Except for sizeable drops at non-Malin California points, the rest of the market managed to squeeze a bit more price firmness Thursday out of weather extremes ranging from unseasonably cool temperatures throughout much of the East and record-setting heat in parts of the West. Upticks in the East, Southwest basins and Pacific Northwest were quite mild, only rarely going above a nickel. The Rockies generally were up a dime or more, and Malin soared by well over a dollar.

Cash bulls should beware today, however. The near-unanimous consensus among sources was that numbers for the long Memorial Day weekend, traditionally a period of very low gas demand, will be going downhill today. The screen helped point the way by trading in a morning of moderate gain for an afternoon drop of nearly 6 cents, one trader noted. In addition, this week’s combination of unusually hot and cold temperatures likely will be moderating over the weekend, he said.

Exacerbating the expected softness today is the potential for high-linepack pipeline OFOs. A Gulf Coast marketer said he is “almost sure that at least Tennessee, and likely other pipes,” would be issuing weekend OFOs today “because otherwise they’re afraid traders will dump a lot of unsold gas on their systems.” In the West, PG&E continued to project that linepack will rise above its maximum target level over the weekend.

The fuel buyer for one Northeastern utility said the late-May market remained very quiet, asking, “Could it be the lull before the storm?” That reminded him that “we’re watching and waiting on the [June 1] start of [the Atlantic] hurricane season. We know some suppliers will always try to use that as a psychological excuse for higher gas prices.” Storage is in good shape, though, he concluded, “so I guess we should count our blessings.”

Intra-Alberta began the day sharply higher in the mid C$5.60s but followed its usual screen-tracking tendency to fall back to around flat in the low to mid C$5.40s, a Calgary marketer said.

Fixed prices were scarce as bidweek got off to its usual slow start Thursday. However, a marketer reported doing deals from the $11.10s through the $11.50s at the PG&E citygate, in the mid $13.20s at border-SoCalGas, and in the $4.00s at El Paso-Permian.

A Northeast buyer said he was getting mostly index-flat citygate offers so far, while a Gulf Coast marketer said the trend there was toward small to moderate discounts from index.

One thing appears certain: June indexes will see fairly large drops. Not only is the June futures contract way down from May’s expiry at $4.891, but basis is also considerably weaker. An eastern utility reported basis of plus 23 cents for Dominion and plus 21 cents for Columbia Gas, representing decreases of 4-9 cents from May basis averages. Meanwhile, a couple of western traders quoted basis of plus $8.00-75 and plus $2.60 for the California border-SoCalGas and Malin respectively. The border basis is down more than a dollar from May, while Malin basis was falling more than $2.30.

However, a Gulf Coast marketer said the basis he was seeing for Texas Eastern-East LA (minus 8 cents) and Tennessee 800 Leg (minus 9.75 cents) was flat to only a penny down from May.

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