In a bitterly divided Congress, lawmakers still managed to come together to help Exxon Mobil pass major legislation that could remake the geopolitics of the Middle East and Europe. During the holiday season legislative blitz in December, legislators tucked an obscure provision into the omnibus spending package that lifted arms restrictions and boosted a controversial pipeline deal in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The legislative text, mirroring a bill that has circulated in Congress over the last year, promises a range of U.S. assistance for the development of natural gas resources off the coasts of Israel and Cyprus, including support for constructing pipelines and liquified natural gas terminals and the creation of a United States-Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center in the region run by the U.S. Department of Energy. Cyprus, one of the smallest states in the European Union, has come under increasing pressure from Turkey, which opposes the development of new gas fields off the disputed coasts of the island-state and has used its navy to threaten drilling vessels. In response, the legislative text also repeals the prohibition of weapons transfers to Cyprus put in place in 1987, promotes greater U.S military assistance to Greece and Cyprus, and instructs the U.S. to maintain its newly situated predator drone fleet in the region. The omnibus includes provisions from the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act, legislation introduced in the House and Senate last year.

While the provision received scant coverage in American media, it prompted a flurry of activity after its passage. On January 2, leaders of Israel, Greece, and Cyprus appeared together to sign a trilateral deal to build a new $6.7 billion pipeline to bring gas from offshore fields in Israel and Cyprus to Greece, Italy, and Bulgaria. The new EastMed pipeline could transport as much as 20 billion cubic meters of gas to those countries annually, pitched as a way to lessen Russian and Turkish energy influence in the region. Days later, Russia and Turkey announced plans for their own joint venture, the TurkStream pipeline. The authorization of the military assistance and pipeline support never received a single hearing, an up-or-down vote, or any open debate. Its inclusion in the must-pass spending package reflects the powerful lobbying coalition that came together in support of the deal. That coalition included foreign agents tied to both Greece and Cyprus, the American Jewish Committee, and Christians United for Israel, an evangelical group with close ties to Israel. Greek American diaspora groups also mobilized to lobby for the legislation. Hellenic American Leadership Council, one Greek American group, touted the passage of the text as the “most pro-Hellenic bill in a generation.” But disclosure documents reviewed by The Real News and The Intercept suggest that Exxon Mobil was at the center of the lobbying effort. The energy giant curried favor to win support for the gas project within the European Union, as well as in Washington, D.C. The rapid political moves on Capitol Hill came just months after Exxon Mobil announced one of the largest gas field discoveries in recent years off the coast of Cyprus last February — the latest in a series of new discoveries in the region over the past decade. In 2013, the Hudson Institute was the first major Beltway institution to call for the U.S. to provide military assistance to Cyprus and promote the development of the new gas discoveries in the region. The following year, the Hudson Institute published a long follow-up report on the issue, after which Exxon Mobil disclosed a donation of $15,000 to the think tank. Seth Cropsey, a senior Pentagon official for the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, served as the lead author of both reports. The new gas discoveries prompted growing coordination between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. “We decided to explore this in a very audacious way: to form a trilateral committee between Greece, Cyprus, and Israel to plan the possibility of a pipeline that would take our common resources of gas and export them to Europe via Greece — a pipeline from Israel, Cyprus, through Greece to Europe,” Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference in 2016. Also in 2016, Exxon Mobil and Qatar Petroleum formed a new venture and won a bid to explore offshore blocks near Cyprus. The contract was later inked in a 2017 ceremony in Cyprus, with officials from both companies present, alongside both the U.S. and Qatari ambassadors to Cyprus. “Exxon Mobil and our partner, Qatar Petroleum, have a long and successful history of developing gas resources,” said Andrew Swiger, principal foreign officer of Exxon Mobil, in a press release at the time of winning bid. Lobbying disclosures in the European Union show that Exxon Mobil officials quickly went to work, scheduling meetings in March 2018 with an unnamed EU cabinet member on gas exploration near Cyprus. Just three days later, the U.S. military brought the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit to Limassol, Cyprus, on the USS Iwo Jima as Exxon Mobil commenced exploratory drilling in the region. Speaking with investors later that year, the company boasted about the Cyprus gas fields as a key area of growth. Asked by analysts about where Exxon Mobil sees its greatest future prospects, Neil Chapman, Exxon Mobil’s senior vice president, said he “would highlight Cyprus.” Last year, in another conference call with investors, Chapman emphasized that the Cyprus fields “turned out to be a pretty nice discovery.” The EUobserver, a watchdog media outlet, obtained an email showing that Exxon Mobil hosted a lunch in April 2018 with Cypriot members of European Parliament, Cyprus’s highest EU diplomat, and EU Commissioner Christos Stylianides, to discuss the company’s gas exploration of the Cyprus coast. The lunch took place at a restaurant located close to the U.S. Embassy in Brussels. In October 2018, the company also served as the lead sponsor of a gala held in Greece at the largest business convention in southeast Europe. In a photo published by the U.S. Embassy in Cyprus, then-U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus Kathleen Doherty is seen alongside Exxon Mobil executives.