Thread by @arapaho415

@Agenthades1 Great Christmas🎄 present🎁!
#TwoWildAndCrazyGuys <thread>:
1/ Parnas and Fruman "sported open shirts showing off thick gold chains at a conference where most wore business attire, had zero experience in the gas business" at #CERAWeek2019. (more...)

https://twitter.com/CERAWeek/status/1102581537982304256

@Agenthades1 2/ "Perry, in a keynote address at the CERAWeek 2019 conference [Mar 11-15 2019, Houston TX], predicted that U.S. capacity to export natural gas would expand 150% this year. The energy secretary had traveled to Kyiv🇺🇦 a few months earlier... (con't)

https://twitter.com/SecretaryPerry/status/1105856984782462981

@Agenthades1 3/ ...and met with key Ukrainian🇺🇦 officials and business leaders, including Favorov."
(You can see more of Rick Perry's excellent time in Houston by searching for CERAWeek from his Twitter timeline.)
Favorov has known Fruman for 7 years (since around 2012)... (more)

@Agenthades1 4/ "It was about seven years ago that Favorov says he first crossed paths with Fruman, who owned the luxurious Otrada Hotel in Odessa🇺🇦, a Ukrainian city famous for its opulent Black Sea resorts. (con't)

@Agenthades1 5/ ...Favorov, who ran a gas trading company, was there for a retreat and became friendly w/the hotel owner, and the two men have kept in sporadic touch ever since. After Naftogaz announced early this year that Favorov had been appointed its No. 2, he says Fruman...called to chat

@Agenthades1 6/ ...about the U.S. natural gas business and tout his connections to the Trump administration. Favorov, a dual U.S.-Russian citizen based in Kyiv...recalls suggesting they meet up at an energy industry conference he was attending in Houston.
'Good,' he says Fruman told him...

@Agenthades1 7/ [Fruman:] 'I want to introduce you to someone.'”
Favorov "was particularly eager for a dinner meeting Fruman had arranged with Harry Sargeant III, a billionaire who had made his fortune in oil and shipping, including transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military in Iraq." (more)

@Agenthades1 8/ More on Harry Sargeant III in the thread below⤵️, and more on why Warsaw🇵🇱 figures so prominently in this saga downthread, but first some local color on that evening in Houston. "Favorov sat with Parnas, Fruman and Sargeant at the Houston restaurant...
threadreaderapp.com/thread/1181745…

@Agenthades1 9/ ...Vic and Anthony’s talking about the potential money to be made exporting liquefied natural gas from the U.S. to Ukraine🇺🇦, he says he presumed Sargeant was brought in because he could move the product." "After the dinner, Favorov walked to H Bar... (con't)

@Agenthades1 10/ ...the watering hole off the lobby of the posh Post Oak Hotel and shared drinks with Parnas and Fruman." "Parnas and Fruman were fixated on Ukraine’s🇺🇦 need for the 100 shiploads of gas...and told Favorov they could broker a deal to provide that massive amount." (more)

@Agenthades1 11/ "As part of the efforts to improve Kyiv’s leverage with Moscow🇷🇺, Naftogaz🇺🇦 built enormous capacity to store natural gas, just as the gas boom in the United States has left Texas producers with 👉so little storage capacity that they’re burning off their excess👈. (con't)

@Agenthades1 12/ ...In response, the industry has been frantically expanding its infrastructure along the Gulf Coast to compress natural gas into its super-chilled, liquefied form for export overseas in specially built supertankers." (more...)
Nov 20, 2019⤵️:

https://twitter.com/USEmbassyKyiv/status/1197077227893968897

@Agenthades1 13/ Note that in previous tweet, "a ship carrying...LNG destined for Ukraine🇺🇦 arrived [on Nov 19, 2019] at the Świnoujście, Poland🇵🇱 LNG landing terminal in the Baltic Sea."
"Naftogaz officials noted a major logistical hurdle: The gas would have to be shipped to Poland🇵🇱 (con't)

@Agenthades1 14/ ...and then moved by pipeline to Ukraine🇺🇦. To sell the quantities that were being discussed, the existing pipelines would need to be expanded."
Parnas in Warsaw🇵🇱 mid-February 2019 too⤵️: (more...)

https://twitter.com/arapaho415/status/1183234901513912320