Major increases in heating load were just over the horizon but not substantive enough for Friday to prevent further price losses Thursday in the Gulf Coast, Northeast and Midwest. But most points in the Midcontinent and West recorded increases.

Losses ranged from about a nickel to 65 cents or so and tended to be largest in Western Canada and at Northeast and Midwest citygates. The frigid Rockies led gains of a little less than a dime to a little more than 80 cents.

A 30-cent loss by December futures Wednesday helped to prolong softer quotes in most of the cash market Thursday. Screen guidance for Friday’s cash trading will be closer to neutral after the December contract fell another 8.7 cents Thursday (see related story).

The Chicago citygate plunged more than half a dollar despite a freezing low in the forecast for Friday.

Northern Natural’s demarc and Ventura points moved nearly 60 cents each — but in opposite directions. Buyers on Northern likely sensed demarc bargains after Ventura commanded a premium of $2.77 in Wednesday’s trading, so they sent demarc higher while Ventura fell by a similar amount Thursday, leaving the two points about $1.60 apart.

What The Weather Channel (TWC) called a “potent cold front” will move across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley regions Friday, but the accompanying precipitation will be liquid instead of frozen. However, it will eventually get cold enough to produce widespread snow in the Midwest Saturday.

The Northeast will have one more day of fairly moderate conditions Friday before the front arrives from the Midwest and takes temperatures lower. But even Saturday will not be frigid for the region; however, the weather will get progressively colder Sunday, TWC said.

The Rockies can expect sub-freezing lows Friday, but the rest of the West will have above-average temperatures continue into the weekend, according to TWC. The desert Southwest may have a bit of cooling load as a mid 80s high was forecast for Phoenix Friday.

A cold front will leave a cold and windy weekend behind in the South. However, freezing temperatures are unlikely in much of the region, although snow flakes could be flying across the Cumberland Plateau and the southern Appalachians by Saturday evening, TWC said.

Southern Natural Gas gave an indication of the heating load expected in the South this weekend. Noting that it was at 70% of injection capacity Thursday, Southern said based on expected supply and demand, “we anticipate storage requirements to change to withdrawal sometime Saturday night.

Malin and the PG&E citygate were down about 65 cents and 45 cents, respectively, after PG&E issued a systemwide high-inventory OFO for Friday. In contract, the Southern California border and the SoCal citygate recorded increases in the low to mid teens.

A Midwestern marketer said it was hard to explain why the Midcontinent producing area was up so strongly while the market area was way down, although he noted that the Midcontinent will be pretty cold itself Friday (the Oklahoma City forecast had a low in the mid 30s, while Topeka, KS, could expect temperatures to bottom out a little below freezing). He expects the weekend cold to have all eastern prices rising Friday, but said he thinks the usual loss of industrial load during a weekend will limit the market to mostly moderate gains.

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