Tillerson Present as Exxon Signed Major Deal with Saudi Arabia During Trump Visit

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During his recent trip to Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump announced an array of economic agreements between the U.S. and the Middle Eastern kingdom, saying itย would usher in โ€œjobs, jobs, jobsโ€ for both oil-producingย powerhouses.

While the $350 billion, 10-year arms deal garnered most headlines, a lesser-noticedย agreementย was also signed between ExxonMobil and the state-owned Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) to studyย aย proposed co-owned natural gas refinery in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the deal, signed at the Saudi-U.S. CEO Forum, the two companies would โ€œconduct a detailed study of the proposed Gulf Coast Growth Ventures project in Texas and begin planning for front-end engineering and design workโ€ for the 1,300-acre, $10 billion plant set to be located near Corpus Christi, Texas, according toย an ExxonMobil pressย release.

In addition,ย ExxonMobil’s press release for the agreement mentions that Darren Woods, the company’sย CEO, was in the room for the signing of the pact alongsideย ExxonMobil Saudi Arabia CEOย Philippe Ducomย andย SABIC executives. Missing from that release: After the forum ended, Woods went to the Al-Yamamah Palace for an agreement-signing ceremony attended by both President Trump and recently retired ExxonMobil CEO and current U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.

DeSmog discovered they were all present at the palace via theย Saudi Press Agency’s English-language press Twitter account, which releasedย a series of photos of Woods and Tillerson shaking hands withย SABIC CEOย Yousefย Al-Benyanย and Saudi Defense Ministerย Prince Mohammad bin Salman, respectively. President Trump is seen seated in the background of the photos of both Woods and Tillerson, which were taken in the sameย room.

As in the ExxonMobil press release, White House and State Department press releasesย failed to mention that Tillerson and Woods were both present when the deals were signed between the two countries at theย Royal Court. Getty Images has also published the photo of Woods at the Al-Yamamah Palace, with Trump seated in theย background.

Tillerson-ExxonMobilย Recusal

Tillerson served as CEO of ExxonMobil for 10 years, headingย the โ€œprivate empireโ€ until President Trumpย nominatedย him as U.S. Secretary of Stateย in December 2016. At his January Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson said he would recuse himself for one year from ExxonMobil-related business which comes before the State Department,ย andย submittedย a letterย to the same effect on January 3 to the State Department’s Office of Legalย Counsel.

โ€œFor a period of one year after my resignation from ExxonMobil, I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter involving specific parties in which I know that ExxonMobil is a party or represents a party, unless I am first authorized to participate, pursuantย to 5 C.F.R. ยง 2635.502(d),โ€ wrote Tillerson in theย letter.

The statute of U.S. law laid out by Tillerson in his letter,ย 5 C.F.R. ยง 2635.502(d), dictates what stepsย federal employees should take if they have potential business conflicts or impartiality issues pertaining to U.S. governmentย business.

โ€œWhere an employee knows that a particular matter involving specific parties is likely to have a direct and predictable effect on the financial interest of a member of his household, or knows that a person with whom he has a covered relationship is or represents a party to such matter, and where the employee determines that the circumstances would cause a reasonable person with knowledge of the relevant facts to question his impartiality in the matter, the employee should not participate in the matter unless he has informed the agency designee of the appearance problem and received authorization from the agency designee,โ€ the law reads.

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson echoed the remarks made in his recusal letter with regards to State Department business potentially overlapping with that ofย ExxonMobil.

โ€œIf confirmed as secretary of state, I would recuse myself from those issues,โ€ Tillerson said at his confirmation hearing. โ€œIโ€™ve made clear in my disclosures, and I think in answers to questions that have been posed, that obviously thereโ€™s a statutory recusal period, which I will adhere to, on any matters that might come before the State Department that deal directly and specifically withย ExxonMobil.โ€

Saudi-U.S.ย CEOย Forum

Woods, the Exxon CEO who took Tillerson’s spot at the top of the company, was in Saudi Arabia at the same time as the Trump administration, apparently both to sign the agreement with SABIC andย lead a roundtable at the inauguralย Saudi-U.S.ย CEO Forum on business โ€œPartnershipย Enablers.โ€

The forum,ย attended by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross,ย โ€œdrew the kind of corporate firepower Trump suggested he could harness when he ran for the Oval Office as a Washington outsider/business executive who would reach outside the Beltway and enlist other executives in support of the administrationโ€™s economic goals,โ€ wrote Bloomberg.

โ€œMore than 30 CEOs of major U.S. companies were on hand for the summit, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Riyadh. Some later joined Trump and Saudi officials at the Royal Court Palace for a deal-signingย ceremony.โ€

โ€œBizarre Art of theย Dealโ€

Gulf Coast Growth Ventures, known in industry lingo as a โ€œcrackerโ€ facility, is set to refine natural gas obtained via hydraulic fracturing (โ€œfrackingโ€) from Texas’ย Eagle Ford Shale and other shale basins into plastics materials. Itย received billions of dollars in tax subsidies from local governmentย bodies in Texas. When built and fully functioning, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures will be the largest cracker facility on the planet.

Tillerson, as previously reported by DeSmog, maintained close ties between ExxonMobil and Saudi Arabia during his tenure as CEO. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment pertaining to Tillerson’s trip to Saudi Arabia and interaction with current Exxon CEO, Darren Woods, but maintained to DeSmog that Tillerson has upheld his ExxonMobil recusal and divestment agreement (in which Tillerson sold away his stock holdings in the company) as Secretary ofย State.

Tyson Slocum, energy program director at Public Citizenย โ€” a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog organizationย โ€” has a different take on theย matter.

โ€œThe President’s Saudi trip was a bizarre Art of the Deal-esque foreign policy disaster: a sleazy mix of conflicted government-arranged corporate endorsement deals,โ€ Slocum told DeSmog. โ€œMost troubling of all was Tillerson’s presence and role in accommodating Exxon’s deal with the House of Saud, thereby violating the former CEO‘s recusal agreement. Trump and Tillerson’s Riyadh embarrassment is just another sad indication of the administration’s prioritization of crony corporate access masquerading as a jumbled assembly of foreign policy and economicย development.โ€

The White House did not respond to a request forย comment.

Main image: Left, current ExxonMobil CEO, Darren Woods, shakes hands with SABIC CEO Yousef Al-Benyan. Right, former ExxonMobil CEO and current U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, shakes hands with Saudi Defense Minister, Prince Mohammad bin Salman during Trump’s recent visit.ย Credit:ย Saudi Press Agencyย viaย Twitter

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Steve Horn is the owner of the consultancy Horn Communications & Research Services, which provides public relations, content writing, and investigative research work products to a wide range of nonprofit and for-profit clients across the world. He is an investigative reporter on the climate beat for over a decade and former Research Fellow for DeSmog.

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