Predictions of a late-winter storm expected to bring snow and sleet (“perhaps a lot in some locations,” according to The Weather Channel) to eastern parts of the South Thursday helped to generate small rallies at most eastern points Wednesday. Virtually all increases were less than a dime, while a few scattered points were flat to barely lower.

Prices in the West, however, were consistently flat to a few cents down despite much of New Mexico being blanketed with snow Tuesday and a severe storm accompanied by heavy mountain-area snow ravaging northern and central California Wednesday. As expected, the storm caused extensive power outages in Pacific Gas & Electric’s service territory. The utility said early Wednesday afternoon it had restored power to 139,000 customers, but another 97,000 still had no electricity. PG&E also announced that it would cut the coastal 2,200 MW Diablo Canyon nuclear plant’s output by 75% later Wednesday because of heavy ocean swells stirring up kelp that could potentially clog the plant’s cooling system. The Diablo Canyon power reduction was expected to last until Friday morning.

The screen’s expiration-day gain of a little more than 7 cents could provide just enough impetus for continued modest firmness Thursday before moderating weather trends send weekend prices lower Friday, one source thought. Petroleum-based futures were even stronger, with the April crude oil contract rising more than a dollar to $35.68/bbl as traders contemplated cutbacks in Louisiana refinery operations resulting from a sunken boat blocking the Mississippi River’s outlet to the Gulf of Mexico since Saturday. (A Coast Guard spokesman was quoted in news reports as saying the deep-draft channel was reopened to one-way traffic early Wednesday afternoon, only hours after the boat had been removed.)

While states from Alabama through the Carolinas and into southern Virginia could expect some unusually wet and cold conditions, a Northeast utility buyer considered it “still mild here” even with low temperatures around freezing or less. She said she had quit buying gas at Niagara at least temporarily, reporting that Niagara offers in the mid $5.50s were a little more than 20 cents above Dawn. “That didn’t make sense to me, because usually the [Dawn-Niagara] split is about 12 cents,” the buyer said.

A Texas-based marketer perceived mixed movement (“a little up and a little down”) in March prices Wednesday, saying the futures rebound seemed to have little supportive impact. She reported trading Panhandle Eastern, NGPL-Midcontinent and Southern Star Central (formerly Williams) all in the mid $4.60s, Waha from $4.60 to the mid $4.70s, and the Southern California border in the $4.70-75 range.

A utility buyer had done no fixed-price trading for March yet, but quoted a basis deal for Florida Gas Transmission’s Zone 2 at flat to the last-day screen settlement. Noting how routine the market had gotten recently, the buyer commented, “There’s nothing new here. For us it’s a ‘same old same old’ siutation.”

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