By Georgina McCartney and Arathy Somasekhar

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Market upheaval from U.S. President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies has not dampened foreign investment interest in the U.S. energy industry, executives said this week, as they lauded his promise to cut regulations and support fossil fuels.

Trump has made energy dominance a pillar of his administration, declaring a national energy emergency on his first day of office and pulling the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. He has urged energy companies to boost fossil fuel production and promised to bring down prices for consumers.

The U.S. oil and gas industry, which has focused on returning capital to shareholders and reined in exploration and investment, has broadly welcomed Trump’s pro-energy stance, even though lower prices typically hurt company bottom lines. The foreign companies did not yet commit a dollar amount to new investment in the United States.

Oil prices hit a three-year low in early March. On Monday global Brent crude futures settled under $70 a barrel as investors worried a trade war would slow economic growth.

Foreign energy companies see opportunity in America’s vast natural resources and Trump’s pro-energy policies. Their interest follows years of slower U.S. spending as investors pushed companies to focus on returns rather than explosive growth.

United Arab Emirates energy company ADNOC on Tuesday said it intended to make significant investments in the coming months in the U.S. through its fully-owned international investment arm XRG, which has about $80 billion in assets and is considering options for an initial public offering.

“Investing in the United States through XRG is not a priority; it’s an absolute imperative,” ADNOC CEO Sultan Al Jaber said on Tuesday.

He said those investments would include the natural gas supply chain. The UAE is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Australian oil and gas producer Santos also said it planned to increase its investment in the U.S., citing the Trump administration’s pro-energy policies. That could include further capital toward its Pikka oil project in Alaska.

Last year, Australian company Woodside Energy acquired U.S. liquefied natural gas company Tellurian and plans to make a final investment decision on an LNG export project in Louisiana this year. The company also recently acquired an ammonia plant in Beaumont, Texas.

Santos on Sunday evening attended a dinner with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and executives from other major oil and gas firms. Wright promised to speed up permitting and support the industry.

By Marianna Parraga

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Guyana is considering a plan to export crude oil to the United States for refining and to bring back fuel for domestic supply and possibly for sale to nearby countries, Guyanese President Irfaan Ali said at a conference in Houston on Tuesday.

Guyana has one of the world’s fastest-growing economies thanks to rapidly rising oil output at the country’s prolific offshore oilfields, which are operated by a consortium led by U.S. oil major Exxon Mobil.

The government is entitled to a portion of output as profit oil, which it exports through trading firms that allocate cargoes in different markets, particularly Europe.

Guyana does not have refineries, but is discussing projects with companies and the Dominican Republic to build a small refinery.

Guyana would do anything to keep regional peace, Ali also said at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, when asked about tension with Venezuela.

The South American neighbors are involved in a long-running dispute about which country owns the 160,000-square-km (62,000-square-mile) Esequibo area, which is the subject of an ongoing case at the International Court of Justice

“We just ask that Venezuela respect the ICJ and the rule of law,” he said.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga; Editing by Simon Webb and Nia Williams)

• Content creators are hiring for a number of jobs on their teams and production staff.

• The creator economy’s growth has increased demand for roles like video editors and scriptwriters.

• YTJobs saw a 33% rise in job opportunities in Q4, with average pay for video editors up by 18%.

Maybe your dream of becoming a YouTube star didn’t quite go as planned. Well, you could work for one instead.

More YouTube creators and other social media influencers are hiring for the teams and production staff who help them create content and run their businesses.

YTJobs CEO Sina Sahami said the company’s creator job board saw a 33% year-over-year increase in the number of job opportunities listed in the fourth quarter.

The uptick in hiring comes as more creators boost production quality with recognizable characters and storylines, said Lydia DeCoud, a digital agent at CAA.

Business Insider spoke with talent managers, agents, and other professionals on influencer teams who shared some of the most sought-after jobs creators are hiring for. Their responses ranged from roles that require minimal experience, like a personal assistant, to higher-level positions, like a graphics editor.

For instance, short-form video creator Alan Chikin Chow last year opened his own production studio in Burbank down the street from Hollywood studios and sound stages. Chow’s team recently posted a listing for a full-time job as a behind-the-scenes vlogger to capture moments on set between the team.

YouTube’s most-subscribed-to creator, Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast to his 371 million subscribers, has dozens of job openings available. His team is hiring for roles ranging from brand strategist and director of strategic partnerships to TikTok specialist.

Although most creators don’t run operations as large as Donaldson and Chow’s, these job openings show what type of talent content creators need.

YTJobs analyzed thousands of creator job listings. The most in-demand roles for content creators in Q4 were:

The fastest-growing roles year-over-year were:

• YouTube strategist (120% growth in job postings)

• scriptwriter (42% growth)

• thumbnail designer (39% growth)

Several talent managers, agents, and other creator professionals told BI that creators are most commonly looking for personal and executive assistants to help with tasks like unboxing packages, capturing content, and booking travel. They’re also looking for video editors, graphics editors, talent coordinators, and social media managers.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – US regulators have approved the expansion of Cheniere’s Corpus Christi liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Texas, a Cheniere executive said on Tuesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Committee approved the construction of production trains 8 and 9 at the plant, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer Anatol Feygin said at an industry conference in Houston.

(Reporting by Curtis Williams; Editing by Simon Webb)

(Bloomberg) — Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin said the firm has been in touch with former OpenAI Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati about her new startup’s funding round — a closely held deal that’s captivated the attention of much of Silicon Valley.

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“We’re talking to her,” Lin said on Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Murati, who left OpenAI in September, unveiled her new company, Thinking Machines Lab, earlier this year. Murati has recruited other former OpenAI leaders to build out the new venture, which will focus on building artificial intelligence models and products that support more “human-AI collaboration.”

Sequoia has already backed another OpenAI alum, Ilya Sutskever, when he raised $1 billion for his startup Safe Superintelligence last year. Bloomberg reported in February that Sutskever is raising additional capital that would value the company at more than $30 billion.

The significant sums Sutskever has raised, and the anticipation surrounding Murati’s company, underscore the star power of a few AI leaders. It also highlights investors’ confidence that these founders can parlay their success at OpenAI to their next ventures — even if they have yet to show revenue or a product.

Lin emphasized that he’s thinking about the long term. “The entry price today is important but not as relevant when you think of the order of magnitude in the future,” he said. “The order of magnitude we think about today will surprise us in the long run.”

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(Bloomberg) — Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car firm, Waymo, said it will begin transporting passengers in a handful of cities near its Mountain View, California, headquarters.

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Waymo said it will be offering rides to a select group of residents before expanding to more riders in a 27-square-mile swath of Silicon Valley that includes Mountain View, Los Altos, Palo Alto and parts of Sunnyvale. The company added that it now delivers more than 200,000 paid rides per week to customers in its existing markets, including San Francisco and Los Angeles.

“Opening our fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Silicon Valley marks a special milestone in our Bay Area journey,” Waymo’s chief product officer, Saswat Panigrahi, said in a statement Tuesday. “This is where Waymo began and where we’re headquartered. Now we’re bringing seamless rides, safer streets, and sustainable transportation to our local community.”

Alphabet has been aggressively expanding Waymo, with plans to test in 10 new cities this year. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s latest earnings call that Waymo is working on new version of its driving technology that will trim hardware costs. The unit is part of its “other bets” division, a collection of futuristic businesses that generated $400 million in fourth-quarter revenue.

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HOUSTON (Reuters) – TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said on Tuesday at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston that he expected liquefied natural gas prices to soften by the end of the decade.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Writing by Richard Valdmanis)