The previous day’s drop of 21.4 cents by May futures was probably the major factor in driving cash prices lower across the board Friday, and weekend cooling trends in northern market areas were not generating enough heating load to stem the slide.

Thursday’s evidence from the Energy Information Administration that the early start of storage injection season showed no sign of slowing yet was another bearish note.

Whereas Thursday’s overall softness had tended to be greatest in the Rockies and Southwest, the losses Friday, ranging from about a nickel to a quarter or so, were spread fairly evenly across geographic areas. All but a couple of the declines were in double digits.

It probably won’t be sufficient to rally cash numbers Monday, when touches of weekend chill will be starting to fade in several areas, but the physical market will have a modicum of screen support after May futures rebounded by 5.4 cents Friday (see related story).

To be sure, quite a few locations stretching from Eastern Canada and upper New England through parts of the Midwest into the Rockies could expect overnight lows in the 30s during the weekend, but those would largely be offset by daytime peaks in the 50s.

Meanwhile, while parts of the South were still warm with highs around 80, the overall power generation load for air conditioning had diminished from earlier in the week when much of the region was reaching the mid 80s. And cooling demand had virtually vanished from some Southern locales such as Little Rock, AR, and Memphis, TN, which were forecast to top out in the upper 60s Saturday.

One place where there was no doubt of substantive air conditioning load was the Phoenix area, which had regained its reputation as one of the hottest cities in the nation with Saturday expected to be the third straight day with a high around 90.

The extension of a high-linepack OFO by SoCalGas into its fourth day Saturday continued to keep a damper on Southern California prices.

Henry Hub volumes of 1,071,800 MMBtu traded Thursday on IntercontinentalExchange, when the hub average rose a penny, shrank to 949,000 MMBtu Friday. Henry Hub quotes were down nearly 20 cents for the weekend.

A Midwest utility buyer said local lows of just below 40 Friday and Saturday represented a return to “normal” for mid-April. Earlier last week the area had been peaking around 80, he said, which not only was 30-40% warmer than normal but had come close to setting date-specific records for highs. Despite the resumption of cooler weather, the utility was not seeing any significant boost to heating load, and any air conditioners that were running previously had certainly been turned off, he added. The forecast for the coming week anticipates temperatures rising into the 70s, which will be above normal again, he said.

The buyer said his company has been gratified to see lower carbon dioxide levels in deliveries by Northern Natural Gas since the pipeline began allocating receipts at its interconnect with Trailblazer (see Daily GPI, April 7).

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