Most points recorded single-digit declines Wednesday, with a few others falling by up to nearly 20 cents. A clean sweep of softening was averted by a few scattered points that ranged from flat to a little more than a dime higher.

The overall dips in pricing were attributed to the preceding three-day run of screen weakness and the dearth of significant weather-related load in nearly all market areas. Storage buying was undoubtedly continuing, one source said, but it was no longer enough to keep cash quotes propped up.

A show of strength Wednesday throughout the energy futures complex (see futures story) may provide support for cash prices Thursday. June natural gas spiked by 31.9 cents as the contract showed some signs of recoupling with the petroleum products market. The Department of Energy reported a 300,000-barrel rise in U.S. crude oil inventories last week, but most analysts had expected a bigger increase. The upshot was that June crude futures soared by $1.44 to settle above $72/bbl, while heating oil and unleaded gasoline also rose strongly.

In general the weather outlook remains bearish for gas prices, although a powerful storm due in the Midwest Thursday could bring heavy wet snow to the region’s northern fringe, The Weather Channel said. The storm may take afternoon temperatures down to the 40s (with wind chill effects in the 30s) as far south as the Chicago area, it added. The Chicago citygate was among the few rising points Wednesday with a gain of nearly a dime.

Meanwhile, much of the nation will continue to range from moderately cool to moderately warm (translation: little gas needed for either heating or cooling). Stormy weather will have wiped out much of any remaining power generation load for air conditioning purposes in the South. Even the Texas intrastate market is starting to lose some support from cooling demand. Temperatures that had been peaking in the low 90s in Houston earlier this week are forecast to range from the mid to high 80s from Thursday through Sunday. North Texas had already cooled off to the extent that the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area wasn’t expected to quite reach 80 degrees Thursday.

A West Coast trader said he thought the energy futures spikes Wednesday would be sufficient to rally the cash market Thursday, especially if storage buying stays anywhere near as strong as it appeared to be earlier this week. But cash prices may still find it hard going to achieve any gains because weather-related demand will remain light, he said.

Analyst Tim Evans of Citigroup anticipates a storage injection of 90-100 Bcf to be reported for the week ending May 5. “Any build over 71 Bcf adds to a 699 Bcf five-year average surplus,” Evans said. “Anything more than roughly 85 Bcf should elicit some [futures] selling.”

The Reuters news service survey of 18 industry players found estimates ranging from 50 Bcf to 110 Bcf, with an average of about 79 Bcf.

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