Prices fell at nearly all points Thursday, depressed by the previous day’s 15-cent loss by November futures, relatively light weather-based load and the fact that a low-pressure system in the north-central Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is not only failing to strengthen but also is not having any perceptible impact on offshore operations.

Gains at three points were exceptions to overall drops ranging from about a nickel to nearly 85 cents. The Rockies market, which had been seeing strong gains from last Friday through Tuesday, were far out in front of Thursday’s slide.

The Energy Information Administration was at the low end of an unusually wide spread of consensus expectations in reporting a 57 Bcf storage build for the week ending September 28. One analyst chalked up the light injection to the residual impact of GOM shut-ins due to Tropical Depression 10 two weeks ago and reports of curtailed production in the Rockies. Futures traders treated the storage report as moderately bullish, sending the November contract up 13.5 cents.

As of Thursday afternoon the Minerals Management Service had not received any reports of offshore evacuations or shut-ins related to the GOM’s low-pressure system, a spokeswoman said. However, its effects were being felt in New Orleans, where rain had been falling since early morning, she added.

The overall cash softness occurred despite cold weather in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada and what might have been date-specific record-setting heat in the Ohio Valley, according to The Weather Channel. And temperatures were due to peak around 90 degrees or more again Friday from the western half of the South through the desert Southwest.

Florida Gas Zone 3 and the Florida citygate were two of Thursday’s rare firmer points with gains of nearly 20 cents and about 75 cents, respectively, after Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day (see Transportation Notes).

El Paso’s San Juan-Bondad pool was the other exception to softness in rising a little more than a dime. Its advance likely was related to the end of three days of scheduled maintenance at the Bondad Station that had cut station capacity by 142 MMcf/d through Thursday.

Asked whether Thursday’s futures increase would be able to rally cash Friday, a Gulf Coast producer called it “anybody’s guess.” But he tended to doubt it, noting that in addition to generally mild weather in northern market areas and the drop of industrial load that accompanies a weekend, rains from the Gulf’s low-pressure system likely would continue to dampen power generation demand in the lower South into the weekend.

A utility buyer in the Lower Midwest reported “very nice” weather topping out around 80 degrees in his area this week, which of course meant meager gas throughput for his company. He estimated that the utility has got another week of fairly strong agricultural harvesting and processing demand left, according to what one such company told him. But that burst of load that occurs in late summer and early autumn each year tends to disappear very quickly at the end of the harvesting season, he added.

An Upper Midwest marketer also said her region was enjoying pleasant weather, which was the reason she hadn’t made any spot gas purchases so far in October. That may change next week when more seasonal October conditions arrive and create a bit of heating load. It’s rather unusual that her city has yet to experience a frost this autumn, she said.

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