A proposed 20-year, $20 billion deal to import half of Ukraine’s gas imports through a US LNG gas trader has fallen apart

A proposed 20-year, $20 billion deal to import half of Ukraine’s gas imports through a US LNG gas trader has fallen apart after New York news outlets reported that US prosecutors were probing former Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s role in brokering the deal to favor his Houston company, Energy Transfer Partners. Last May, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers approved a deal in principle with the trader, Louisiana Natural Gas Exports. But last Thursday, in a 5,000-word article, Time.com and WNYC-ProPublica reported the Perry probe. On Friday, Olga Buslavets, Ukraine’s acting energy minister, told reporters of the Louisiana deal: “Indeed, there was a refusal [of cooperation].”