Price declines stayed rather moderate for the most part Wednesday, and heavy cooling load in much of the Southwest kept several Rockies, San Juan Basin and Southern California border points in the vicinity of flat. But outside of the western heat, the cash market was losing virtually all of its remaining vestiges of support.

Except for Northeast citygates falling by as much as a quarter, losses in the East tended to be limited to a little more than a dime or less. The West was firmer than that, with losses topping out at Cheyenne Hub’s 8 cents; other dips failed to exceed about a nickel. But even western numbers likely will be succumbing Thursday to negative price pressures.

Any psychological boost that cash gas might have been getting from strong energy futures went by the wayside Wednesday. The natural gas screen followed up Tuesday’s tiny gain with a dive of 15.5 cents. And Nymex’s petroleum-related products were similarly in rout mode, led by a plunge of well over a dollar by September crude oil to $42.83/bbl. Oil traders’ supply worries were eased by a report of bigger than expected growth in gasoline inventories, indications that Russian authorities would allow Yukos to continue oil exports, and OPEC announcements of having spare production capacity along with Saudi Arabian plans to bring two new fields online ahead of schedule.

Not only will the Northeast and Midwest be experiencing temperatures more suitable to mid-autumn than August Thursday, but the front that cooled those regions off will be proceeding to do the same for much of the South by Friday. Texas may resist the cooldown a bit longer than states to the east, a Dallas-area producer said, but local highs should not be getting above 90 Friday.

As of Tuesday some forecasts had seen a possibility of Tropical Depression Two (TD2) becoming the Atlantic’s second named tropical storm (Bonnie) of the season, but it wasn’t to be. TD2 had degenerated to a tropical wave in the eastern Caribbean Sea, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Its remnants were still proceeding at a fast clip (23 mph) late Wednesday afternoon about 380 miles south-southeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The NHC said it would issue no further public advisories on TD2 unless regeneration occurred.

Although it had regained winds of 105 mph to become categorized as a category two hurricane, Alex was rapidly becoming an afterthought as it continued an east-northeast heading out to sea about 980 miles southwest of Cape Race, NF, late Wednesday afternoon.

A final nail in gas prices’ temporary coffin is popular expectations of a storage injection in the 80s Bcf to be reported Thursday morning. Such a volume would be considered quite bearish in comparison with the five-year average of 53 Bcf and the comparable year-earlier build of 76 Bcf, especially since injections are on pace to produce bulging inventories by the traditional Oct. 31 end of the refill season.

It’s looking pretty bearish for a while now, agreed a producer. A hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico looks like about the only quick fix for bringing prices back up in the near future, and there’s essentially nothing on the horizon after Tropical Depression Two’s fizzle, he said.

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