Cash traders shrugged their shoulders at news that Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production was being shut in and personnel were being evacuated Sunday and Monday as Hurricane Ida approached the eastern GOM. In continuing to send most of the market lower again Monday, they preferred to concentrate on moderate weather outlooks for most areas and the previous Friday’s drop of 18.7 cents by November futures.

A large majority of points recorded losses ranging from 2-3 cents to nearly 35 cents. Most of the flat to about 30 cents higher locations were in the West.

The screen did manage to rally by 7.5 cents (see related story), but a producer said he didn’t see that as so much of an “enthusiastic” response to the first substantive disruption of offshore production this year as it was a reaction to strength in petroleum-related futures.

During its dash northward toward the east-central Gulf Coast, Ida got downgraded to a tropical storm. It was expected to make overnight landfall somewhere in the vicinity of the Mississippi-Alabama border and then turn to the east after going ashore. Several pipelines and producers were reporting production cutbacks offshore and evacuations of personnel (see related story), while Minerals Management Service said 44 companies had reported 1.925 Bcf/d, or about 27.5% of total GOM gas output, to it by midday Monday.

The Florida citygate made the day’s biggest gain after Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day at least in part due to expectations of Ida reducing its system receipts (see Transportation Notes). Florida Gas Zone 3 rose about a dime, but upstream Zones 1 and 2, being more remote from the storm, saw losses.

Modest cooling trends were under way at quite a few locations in the South, Northeast and parts of the Midwest, but no major additions to cooling load were expected to result. Forecasts of Alberta lows in the 20s generated substantial gains for NOVA Inventory Transfer and Empress, but in a milder British Columbia Westcoast Station 2 was flat.

Lows were approaching the freezing area in the Rockies, but that failed to boost regional prices. However, the Northern California market was firmer after PG&E ended a high-inventory OFO.

El Paso Natural Gas was able to resume service Sunday night at reduced pressure on the Texas Panhandle segment of Line 1102 between the Amarillo and Dumas compressor stations that was impacted by a rupture early Thursday (see Daily GPI, Nov. 6), said El Paso Corp. spokesman Robert Newberry. The pipeline worked closely over the week with the Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety to determine when a return to service could be implemented, according to a bulletin board posting. Flows will remain limited while an investigation of the cause of the blast is pending.

The resumed service was limited to pressures of about 450-500 psig, which is what is needed to serve only the loads of the affected segment, at the request of local distribution company Atmos Energy, Newberry said. See the bulletin board for details on which meters can be served again and where restrictions will remain in place until further notice.

Ida was “definitely a nonevent” for the cash market, a Gulf Coast producer said. The spot gas market was already well supplied and boasted record storage inventories, so the relatively small production reductions that Ida causes are expected to be short-lived and of little significance to overall market weakness, he said.

Temperatures are still normal to above normal for the most part, the producer continued, so loads just aren’t materializing that would rally the cash market. He said he wished the folks in Chicago were wearing their heavy coats already, although his company did see a little bit of buying pick up at the Chicago citygate for Tuesday. This is likely the “last hurrah” for the Atlantic storm season, he said, and he would have to place his bet on softer cash prices again Tuesday despite the Nymex gain.

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