April 13, 2012. Cheniere Energy Inc., the natural gas importer that lost $1.2 billion in a decade, is poised to become the sole U.S. exporter of fuel from the shale bonanza that's turned the nation into the world's biggest gas producer. The government may decide on Cheniere's request to build a $10 billion Louisiana plant that would be the largest in the U.S. to liquefy gas and load it onto ocean-going tankers. Regulators will discuss the project. As the only company with a 20-year Energy Department license to export continental liquefied gas to nations without U.S. free-trade agreements, Cheniere will have a near-monopoly on selling LNG to some of the biggest gas importers -- Japan and Spain -- which currently pay as much as nine times more for the fuel than it costs in U.S. markets. All rival export-license requests are on hold while the Energy Department studies the potential economic impacts of shipping abroad.