Energy & Science
Gas Traders Pleaded for Cash as Texas Cold Upended Their Market
The winter storm boosted demand, slashed production and sent prices haywire in a way that even veteran traders had never seen before.
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The urgent phone calls came over the holiday weekend: traders of natural gas needed more money, and fast.
Temperatures were starting to plummet across the central U.S. Prices for the heating fuel had skyrocketed 300-fold to levels nobody had thought possible. This would later prove to be the precursor of one of the worst energy crises the nation had seen, plunging millions into darkness for days amid a deadly deep freeze.