Wednesday’s rally in the face of bearish weather demand proved to be a fluke as prices fell at all but one point Thursday in trading for the Good Friday/Easter holiday weekend. Prior-day futures softness and the extra loss of industrial load during a long holiday weekend also figured into the cash losses.

Only flat quotes for Empress on the Alberta border avoided losses ranging from about a nickel to nearly 35 cents. Only a couple of declines were less than a dime. Western Canada tended to see the least softening, but otherwise price drops were fairly consistent among the various geographic market areas.

Nymex traders seemed to be giddy after getting an Energy Information Administration report of a 12 Bcf storage injection for the week ending March 26. Although the volume was merely near the low end of the range of prior expectations, they went on a buying spree that had May futures up more than a quarter for a while before closing the day with a gain of 21.7 cents to $4.086, crossing back over the psychologically important $4 threshold (see related story). That will give solid support to Monday’s cash prices, even with warm temperatures expected to continue through most of the East.

The Rockies market participated actively in the downturn despite The Weather Channel predicting a “potent storm system” with plenty of snow for that region and parts of the Plains. Sub-freezing lows would be the norm in the Rockies and Alberta from Good Friday going into the Easter weekend. The desert Southwest was also experiencing subpar temperatures, with even Phoenix — regarded as one of the nation’s hottest cities — due to peak below 70 Friday.

However, mild conditions continued to dominate the overall outlook. The Upper Midwest could anticipate a moderate retreat to chillier weather during the weekend, according to the Northern Natural Gas bulletin board, but some parts of New England were due to join much of the rest of the U.S. with highs in the 70s or above.

The shut-in of Questar’s Clay Basin storage facility Thursday for two weeks appeared to have no negative effect on Rockies prices Wednesday, but its impact was being felt more potently Thursday as most Rockies declines exceeded a quarter.

MRT signaled a sort of break in the moderation trend by canceling a warm weather related System Protection Warning (see Transportation Notes). Meanwhile, Southern Natural Gas said a Type 6 OFO due to warm service-area conditions was unlikely for Friday but “too close to call” for long imbalances Saturday and Sunday.

A Gulf Coast trader said prices were solidly down in early deals but “running higher” following the release of the storage report. She thought the rebound might have been based on a “combination of the two:” strong crude oil prices and modestly bullish storage news. It was “still an injection, though,” she noted. She reported selling all of the company’s available spot gas at index flat through the weekend.

A western source said a cold front going through was keeping temperatures in much of the region below normal. With gas prices getting down into the mid $3s in San Juan Basin, that was likely to prompt more displacement of coal-fired power generation with gas as the fuel, he said. And Southwest supplies have recently been enhanced with the start-up of service on the North Baja Lateral into Yuma, AZ in mid-March, he said.

Baker Hughes reported an activity gain of eight gas-seeking drilling rigs in the U.S. to 949 for the week ending April 1, marking the 14th consecutive weekly increase. Two rigs quit the search in the Gulf of Mexico, but that was offset by an onshore addition of 10.

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