With a little extra backing from the previous Friday’s modest futures rally, cash prices found enough remaining heating load — often accompanied by winter storms — to range from flat to about 20 cents higher at a large majority of points Monday. However, nearly all of the gains were in single digits.

A couple of Midwest/Midcontinent points joined the three Western Canada trading locations in seeing small declines of up to about a nickel.

The prior-trading day futures support provided to the cash market proved to be short-lived as the prompt-month April contract dropped 13.3 cents Monday amid pervasive softness in Nymex’s energy complex (see related story).

The Northeast, still reeling from a storm that began late last week, could only watch and wait as a new winter storm advancing northward along the East Coast begins affecting the Mid-Atlantic states late Tuesday before moving into the Northeast at midweek. Another storm was approaching from the Midwest, but that one would result in only light snow accumulations, according to The Weather Channel (TWC).

New Hampshire’s governor said Sunday some people in his state may not get their electricity restored for at least a week, TWC reported.

Meanwhile, Florida, South Texas and much of the desert Southwest and California were among the rare areas that were destined to escape low temperatures in the vicinity of freezing or lower Tuesday. Bottom-end readings in the 20s would continue in the Rockies, much of the Midwest and parts of New England.

A Texas-based marketer said he wasn’t especially surprised by Monday’s general cash strength. It’s still fairly cold in most regions, and freezing conditions will continue to dominate the overall weather outlook for a while longer.

Monday’s reversal of direction by April futures likely will tend to drag physical numbers at least a few cents lower Tuesday, the marketer continued, but he thinks there is enough residual cold in the forecasts to prevent major drops.

One source suggested that with the weather outlook remaining generally cold for most areas this week, some storage holders may be easing back the throttle a bit on their final-month withdrawal schedules.

The Baker Hughes Rotary Rig Count reported an increase of 12 to 905 during the week ending Feb. 26 in the number of drilling rigs seeking natural gas in the U.S. One rig quit the search in the Gulf of Mexico, Baker Hughes said, but that was more than offset by an onshore gain of 13. The latest tally was 5% above the one a month ago and only 7% less than the year-ago level.

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