Charif Souki has fallen at his moment of triumph. Cheniere Energy, the company he founded, is about to begin something that many people thought could never be done: exporting liquefied natural gas from the southern states of the US. If the deliveries go ahead as planned, customers in Europe and Asia will early next year be heating their homes and generating power using gas from Texas and Louisiana — and benefiting from the US shale boom — largely because of his vision and drive. Yet over the weekend Mr Souki was ousted as Cheniere chief executive, following a clash with the board. Carl Icahn, the activist investor with a 14 per cent stake, praised the board for having the “guts” to oppose Mr Souki. His departure is a sign of the tensions that have emerged in the emerging US LNG export industry.