Uniformity of price change direction made one of its relatively rare (in recent months) returns to the spot market Tuesday when quotes arose across the board in trading for last-of-month flows. A cold front moving into the western sections of the Midwest Wednesday and freezing overnight temperatures in the Rockies and parts of Western Canada had heating load on the rise, and Monday’s 5.1-cent expiration-day increase by November futures chipped in a little extra support.

All of Tuesday’s gains were in double digits and most were quite strong. They ranged from a little more than a dime to about 65 cents and tended to be largest in the Rockies, where winter-like temperatures are arriving. Cheyenne, WY, was forecast to go from a high around 70 Tuesday to one of only 49 Wednesday, while the predicted low was 24.

The PG&E citygate managed to rise about 12 cents despite Pacific Gas & Electric issuing a high-inventory OFO on its California Gas Transmission system for Wednesday (see Transportation Notes). However, the citygate uptick was the smallest one of the day.

Tropical Storm Noel, which was stuck over north-central Cuba Tuesday afternoon, continued to be a nonevent for the gas market. The storm was expected to move on to the Bahamas Wednesday, curving to the northeast along the way into a path that would take it back out into the open sea.

The Northeast and South are due to continue enjoying relatively moderate temperatures through Tuesday, although the Midwest’s cold front will eventually be chilling the Northeast also, according to The Weather Channel.

A Calgary-based producer said November business was fairly routine for him, but he saw prices growing stronger as trading went on. Unlike many previous bidweeks, when most baseload transactions were wrapped up by the end of the day on which the futures contract expired, his company saw quite a bit of November deals still being done Tuesday, he said.

The numbers were again going higher again, the producer added, with the Chicago citygate hitting the high $7.50s and even $7.60 late Tuesday. However, he said he would have to “guess” that $7.26 will be the Chicago index for November.

Bidweek was a nonevent for a Northeast utility buyer. His company didn’t buy any November baseload gas, he said, having winter term contracts in place that it prefers to supplement as needed in the daily market. Also, storage is essentially 100% full as far as the utility is concerned, so “we are ready for the winter!” he proclaimed. The area still hasn’t seen any severe cold yet, but it should start getting more winter-like by next week with highs in the 30s and 40s, he said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) predicts below-normal temperatures during the Nov. 5-9 workweek almost everywhere east of a line starting in the center of Minnesota’s northern border and running south-southwestward through eastern South Dakota, central Nebraska and western Kansas into the Panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas before winding up at the Mexican border in the Big Bend area of Texas. The only exceptions where normal conditions are expected are in the southern third of the Florida peninsula, all of Maine and the northern ends of Vermont and New Hampshire. The NWS looks for above-normal readings everywhere west of a line from the southwest corner of New Mexico going generally to the north-northeast through western New Mexico, central Colorado and eastern Wyoming before curving back to the northwest through central Montana.

Analyst Stephen Smith of Stephen Smith and Associates looks for a storage build of 57 Bcf to be reported for the week ending Oct. 26. Strategic Energy and Economic Research’s Ron Denhardt weighed in with a slightly higher 60 Bcf estimate.

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