Seeing little change in fundamental influences, Tuesday’s market was almost a repeat of the day before. Most points were again close to flat, with some ranging to a little more than a dime up or down. The primary difference was that softening trends showed up more often Tuesday.

Prospects for mild declines continuing Wednesday appeared good after quotes headed lower in later trading Tuesday. A Midwestern utility buyer reported doing most of his deals early, when Northern Natural’s demarc and Ventura points were in the mid to high $5.30s, but he picked up another demarc package almost a dime lower late that morning. A siege of snowstorms in the region seems to have wound down, the buyer said; Monday and Tuesday were the first “really sunny” days in a long while.

Low temperatures were still dipping below freezing across most of the northern half of the U.S., but they were largely being offset by daytime highs above freezing. Punishing wind chills were forecast for the Plains states and western parts of the Upper Midwest Wednesday, but Midcontinent/Midwest prices were flat to down about a dime. “Seasonable” was the watchword for weather trends in most other areas.

One source suggested that barring a return of severe winter weather like that experienced by the Northeast during much of January, plentiful storage inventories while the withdrawal season enters its late stages will keep an effective cap on any major price run-ups.

A Midcontinent marketer guessing at a 200 Bcf pull in Thursday’s storage report commented there is still lots of gas in the ground, so with temperatures gradually rising he is selling as much gas as possible to take advantage of prices while they are up. “The Midwest is as warm as I’ve seen in two weeks,” he said. “We’re finally getting normal temperatures in Middle America. Having lows in the 40s seems really nice, having come out of the last several weeks of below normal temperatures.”

An intrastate Texas trader found a “pretty lethargic market” Tuesday. The Texas utilities are not really buying much gas, and they’re saying the colder temperatures due later this week probably won’t be as bad as predicted, he said. The trader pointed out that many Gulf Coast points are trading nearly a dime over futures, which is a far cry from late last year when so many traders talked about the need for cash gas to close a dollar-plus gap below the screen.

For the Feb. 16-20 period, the National Weather Service predicts a swath of below normal temperatures from the Pacific Northwest through the Rockies and into West Texas, and also along a sliver of the East Coast that stops in northeastern Florida. It anticipates above normal readings in the Plains, Midcontinent and most of the Midwest, and also in a thin stretch along most of the California coast. Normal conditions were forecast elsewhere.

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