An American financier with connections to Donald Trump’s family has reportedly signed a deal with Russian energy giant Novatek to develop natural gas in Alaska, despite ongoing Western sanctions against Moscow.
The agreement, reported by the New York Times, emerged after a meeting in August between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where talks aimed to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
During these discussions, US and Russian officials explored several potential energy deals.
Sources close to the talks suggested these business proposals were intended to incentivise the Kremlin towards a peace agreement in Ukraine and for Washington to ease sanctions on Russia.
The conflict in Ukraine, however, continues to rage four years on.
Gentry Beach, the Texas financier, confirmed to the New York Times that he had quietly signed an agreement for Novatek to develop natural gas in Alaska.
He stated that the project was in its early stages and faced significant hurdles, declining to disclose the financial details.
Novatek told the newspaper it was “indeed having negotiations on the potential use” of its technology to liquefy natural gas in remote northern Alaska, but it did not confirm that it was working with Beach.
Novatek did not reply to a request for comment from Reuters. Beach was not immediately available for comment.
Beach is chairman and CEO of investment firm America First Global that holds interests in energy, mining and infrastructure.
He helped raise funds for Trump’s election campaign in 2016 and contributed to shaping the administration’s “America First” economic and diplomatic agenda.
Beach is also a college friend of Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., according to the New York Times.
The news comes as conservation organizations and an Iñupiat group recently filed legal challenges to the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and an upcoming lease sale that they say improperly makes available ecologically sensitive lands that have been long protected.
At least two lawsuits challenging the March 18 lease sale were filed.
One, in federal court in Alaska, was brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth. Another, in federal court in the District of Columbia, was filed by The Wilderness Society and Grandmothers Growing Goodness, a group seeking to draw attention to the impacts of oil and gas development on Iñupiat communities.
The sale would be the first in the reserve since 2019 and the first under a law passed by Congress last year calling for at least five lease sales there over a 10-year period. The reserve covers an area on Alaska’s North Slope that’s roughly the size of Indiana and provides habitat for an array of wildlife, including caribou, bears, wolves and millions of migratory birds.
