In this Oct. 7, 2019 photo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaks during a news conference following the forum Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC) in the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Perry is being called to testify in the House impeachment inquiry. Perry, the first member of President Donald TrumpþÄôs Cabinet who has asked to appear before House investigators, is scheduled for Wednesday, according an official working on the impeachment inquiry but unauthorized to discuss it publicly. ItþÄôs unclear if Perry would show up for the closed-door session.(AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

KYIV, Ukraine — Two political supporters of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry secured a potentially lucrative oil and gas exploration deal from the Ukrainian government soon after Perry proposed one of the men as an adviser to the country’s new president.

Perry’s efforts to influence Ukraine’s energy policy came earlier this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking military aid from the United States to defend against Russian aggression, and allies of President Donald Trump were ramping up efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry’s supporters little more than a month after the U.S. energy secretary attended Zelenskiy’s May inauguration. During that trip, Perry handed the new president a list of people he recommended as energy advisers, including his longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer.

A week later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to drill for oil and gas at a sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. Their proposal was millions of dollars lower than their only competitor, according to internal Ukrainian government documents obtained by The Associated Press.

But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Energy, was awarded the 50-year agreement because a government-appointed commission determined they had greater technical expertise and stronger financial backing, the documents show.

Testimony in Trump’s impeachment inquiry shows the energy secretary was one of three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump and the Ukrainian leader.

The sequence of events suggests that the Trump administration’s political maneuvering in Ukraine was entwined with the big business of the energy trade.

Perry made clear during trips to Kyiv that he was close to Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American investor and longtime Perry supporter who lives in Houston, and Cranberg, a Republican mega-donor who provided Perry the use of a luxury corporate jet during the energy secretary’s failed 2012 presidential bid.

Perry spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes said Wednesday that the energy secretary has championed the American energy industry all over the world, including Ukraine. But Hynes denied Perry had advocated for the business interests of any one individual or company.

Zelenskiy’s office did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to AP, Bleyzer denied that Perry helped his firm get the gas deal.