The fading late-April swing market continued on a path of moderate softness Thursday. Except for plunges at some California points, where temperatures are cooling again after a flash of summer-like heat earlier in the week, other markets ranged from flat to down about 15 cents. A majority of declines were between a nickel and a dime.

The May expiration-day screen helped point the way lower for cash, sources said, but it was primarily having little in the way of either heating or cooling demand that was responsible for the softness. Even in the South it hasn’t gotten hot enough yet to show up noticeably in electric utility load, said a Houston-based trader.

Cash-out prices are “really high” compared with current cash levels, noted a marketer. That’s why a number of pipelines, especially in the Gulf Coast, have been struggling with high-linepack issues lately as traders try to “park” as much gas in the pipes as possible without incurring OFO penalties.

San Juan-Blanco numbers saw a late spike, according to a marketer who traded the point in the $4.40s and $4.50s until a couple of late deals went for $4.90 and $5.00. There was no ostensible reason like pipeline maintenance for the run-up, he said, but possibly it was due to some traders closing out swing positions for the rest of April. “It doesn’t take much to push the numbers in that case,” he added.

A couple of sources agreed there was no good reason for the extreme disconnect between Malin and PG&E citygate numbers over the last three days. On Tuesday and Wednesday Malin was dropping like a rock while the citygate made substantial gains. Yesterday Malin continued to plunge and the citygate also fell, but by less than a third as much Malin. “It [disconnect] doesn’t make sense,” especially with PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest maintenance limiting Kingsgate capacity, one source said. Nevertheless, with a Malin-gate spread of nearly $6 Thursday, “anybody holding Redwood Path capacity on the PG&E system is making out like a bandit,” he said.

Predictably, many traders were de-emphasizing the swing market in order to focus on May business. Sources in several regions said bidweek prices trended down moderately along with the May futures contract.

However, a Gulf Coast trader complained that “nobody was out there to play with” Thursday in bidweek business. A lot of producers wanted to withhold their gas until Monday, thinking that an approaching hot spell might jack May prices back up some by then, he said. “I think that’s a good strategy for them.” He noted there would be a trend of moderating weather over the weekend, and the National Weather Service is predicting above normal temperatures next week for nearly the entire U.S. from the Front Range of the Rockies eastward.

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