Day-earlier futures pointed the way for the cash market most of last week, but in most cases Friday prices refused to go along with Thursday’s 6.1-cent screen gain. Instead they bowed to the reality of light weather-based demand, abundant storage inventories and the drop in industrial load that is typical of a weekend market.

A few eastern points did see the small gains that one source had predicted Thursday on the basis of the screen uptick, but a slight majority of the market recorded numbers that were either flat or close to it. However, quotes were as much as 15 cents softer in most of the West and Midcontinent.

New England was about the last remaining repository of significantly cold weather, and raw, chilly conditions were due to persist in the area through at least Monday morning, according to The Weather Channel. But even with the retention of some heating load, delivered prices in New England were flat.

Other market areas were expected to enjoy mostly comfortable mid-spring temperatures through the weekend. The disappearance of heating load in its Midwest market area made it difficult to find a home for a fair amount of Midcontinent gas. And western numbers suffered not only from little weather-related demand, but also from an excess of supply. SoCalGas issued a high-linepack OFO for Saturday (see Transportation Notes), and Kern River and Westcoast both continued to encourage drafting of their systems because of high linepack.

Natural gas futures showed some signs of strength during the morning, but subsequently weakened to finish the day with a 7-cent loss. Nymex’s petroleum-based product offerings were mixed, with crude oil managing a modest increase of 13 cents to $50.96/bbl, but heating oil and unleaded gasoline down slightly.

There were hints that power generation load will be growing this week, particularly in the South, as most of the eastern U.S. is predicted to experience above normal temperatures. Whether it will be enough to rally prices with generally bearish fundamentals remaining in play is yet to be discovered.

A Gulf Coast trader who sells gas on behalf of several independent producers said she was taken by surprise Friday when told to expect supply orders from a couple of gas-fired power plants in Louisiana this week. “They’re peaking units that don’t run all the time,” so it must mean the South will be getting some overdue cooling demand. She expects at least the intrastate markets in Louisiana and Texas to be strong, but since temperatures in the northern market areas will be fairly moderate, she wasn’t sure whether the overall market would see price advances.

A utility fuel buyer in the Midwest said she was looking forward to the year’s “first taste of summer weather this weekend.” Highs around 80 will make it great to get outdoors, she added.

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