Gas producers in the United States scrimped on price hedges and now face a punishment.

Natural gas price declines will affect gas producers' first-quarter profitability and cash flows because hedges - the industry's equivalent of price insurance - were insufficient to offset predicted losses, according to analysts and industry experts. Producers who begin the year with fewer hedges than usual will have to sell more gas at the market rate of about $2.45 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), which is below the breakev....