion ($379.2 million) in an initial public offering in Hong Kong, a regulatory filing showed on Friday.

The proceeds are earmarked ‌for upgrading its technology platform and developing new products, as well as sales expansion, potential equity ‌investments or acquisitions and working capital and general corporate purposes, the filing said.

Axera, formerly Shanghai Zhiaixin Semiconductor Technology, is backed by investors including Qiming Venture Partners and Tencent, is offering 104.9 million shares at HK$28.20 each, according to the filing.

Cornerstone ⁠investors for the offering include ‌OmniVision Integrated Circuits' unit WILL semiconductor and JSC International Investment Fund SPC.

Axera's IPO comes at a time when Chinese AI ‍and semiconductor firms are increasingly turning to Hong Kong to fund capital intensive chip development and broaden commercial adoption, as demand grows for "AI inference", the running of models trained to recognise patterns and make decisions, to shift from cloud servers onto ‌devices such as cameras, industrial equipment and cars.

Founded in 2019, Axera is a fabless chip designer focused on AI inference system-on-chips used in on-device computing, edge inference and smart vehicles, the prospectus said. The company's processors help cameras and vehicles process visual data in real time.

Axera said it was the largest provider ⁠of mid-to-high-end visual on-device AI inference chips globally by shipments in 2024, citing research firm China Insights Industry Consultancy (CIC) in the filing.

For the first nine months of 2025, its revenue rose 5.8% to 269.0 million yuan ($38.7 ‍million) from 254.2 million ⁠yuan a year earlier, while net loss widened to 855.7 million yuan from 691.0 million yuan, the filing showed.

CICC, Guotai Junan International and ⁠BOCOM International are sponsors of the IPO.

Source: Reuters

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Blue River

Economic

Forex

The U.S. Treasury said recent depreciation in the South Korean won was not in line with the Asian country's strong economic fundamentals, in an assessment that was part of a semi-annual currency report.

"Depreciation pressures on the won were acute in the fourth quarter of 2024 as the central bank reduced its policy rate in November and amid the onset of domestic political instability," said the report released on Thursday. "The won depreciated further in late 2025, which was not in line with Korea's strong economic fundamentals."

The rare U.S. assessment on the dollar-won level came after South Korean authorities in December rolled out measures to bolster the currency as it slumped towards the psychologically important level of 1,500 per dollar.

The currency has been under pressure from domestic investors' purchase of overseas stocks and concerns about additional U.S. investment, which was part of a trade deal with President Donald Trump's administration.

The won closed at 1,434.0 per dollar on Thursday, bouncing in recent days after a joint response between Japan and the U.S. helped strengthen the yen.

In its latest semi-annual currency report, the Treasury said no major trading partner met all three criteria for enhanced analysis of currency practices during the last half of 2024 and the first six months of 2025. South Korea remained on a "monitoring list" meriting close attention, but was not accused of currency manipulation.

Source: Investing

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Isaac Bennett

Political

Daily News

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Remarks of Officials

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he anticipates Russia will follow through on an agreement for a week-long pause in attacks on Kyiv and other cities, a deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in response to winter weather.

Zelenskiy noted, however, that the coming days would serve as the real test of Moscow's commitment to the temporary halt in hostilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the media during a press conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on January 25, 2026.

A Test of Moscow's Commitment

In a statement on the social media platform X, Zelenskiy confirmed that diplomatic teams had discussed the matter in the United Arab Emirates.

"We expect the agreements to be implemented," he wrote. "De-escalation steps contribute to real progress toward ending the war."

This cautious optimism suggests that while Ukraine welcomes the initiative, it remains wary of Russia's intentions and will be monitoring the situation closely.

Acknowledging Washington's Role

In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy specifically thanked Washington for its role in brokering the agreement, which he characterized as an effort to stop Russian strikes on Ukraine's critical energy infrastructure.

"Thanks to the American side for their efforts in ensuring a stop to strikes on energy (targets) at this time and let's hope that America succeeds in ensuring this," he stated.

Despite the diplomatic progress, Zelenskiy adopted a wait-and-see approach, concluding, "We shall see what the real situation is with our energy facilities and cities in the days and nights to come."

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Manuel

Stocks

Apple’s iPhone sales soared to a new quarterly record during the holiday season, despite artificial intelligence blunders that prompted the technology trendsetter to get a helping hand from Google.

The October-December results announced Thursday reflect the allegiance of Apple’s fans, who eagerly snapped up the latest iPhone 17 models even though the company still hasn’t delivered on its 2024 promise to smarten up the device’s Siri assistance with AI.

Apple tried to offset its AI miscues with a new “liquid glass” design for the iPhone 17 and older models installed by way of a free software upgrade released last September. That formula helped produce iPhone sales of $85.3 billion, a 23% increase from the same time in the previous year. It marked Apple's highest iPhone sales for a three-month period since the device’s debut in 2007.

The iPhone’s robust performance propelled Apple to a profit of $42.1 billion, or $2.84 per share for the quarter, a 16% increase from the previous year. Total revenue also rose 16% from the previous year to $143.8 billion. Both the earnings and sales exceeded the analyst projections that steer investors.

Apple’s shares rose by more than 1% in extended trading after the numbers came out. But the stock price still remains slightly down so far this year, and isn't that much higher from where it finished at the end of 2024.

The Cupertino, California, company will try to sustain the momentum by finally releasing a batch of delayed AI features, including an Siri upgrade that is supposed to make the assistant more conversational and versatile.

To pull it off, Apple is tapping into Google’s latest AI model, Gemini 3, in a tacit acknowledgment of its own shortcomings in a technology that’s widely considered to be the industry’s biggest breakthrough since the iPhone’s introduction.

Despite its AI deficiencies, the iPhone ended last year as the worldwide sales leader with a nearly 20% market share that ranked just ahead of Samsung, according to the research firm International Data Corp.

Source: AP

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Manuel

Bond

The U.S. Treasury on Thursday said it is strengthening scrutiny of countries' foreign exchange practices, including any efforts to resist depreciation of their currencies ‌against the dollar, but did not accuse any major trading partner of currency manipulation.

In ‌its latest semi-annual currency report, the Treasury said no major trading partner met all three criteria for enhanced analysis of currency practices during the last half of 2024 and the first six months of ⁠2025.

The Treasury added Thailand ‌to its "monitoring list" of countries warranting close attention due to the growth of the Asian country's global ‍current account surplus and its trade surplus with the U.S.

The addition brings the monitoring list to 10 countries, with China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland also remaining on the list.

The ‌report, initially due in November, has been traditionally focused on whether countries are engaging in one-sided currency intervention or other manipulation to resist appreciation against the dollar to keep their exports cheaper.

But going forward, the Treasury said it "is now monitoring more broadly the extent ⁠to which economies that choose to smooth exchange rate movements do so to resist depreciation pressure in the same manner as they do to resist appreciation pressure."

Asked if the change was ‍meant to scrutinize ⁠Japan's currency practices more closely amid recent yen weakness, a Treasury official said the changes were not meant to single ⁠out any one country, but to aid the department's analysis during a future ‌period in which the dollar has been depreciating.