In the first quarter of 2012, Chesapeake Energy needed cash. The Oklahoma City-based natural gas producer had made an ill-timed decision several months earlier to remove most of its hedges on US natural gas for 2012 and 2013, under the assumption that the market had bottomed out and prices would soon recover. Instead, they continued to sink, squeezing Chesapeake’s bottom line. On top of that, the company was facing tough questions amid a corporate governance scandal involving its then-chief