A subsidiary of Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG) won approval Friday from U.S. regulators to export liquefied natural gas around the world from a terminal in Sabine Pass, La.

The permit, which allows Cheniere to sell super-chilled gas to any country that would have it, complements a previous authorization to export gas to countries that have a free-trade agreement with the U.S., such as Mexico and Canada. Cheniere said last fall that it was working on a deal to supply a Chinese natural gas company with LNG.

Cheniere said that in addition to its potential deal with a subsidiary of China-based Enn Energy Trading Co., it has reached tentative agreements to supply gas to companies in Japan, Spain, Italy, France and the Dominican Republic as well as a potential pact with investment bank Morgan Stanley to trade the gas.

News of the export permit sent Cheniere's stock soaring. Shares closed up 30.56% at $10.04.

Obstacles remain, however.

The deals with buyers still must be finalized, and most importantly, Cheniere still has to build a liquefaction terminal. The facility it owns at Sabine Pass was built to receive and reheat liquefied gas, not to chill it to 260 below zero Fahrenheit for transport. The company has estimated it would cost $6 billion to build the new infrastructure.

Cheniere said Friday that it hopes to begin construction in 2012 and begin exporting gas culled from the high-yielding fields that dot the Gulf Coast in the first half of 2015.

Though Cheniere does not have supply agreements with producers, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK) officials have said their company could provide Cheniere with some of the gas it would need. Chesapeake is the second-largest natural gas producer in the U.S. after Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM).

The U.S. has seen its gas shortage turn into a glut as producers learned in recent years to unlock deeply buried energy-bearing rocks. Demand in Asia, meanwhile, is on the rise. And natural gas prices there are tied to the price of oil, meaning that gas that costs $4 per million British thermal units in Louisiana could fetch up to three times as much overseas.

The project, despite the hurdles it faces, has strong support from federal and local officials.

"Our long-term economic strength depends on safely and responsibly harnessing America's domestic energy resources while developing new and innovative clean energy technologies," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in a statement. "This project reflects a broad, 'all of the above' approach that will put Americans to work producing the energy the world needs."

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., on Friday called the project a "precedent-setting breakthrough that will bring substantial economic benefits to southwest Louisiana."

The Sabine Pass project wouldn't be the first natural gas export facility in the U.S., but the only existing facility, in Alaska, is in the process of being mothballed.

-By Ryan Dezember, Dow Jones Newswires, 713-547-9208, ryan.dezember@dowjones.com;

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