Rising temperatures in the Northeast, modest futures strength on the previous Friday and the return of industrial load from its typical weekend downturn caused prices to rise Monday in most of the cash market. But in what is becoming a familiar — but unwanted — week-starting routine for Rockies producers, quotes plunged by double-digit amounts, leaving all points in the region averaging less than a dollar.

The only points to drop outside the Rockies were Florida Gas Zone 3 (nearly 55 cents) and the Florida citygate (about a dime). High temperatures Tuesday in the market area were not expected to get above the mid to upper 80s.

Otherwise, a flat Westcoast Station 2 was the sole exception to gains ranging from a little less than a nickel to about 45 cents.

The Rockies weakness, in which prices fell by as much as about 65 cents, was in sharp contrast to major advances by most other points in the West. The PG&E citygate rose about a quarter after the utility chose to limit a high-inventory OFO on its California Gas Transmission system to Saturday only.

Cooling demand is rising in the Northeast, with high temperatures Monday of 81 degrees in Boston and 79 degrees in New York City forecast to be replaced by Tuesday peaks of 88 and 85, respectively. However, the opposite was true of the Midwest, with Chicago forecast to go from a high in the mid 80s Monday to around 74 Tuesday.

Tropical Depression 10, which became Tropical Storm Jerry over the weekend and came ashore near Pensacola, FL, was fading away in the far North Atlantic Monday, the National Hurricane Center said.

Predictably, offshore evacuations and shut-ins were dwindling over the weekend. Minerals Management Service (MMS) said that with 22 companies reporting to it by 11:30 a.m. CDT, it counted 676 MMcf/d of gas and 251,286 b/d of oil as still being shut in Monday in the Gulf of Mexico. Only three platforms and no mobile drilling rigs were evacuated, MMS said. “The MMS will continue to update the evacuation and shut-in statistics…each day until these statistics are no longer significant,” it added.

A tropical disturbance in the southwestern GOM was sending heavy rains into Louisiana that could cause flooding problems, but it was not expected to develop into a tropical storm. Neither was another system approaching the Lesser Antilles island chain between Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Bidweek appeared to be getting a slow start Monday for a Calgary-based producer. At least he knew he wasn’t doing any October business yet, but said he expected to get more active Tuesday.

For a utility buyer in the South, bidweek was a moot point because his company didn’t plan to make any October baseload purchases, having plenty of term gas under contract “and near-full storage,” he said. “We could really use some colder weather during October” to boost current burns or the utility might have problems with too much gas coming in and no storage space to put it, he added.

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