As NGI sources had expected, Thursday’s rise of about a dime in natural gas futures proved sufficient to outweigh moderating weather and the usual demand slump of a weekend period, producing moderate price gains at most eastern points Friday. In the West, however, Waha and PG&E-related points were the only ones to join the overall firmness. Most of the West ranged from flat to down about a nickel, although San Juan-Bondad recorded a whopping 36 cent plunge. Scattered eastern points were flat, but the majority rose by about a nickel to 15 cents.

A Gulf Coast trader reported getting a lot of market-area calls for Monday-only gas, which indicated to him that fairly mild Northeast temperatures would begin yielding to hotter weather again at the start of the week.

“Prices were stronger at the beginning than I expected in the market area,” although quotes were falling back in late deals, said a producer who trades the Gulf Coast and Northeast.

Florida citygates in the $4.10s were by far the most expensive market, surpassing Northeast citygates by nearly 90 cents. Florida Gas Transmission kept an OFO-like constraint in effect for its fifth day Friday, and a lengthy period of rainy days in the state appeared to be letting up, keeping high temperatures in the 90s through the weekend, a utility buyer said.

A marketer noted that in recent weeks the Transco Zone 1 pool often has traded lower than its neighboring South Texas pipes, which is unusual because Transco prices tend to command a moderate premium most often. The situation relates to a May 17 posting on Transco’s bulletin board pointing out that construction work at Station 35 was occasionally resulting in requests exceeding capacity at Station 40 in East Texas, causing capacity allocations through Station 40. “If you don’t have Primary transport, it can be hard to get gas out of the Zone 1 pool because of that maintenance,” the marketer said. South Texas suppliers sometimes have to discount their Transco prices for those trying to ship via Secondary service, he went on. He thought Transco was supposed to have finished the construction by early July, but apparently it was taking longer than expected.

A western trader said it was unusual for the PG&E citygate and Malin to see prices going up for the weekend. The screen run-up Thursday was a major contributor, he said, but in addition, low linepack on the PG&E system precluded any sell-off. Besides, “there was fairly decent demand for a weekend period,” the trader added.

With border-SoCalGas falling, while the PG&E citygate rose, the spread between the two points tightened to about 10-15 cents, a western trader pointed out. “The spreads weren’t wide, but they were wider than I thought they would be. Historically the citygate is stronger, but for the last year or so the border has commanded a premium over the gate, partly because of [relative] power generation load. PG&E also has more limited storage space, but they are both getting full quickly.” SoCal was definitely a possibility for issuing a weekend OFO, he said, but probably not PG&E.

A Calgary-based source quoted intra-Alberta numbers down slightly to about the C$2.00 area. Local temperatures were still fairly warm in the mid 80s Friday, he said, but they should be down to the mid 70s this week, so the provincial market may see some bearishness coming up.

“The Gulf Coast had some tight ranges out there. There wasn’t much movement during trading,” commented a marketer. He sees a little room for prices to come down Monday, “but I haven’t even looked at weather yet, so that is mighty speculative. People are always saying fundamentals don’t mean jack anymore. I’ll tell you what, I’m a dinosaur; weather means something to me.”

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