The cash market relied on new cold fronts forecast for Tuesday in the Northeast and South, along with predictions of temperatures well below early-March norms in the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes sections of the Midwest, to push prices higher at nearly all points Monday. Delayed support from Friday’s futures gain of nearly 9 cents and the restoration of industrial load from its usual weekend slump aided the climb.

Increases ranged from a couple of cents (Questar in the Rockies) to about 45 cents (Tennessee Zone 6 in New England). Northeast citygates tended to see most of the largest gains, while the West recorded most of the smallest ones. Not coincidentally, most of the mildest weather outside the upper elevations of the Rockies is in residence in the western states and parts of the South.

One source said it was a tough call on how long the start-of-week rally could be sustained. But because high temperatures in the Northeast were expected to occur early Tuesday and take a dive afterward, he expected eastern numbers to continue seeing at least modest firmness. The West’s weather mildness made that region’s prices harder to handicap, the marketer said, but he anticipates a bit of softness to start setting in there Tuesday due to the dearth of heating load and the screen’s 3-cent drop Monday.

Another trader said prices may be able to remain firm for another day, possibly two, but the abundant amounts of gas in storage should start weighing more heavily on prices as the second week in March passes. By next Monday there will be less than three full weeks left in the traditional withdrawal season, he noted, while as of Feb. 25 the Energy Information Administration had estimated that more than 1.6 Tcf was still stashed away.

Despite the Rockies market’s relative lack of firmness, Kern River was thanking customers Monday for their cooperation in restoring system linepack to “normal” operating levels in all segments for the first time in weeks. The pipeline had been prompted to warn several times in late February and early March that it might have to resort to customer-specific OFOs or other measures unless linepack was reduced from consistently high levels.

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