As U.S. President Donald Trump moves quickly to put together a $100 billion effort to revive Venezuela's oil industry, the administration has yet to finalize the fate of the crown jewel of the country's foreign assets, U.S. refining company Citgo Petroleum, Reuters reported. Houston-based ​Citgo has been tied up in the lengthy auction of its parent, PDV Holding, organized by a Delaware court to pay billions of dollars to creditors for ‌debt defaults and expropriations in Venezuela.

Western oil companies have been fighting to recoup tens of billions of dollars that they say Venezuela owes them — debts that could play a prominent role in efforts by President Trump to compel U.S. businesses to produce more oil in the country, the New York Times reported. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips top the list of oil companies with big financial claims against Venezuela, whose president, Nicolás Maduro, was captured by U.S. forces over the weekend in Caracas.

Company executives, customs brokers and trade lawyers are bracing for a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump's sweeping global tariffs - and a potential fight over obtaining perhaps $150 billion in refunds from the U.S. government for duties already paid by importers if he loses, Reuters reported.

The Trump administration plans to control future sales of Venezuelan oil and hold the proceeds in U.S. accounts, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said, making the clearest statement yet on Washington’s strategy to bring the impoverished nation’s crude to market and control its most valuable resource, Bloomberg News reported. Wright, who spoke at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. conference in Miami Wednesday, said initially the barrels would come from crude Venezuela is holding in storage, which has been filling up amid the U.S. blockade and threatening to force some production off line.

For activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, Nicolás Maduro’s swift exit comes at an auspicious time, the Wall Street Journal reported. A U.S. judge in November backed a roughly $6 billion bid by Elliott for Citgo Petroleum, the refining firm owned by Venezuela’s state-run company Petróleos de Venezuela, known as PdVSA, in a forced sale to satisfy creditors. Citgo, based in Houston, owns a U.S. network of refineries, pipelines and terminals that some analysts have said could be worth between $11 billion and $13 billion. The deal was controversial in Venezuela.

An American oil and gas giant is preparing to mothball one of Britain’s last remaining oil refineries after buying the business out of administration, The Telegraph reported. The Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, one of the last five major oil refineries in the country, will not restart standalone operations after it was sold to Phillips 66 on Monday. The Texas-based oil and gas giant said that the site’s limited size meant it was “not viable in current form”, instead claiming it would integrate some smaller parts of the site into its nearby Humber refinery.

President Donald Trump signed a New Year's Eve proclamation delaying increased tariffs on upholstered furniture, kitchen cabinets and vanities for a year, citing ongoing trade talks, the Associated Press reported. Trump's order signed Wednesday keeps in place a 25% tariff he imposed in September on those goods, but delays for another year a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture and 50% tariff on kitchen cabinets and vanities. The increases, which were set to take effect Jan.

Italy's foreign ministry said on Thursday the United States had sharply lowered proposed duties ​on several Italian pasta makers following a reassessment of ‌their U.S. activities, Reuters reported. In October, the United States said that 13 Italian pasta companies ‌would face an extra 92% duty - on top of the regular 15% rate on most EU imports - from January 2026, accusing two producers in particular, La Molisana and Garofalo, of selling pasta ⁠at unfairly low prices. However, ‌after a review, the U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to launch a wave of new tariffs based on alternative legislation if the Supreme Court rules against his current levies, diplomats and trade lawyers say, the Financial Times reported. The US Supreme Court is poised to rule as soon as January on the legality of the president’s use of emergency powers to hammer trading partners with tariffs, leaving the centrepiece of his economic policy hanging in the balance.

With just days remaining in 2025, the wave of airline bankruptcies affecting small and mid-sized carriers shows no sign of slowing, AirGuide.info reported. Over the past several months, multiple airlines across Europe and North America have collapsed or entered insolvency proceedings. Icelandic low-cost carrier PLAY Airlines and Sweden’s Braathens Aviation both shut down operations during the fall after filing for bankruptcy within weeks of each other. Flag carrier Air Albania has also suspended all flights since early December, following Turkish Airlines’ decision to sell its 49% stake.