Memories of Winter Storm Uri were fresh on the minds of natural gas buyers in Mexico as a cold front raced south through the United States and down into Texas.

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Mexico’s power grid operator Cenace warned that up to 9,000 MW of natural gas-fired power could be under stress due to limited natural gas supply. The cold was also expected to hit the northern Mexico states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas by as early as Thursday night.

“We’re worried, but we can’t do much since we don’t have any gas storage,” a natural gas buyer in Mexico City said. The source added that the welcome news was that the upcoming Christmas holidays were a time of lower industrial and residential demand.

Also welcome is the prediction from analysts that the storm won’t be as bad as...