OREANDA-NEWS. Cheniere Energy today announced that it has reached an agreement with activist investor Carl Icahn by creating two new board of director positions and appointing Icahn representatives to those posts.

Jonathan Christodoro and Samuel Merksamer, managing directors of Icahn Capital, were named to the Cheniere board, which now has eleven directors.

On 6 August, an investor group headed by Icahn disclosed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it had bought about 19.35mn Cheniere shares, or about 8.18pc of the company's total shares, for $1.13bn. The group said it acquired the positon "in the belief that the shares were undervalued."

"As we have done with a number of companies in the past, we hope to contribute meaningfully as board members towards enhancing shareholder value at Cheniere," Icahn said.

Houston-based Cheniere was on the verge of bankruptcy several years ago after the US shale gas boom turned its investment on LNG imports sour. But it reversed its fortunes by proposing to take advantage of low US gas prices and export US LNG.

Cheniere will become the first major US LNG exporter late this year, when its Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana sends out its first test cargo. Cheniere has a two-year head start on other US LNG export projects because the US Department of Energy analyzed the potential impacts of US LNG exports on the domestic gas market after granting Cheniere the first export license.

Cheniere is also building a major LNG export facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, and is looking at building smaller facilities along the Gulf Coast. It will become one of the largest gas buyers in the US, with feed gas demand of 4-6 Bcf/d (113-170mn m?/d).

Cheniere's customers will assume the commodity price risk for its LNG projects, as the customers will pay Cheniere a liquefaction fee for 20 years whether or not they take LNG.

Icahn has invested in a number of energy companies, including Dynegy, Talisman and Chesapeake Energy.