Then, in the spring of 2009, came the call to Souki from Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake, who was at the forefront of the shale gag boom and had built up a huge inventory of drilling sites. “Hey, can you guys do liquefaction at Sabine Pass?” asked McClendon. “Why are you asking?” replied Souki. McClendon became more explicit—could Cheniere build an export terminal for Chesapeake so that it could find markets outside the United States for its swelling volumes of gas and help relieve the growing pressure of oversupply?
