Prices continued to fall at a majority of points Thursday, but declines were generally small at less than a dime. There were signs of new, albeit slight, firmness as several more locations were flat to 2-3 cents higher than on the day before.

Northeast citygates, where temperatures were due to continue a steep decline Friday, took most of the largest hits among losses ranging from 2-3 cents to a little more than a dime. The Rockies and California saw most of the small gains, as Southern California coastal areas have been warming into the mid 80s recently while interior California highs will approach 100 Friday.

The Energy Information Administration largely fell in line with consensus expectations in the low to mid 50s Bcf when it reported a 54 Bcf storage injection for the week ending Aug. 21. Even though the volume put a small dent in the surplus to the five-year average, Nymex traders remained in a bearish mood as they sent the September natural gas contract 6.7 cents lower on its expiration day (see related story).

With its projected route starting to edge a bit closer to the East Coast, Tropical Storm Danny appeared increasingly likely to extinguish any remaining cooling demand from the Mid-Atlantic through the coastal Northeast and Canadian Maritimes region. A tropical wave that the National Hurricane Center was reporting to be about 300 miles south-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa Wednesday morning was extremely remote and expected to develop slowly.

A tropical storm watch was issued for part of the North Carolina coast as Danny’s center drifted slowly westward from about 545 miles south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, NC, late Thursday afternoon. It was up in the air whether Danny would be able to reach hurricane status before reaching the colder Atlantic waters off the Northeast coast; data indicated that maximum sustained winds had decreased to near 50 mph, NHC said.

Columbia Gas continued through at least Friday a “Critical Day” for storage, which bars interruptible injections. And affiliated pipes Texas Eastern and Algonquin said they will not be allowing any imbalance nominations through Monday that increase their linepack (see Transportation Notes).

Northern Natural Gas indicated the impending loss of virtually all Upper Midwest cooling load (possibly replaced by a tiny bit of heating demand) in a bulletin board posting saying that its normal system weighted temperature at this time of year is 68 degrees, but it will be sinking over the next three days to only 58 Sunday.

Bottom line: except for major heat (mid 90s to the 110 area) continuing from Texas through the desert Southwest into interior California, the rest of North American weather will be no more than normal to downright cool through the weekend.

A Midwest marketer said she was wondering if her region will ever turn warm again before winter sets in, saying local lows will be getting down into the 40s at night this weekend. She said her company had lost one automobile industry-related commercial client to recession-related bankruptcy recently.

The marketer said her company had bought about half of its September baseload into Consumers Energy at a fixed price of $2.82, with the rest approximately evenly divided at physical basis of plus 8 cents into Consumers and plus 10 cents into MichCon.

A producer said that while he and others were personally enjoying the current “fine weather” in the Rockies, it was not good for supporting gas prices. Remarking on 40s lows predicted in the next few days for the Midwest and Northeast, he mused, “When do they start turning on the furnaces?”

The producer said about half of his company’s production was hedged, but he wished it had been more. At least Rockies basis, which already has gotten significant boosts from Rockies Express additions to takeaway capacity in first its West and then more recently in its East segment, should get even stronger this winter as heating demand climbs in the Midwest.

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