Except for the Rockies, most points saw little change in pricing Thursday, with small gains handily outnumbering small losses. A supportive 14.7-cent prior-day increase by November futures and a moderate amount of heating load in northern market areas competed with mild weather in most other regions, an ongoing lack of tropical storm activity and the knowledge that storage injection options are rapidly disappearing in vying for influence on price movement.

But the roller-coaster ride in the Rockies continued with a vengeance. A day after an impressive rebound from the weakness of Monday and Tuesday, all Rockies points except Questar rang up triple-digit plunges. Averages were under a dollar and there were several low-end quotes of half a dollar. No major transport constraints could be cited for the dives this time, although Northwest still has a few minor projects that are reducing flows. It appeared that the regional market was just succumbing once again to the fact that it is producing more gas than can be absorbed by pipelines to other areas or by local storage facilities.

Northwest-domestic was in the forefront of losses of up to about $1.45. Outside the Rockies, prices ranged from about 20 cents higher to a quarter or so lower. A large majority of points were less than a dime up or down.

The Energy Information Administration was slightly above consensus estimates of about 70 Bcf in reporting a storage build of 73 Bcf for the week ending Oct. 5. Futures traders gave the report a moderately bearish reception, pushing the November natural gas contract 13.4 cents lower in the face of impressive strength in Nymex’s petroleum products complex.

Mountainous sections of the West have already been seeing some snowfall; they likely will be joined by elevated areas in the Northeast as a “blustery storm” moves northward through New England over the weekend, The Weather Channel (TWC) said. On the opposite coast, a Pacific storm invading California Friday and later the interior West will leave temperatures five to 15 degrees below normal in its wake, TWC said. The Midwest is scheduled to stay dry for the most part but will see highs limited to the 40s in its upper half going into the weekend.

Power generation load is dwindling in the South as moderate highs in the 70s dominate the region, but it will be returning to above-normal temperatures during the weekend and early next week, according to TWC.

A Midcontinent producer said his area is experiencing “pleasant temperatures,” but there was still some gas demand because of coal-fired electric generation units being down for maintenance. Also, air conditioning load hasn’t completely gone away, he added.

Midcontinent prices were surprisingly strong at first Thursday, the producer went on, but they were coming down as much as 20 cents in late trading. That’s usually a pretty good signal of where the next-day market is going, he noted. Although lower prices are likely Friday, he said, there will be some support because people are still trying to put as much gas into storage as they can before the end of October.

A little bit of cool weather has arrived in Florida, said one of the state’s utility buyers, and thus power generation load is dropping. He noted that Florida Gas Zone 3 repeated Wednesday’s decline of a little more than a dime while the citygate came off about a quarter. Despite the softness, buyers in the Sunshine State are still paying the highest prices in the Gulf Coast, with Florida Gas Zone 3 being the region’s only point still averaging more than $7 and commanding a premium of nearly 20 cents to Henry Hub.

Florida Gas Transmission’s Overage Alert Day a couple of days earlier was essentially toothless, the buyer said, because “pretty much everyone” knew it would be lifted quickly.

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