Prices were down at most points Friday as daily April trading got under way. The majority softness was in recognition of moderate temperatures in most market areas, the storage injection season ending with near-record inventory in place and the drop in industrial demand that is typical of a weekend.

Several eastern points ranged from flat to about 20 cents higher, although most of the gains were around a nickel or less. Losses ran generally from a couple of pennies to nearly 45 cents. The West, which had been firmer than the rest of the market in the preceding couple of days due to having much of the remaining cold weather, was universally lower Friday.

Following a warm Friday, a stormy cold front was expected to raise weekend heating load a bit in the Northeast. The West also had some cold weather sticking around, while mild conditions were predicted to continue in the South and Midwest. In all four regions forecasts tended to focus more on weekend storminess rather than temperatures.

A 27.7-cent screen drop Friday, combined with forecasts of above normal temperatures in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. this week, is likely to keep overall cash softness in place Monday. However, traders seeking to get storage refills going quickly could offset that lack of demand to some degree.

A curious situation developed at Northern Natural’s demarc and Ventura locations, which had averaged identically at $6.21 in March-ending quotes Thursday. On Friday Ventura was flat while demarc fell about 20 cents. A Midwest utility buyer speculated that Ventura stayed relatively strong because gas there can be moved to Chicago, where prices were up a couple of cents.

A Midcontinent producer said he was unable to detect any bullish signs in the coming week “because the weather is supposed to be very mild.” He observed that storage injection season has begun for many traders, adding that it will probably be a pretty short one because of the inventory still in place.

Although a few last-minute adjustments were undoubtedly going on, the producer said he was unaware of any April baseload gas being traded Friday. One of his colleagues did a couple of Gulf Coast deals late Thursday, and that wrapped up bidweek for his company, he said. For many trading operations, balancing issues often are the main focus on the last day of a month, he said.

Although a number of buyer were reentering the baseload market in April for the first time in several months because of using storage and term gas during the winter, the producer said it didn’t really register on his market radar screen. That was because any fresh demand was being offset by supplies being released from term commitments, he said.

He reported trading a MichCon basis range of minus 13-6.5 cents. NGPL TexOk got very weak around the middle of bidweek and that spilled over into the Chicago citygate, “as it should have,” he said.

A marketer in the Upper Midwest said her company paid considerably less for delivered weekend gas than it did for April baseload. That wasn’t hard to understand, since it was nearly 70 degrees in her area Friday afternoon. The Midwest is forecast to stay mild at least through this week, she said.

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