The siege of cold weather due this week had traders back in a stocking-up mood Friday as generally flat pricing reigned throughout the East despite the load decline that typically accompanies a weekend. However, a high-linepack OFO issued for Saturday by Southern California Gas, which was experiencing date-specific record warmth in its service area, had reverberations in the rest of the West, sending most regional numbers lower between about 3 cents and a dime.

A screen that meandered closely on either side of flat during the morning offered no direction to cash, and outside the Rockies and parts of the Midwest weekend weather continued to offer little price support. But following Thursday’s moderate softening, quotes were relatively firm again Friday, as traders put more gas into storage that they apparently hope to sell at higher levels when heating demand soars, one source said.

A marketer believes such thinking is likely to be disappointed, though. It’s not like a mini-Ice Age is on the way, he said. Instead, temperatures will merely be sinking to approximately “normal” levels for this time of year from what had been well above normal.

The Rockies is one of the few areas that was due to have genuinely frigid weather over the weekend as an arctic front moved south from Canada. However, it and other western markets were weakened by a one-two punch of California high-linepack OFOs. PG&E had issued one for Friday, and although it was lifted Saturday, SoCalGas replaced it with one of its own for Saturday. The SoCal border’s drop of 13 cents was Friday’s largest.

“They just didn’t seem to want any gas in California over the weekend,” said a marketer quoting the border from the low to high $2.10s.

The PG&E citygate was off only a nickel due to the utility’s OFO being lifted, a western trader said. PG&E called off the OFO even though Friday morning it was projecting linepack rising well above its maximum target levels, he added, but it solved the problem by increasing the amount of system gas destined for storage by an extra 100 MMcf/d or so Saturday and Sunday. “We still have to watch out for a potential new OFO Sunday, though.”

Despite the overall western softness, the approaching cold was enough to have Rockies prices on an upward trend as trading proceeded. A marketer whose early Kern River-Opal deals were in the mid $1.90s saw late numbers a little more than a dime higher, although there were a couple of periods of backtracking along the way, he said.

A Chicago trader reported finding little Windy City demand, but flat pricing, and volatility was about as tight as he could remember. His quotes for about 10 deals spanned a range of barely more than 2 cents.

A Calgary-based marketer quoting intra-Alberta from the mid C$3.10s to the mid C$3.20s said virtually all of the city’s traders tried to finish up early so they could watch their Olympic hockey team defeat Belarus on TV.

As expected, few traders got into any significant March business as bidweek began. However, a producer quoted intra-Alberta sales done Friday in the mid C$3.20s.

A trader who planned to index all his Chicago citygates to GPI said it appeared they would all be negative to index. He was hearing Chicago basis of plus 3 cents. A Gulf Coast marketer reported doing Tennessee 500 Leg deals at basis of minus 5.75 cents.

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