With the exception of a few scattered flat to barely lower points, nearly all the market was on the same softening page Friday, showing the most unity of price movement since the previous week. Lack of heating load in many areas, the delayed impact of a bearish storage report Thursday and the demand dropoff typical of a weekend produced overall declines ranging from about a nickel to more than 40 cents but concentrated in the teens.

A moderate cold front originating in the Great Lakes area was expected to cool off the Midwest over the weekend and the Northeast early this week, but the forecast did little to induce extra utility purchases Friday, one source said.

The South is on the verge of having substantial air conditioning load, but going by utility purchasing hasn’t quite reached that point yet, a marketer said. A forecast of stormy weather throughout much of the region through Saturday likely helped dampen weekend purchases for power generation, he added.

A Gulf Coast trader reported “pretty tight ranges” of a nickel or less in nearly all cases Friday. An exception was Florida Gas Transmission Zones 2 and 3, where he saw “bumps up” of nearly a dime near the end of trading after a Florida LDC came out looking for gas late.

Noting that “T-shirt weather” in the 60s and 70s has dominated the Calgary weather picture lately, a producer remarked, “It’s starting to turn green here.” That may be a sign that what seemed at times to be an immortal 2002/03 winter is finally giving up the ghost, he said. His total intra-Alberta range of C3.5 cents in the high C$6.40s for the weekend reflected the generally tight trading seen throughout the market. The producer said he doesn’t think the market is going to fall much more, explaining that there’s too much storage deficit to make up for that to happen.

A Texas producer, however, had a different take. He told NGI he was in a company meeting “trying to figure out how to scare up market for May. It’s not easy. Just about everyone we talk to is in a long supply position.” Of course, that may indicate that refilling storage won’t be such a big problem down the road, he said. He was seeing “a lot of offers” at Texas interstate points being posted at index minus 7-8 cents. “That seems pretty weak, but the end-users still tell us, ‘Hell, that’s not bad. The producers are still getting something” on the plus side of $5.

A California-based trader quoting May El Paso-Permian deals at index minus 3 cents said it seemed like much of the Houston trading community “left after lunchtime to attend the [Shell Houston Open] golf tournament.”

A marketer reported trading ANR Southeast at basis of minus 6.25 cents, while another source quoted several fixed-price deals at Malin in the mid $4.90s.

A Houston-based marketer said May activity was still “mostly tire-kicking” Friday, but he thinks bidweek trading will get much heavier on Monday because people will have fresher weather forecasts and the futures expiration number to work with then.

Kyle Cooper of Citigroup said he’s looking for EIA to report an injection in the mid 40s Bcf area for the week ending April 25.

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