With some of the regions hardest hit by severe wintry weather last week getting a breathing spell during the weekend before the next onslaught is predicted to start early this week — and a long holiday weekend contributing its extra interruption of industrial load — prices fell at nearly all points Friday. The previous day’s 10.4-cent increase by March futures apparently had little impact on the cash market.

NGPL Amarillo Mainline realized the day’s only gain of about a nickel, while a few scattered flat points also avoided the overall softness in which losses ranged from 2-3 cents to a little more than $1.20. As usual, it was Northeast citygates seeing the wildest price swings; very few other points recorded losses exceeding single digits.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report (delayed until Friday morning by the recent blizzard in the nation’s capital) of a 191 Bcf pull in the week ending Feb. 5 was near the top end of the range of prior analyst estimates and 10 Bcf or so above consensus expectations on either side of 180 Bcf. Bullish reaction was somewhat muted among Nymex traders as March futures ended the day only 7.2 cents higher after previously being up a little more than a dime (see related story).

SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analysts urged caution about the EIA’s numbers, saying they had perceived some concern over the accuracy of the report given the multi-day blizzard-related closure of nearly all federal government offices last week, “so [futures] trading following the report could be somewhat quirky.”

Tennessee was rescinding an Imbalance Warning for its market area Friday afternoon, but MRT said it was implementing a new System Projection Warning Saturday (see Transportation Notes). And citing the cold and snowy weekend forecasts in its service area, Southern Natural Gas said it expected an existing OFO Type 6 for short imbalances to remain in effect through at least Monday.

The South was the latest region feeling the effects of severe winter conditions, extending into the weekend from the South Atlantic coast (including northern Florida) through North Texas. But effects in the South were not expected to be nearly as extreme as those previously impacting the upper East Coast, and The Weather Channel (TWC) said by Tuesday and Wednesday the South will be “quiet but chilly with lingering snow showers in the southern Appalachians.”

Meanwhile, the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast would be trying to get a head start during the weekend on preparing for the next winter blast starting early this week. And while the Midwest was also hoping for a weekend winter respite, on Saturday a clipper storm was due to dive from the Dakotas into the mid-Mississippi Valley, and a cold front would drop rapidly drop southward through the Plains, TWC said, adding, “On Sunday the clipper will head due east across the Ohio Valley, producing snow accumulations of three to seven inches across Kentucky and adjacent parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.”

Some in the West may be quietly taking some smug satisfaction in the climatic plight of much of the U.S. east of the Rockies. The western outlook stayed much like it has been in recent weeks: frigid lows in the teens and 20s confined largely to the Rockies and Western Canada, with cool to mild temperatures dominating the rest of the region.

A Gulf Coast trader was working from home Friday because of her North Texas area being inundated by snow a day earlier, preventing her from getting to her Dallas office. Dallas itself experienced a record daily snowfall of 9.4 inches Thursday, with about three more inches being added overnight, the trader said. In addition to the heavy snow depths, power outages were common in the region Friday, she added. She did all weekend deals at index.

A small and short-lived partial thaw was expected to begin Friday afternoon, the trader went on. Like other areas, North Texas would be getting some break from the harsh weather during the holiday weekend, she said, but after it turns colder again early this week there should be another moderating period as the weekend nears.

A lot of trading counterparties were expecting to head out from their offices in early afternoon in anticipation of the holiday, she said, but then only a “handful” of people made it to their offices across the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the first place. She noted that she works for one of the trading companies in the industry that doesn’t observe Presidents Day as a holiday, so since Friday’s trading was done through Tuesday, she would spend Monday catching up on paperwork.

The Baker Hughes Rotary Rig Count revealed an addition of another 13 rigs to the U.S. search for natural gas during the week ending Feb. 12, making the latest total 891. One rig was activated in the Gulf of Mexico, while a dozen more were deployed onshore, according to the count.

©Copyright 2010Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news reportmay not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in anyform, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.