The investors eyeing Venezuela’s oil
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 January 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to narco trafficking charges, and smaller private investors are eager to invest in Venezuelan oil. Plus, Chinese carmarkers are expected to increase exports this year, and we’ll look at how south-east Asia has been riding out Trump’s tariff storm.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Maduro pleads not guilty to drug-trafficking charges in New York court
What is Trump’s plan for Venezuelan oil?
Ex-Chevron executive seeks $2bn for Venezuelan oil projects
Chinese car exports set to jump as domestic sales cool
How south-east Asia is riding out Trump’s tariff storm
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Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Victoria Craig and Sonja Hutson. Our show was mixed by Kelly Garry. Additional help from Kaye Wiggins, Gavin Kallmann, and Michael Lello. The FT’s acting co-head of audio is Topher Forhecz. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, January 6th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:08.7 | Osted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro appeared in a U.S. court yesterday, and smaller private |
| 0:14.6 | investors are jockeying for a position in Venezuela's oil market. Plus, we'll take a look at how Southeast |
| 0:20.1 | Asia has been able to weather President Donald Trump's tariff storm. |
| 0:24.2 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:33.9 | Protesters gathered outside a courthouse in Manhattan yesterday. |
| 0:44.0 | They demanded that Nicholas Maduro and his wife be freed. The two were captured in a U.S. |
| 0:49.3 | military operation in Caracas over the weekend, and they were charged with narco-terrorism, |
| 0:54.9 | drug trafficking, and firearms offenses charged with narco-terrorism, drug trafficking, |
| 1:01.0 | and firearms offenses. Maduro denied the charges, saying in court, quote, I'm innocent, I'm not guilty, I'm a decent man, the president of my country. Investors were in somewhat good spirits, |
| 1:06.9 | despite the weekend's geopolitical turmoil. The S&P 500 ticked up a little bit more than half of a percent yesterday, |
| 1:13.1 | and Venezuelan debt searched by almost 30%. |
| 1:16.2 | The country's bonds have been in default since 2017, |
| 1:19.7 | but after Maduro's capture, the price of these bonds jumped. |
| 1:23.6 | That caused a major windfall for hedge funds who bought them for cents on the dollar. |
| 1:34.2 | The U.S. military operation in Venezuela has opened the door to a bunch of new investment into |
| 1:39.2 | its oil industry. Smaller private equity investors have been the most enthusiastic. U.S. oil majors, on the other hand, |
| 1:46.3 | they've been pretty cautious. The FTs Jamie Smith is here to talk about who's likely to benefit |
| 1:51.0 | most from expanded access to Venezuelan oil. Hey, Jamie. Hi, Mark. So tell us about these private |
| 1:57.4 | investors who are chomping at the bit to get into Venezuelan oil? |
| 2:06.5 | Yes, it didn't take very long at all. One of the most prominent is a former Chevron executive, Ali Moshear, who had previously worked in Venezuela, and his fund has actually |
| 2:13.7 | been seeking to raise $2 billion to try and invest in different assets there. |
... |
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