With heating load-generating conditions departing most areas outside the Rockies and either side of the Canadian-U.S. border, the market left a three-day string of mostly flat to higher numbers behind in recording drops at almost all locations Friday. The usual weekend decline of industrial load was another bearish influence, while the previous day’s rise of 6.6 cents by December futures provided little support for cash quotes.

Gains in the Pacific Northwest of about 2 cents at Stanfield and a nickel or so at Kingsgate constituted the only exceptions to losses everywhere else ranging from 2-3 cents to about half a dollar. Most drops were in double digits, and the Northeast cornered the lion’s share of the biggest ones.

Although Kingsgate had a larger uptick Friday, deliveries at Sumas remained the market’s most expensive gas by far. Commanding a premium of nearly 90 cents to Henry Hub, Sumas supplies were in great demand as Northwest Pipeline added further restrictions on northbound transportation (see Transportation Notes) to an existing one at Vernal Compressor Station.

Cash traders will again be getting a negative signal Monday from Nymex after prompt-month futures ended Friday down 9.4 cents (see related story).

With the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season drawing close to its official Nov. 31 end, it appeared that last week might pass with no reportable activity. But after four days of a featureless National Hurricane Center (NHC) monitoring map, a large area of cloudiness and showers showed up Friday over the central Atlantic roughly 900 miles east-northeast of the Leeward Islands. The system — associated with interaction among a surface trough, a tropical wave and an upper-level low, according to NHC — was given only 10% odds of becoming a subtropical or tropical cyclone within 48 hours.

The Southern California border average and SoCal citygate fell about 15 cents each as SoCalGas issued a high-linepack OFO for Saturday (see Transportation Notes).

Except for normal conditions in the Florida peninsula, the National Weather Service expects above-normal temperatures throughout most of the rest of the U.S. during the long holiday weekend, extending through the eastern halves of Washington state and Oregon in the north and through the southeastern corner of Arizona in the south. The only area where the agency predicted below-normal readings was a swath along the Southern California coast from the Mexican border to the lower end of Silicon Valley.

There’s very little demand for gas at this time in Florida, said a utility buyer in the Sunshine State. It’s warm, she said, but not hot enough to get more than a few air conditioners running; in fact, upper 70s highs are the “perfect” temperature to avoid any need for either heating or cooling. As is the case at so many other utilities recently, mild weather makes fuel buyers’ jobs easier but also limits company income.

The buyer said she hasn’t heard any bidweek numbers yet but thinks nearly all December baseload business will get done Monday, Tuesday and maybe very early Wednesday this week because many traders who work Wednesday will leave their offices around midday for the long holiday weekend. She expects few bidweek deals to be held over for completion after Thanksgiving.

Following two successive weeks of reporting big drops in gas-directed rig activity in the U.S. (27 units in the week ending Nov. 4 and 30 in the week ending Nov. 11), the Baker Hughes Rotary Rig Count said the slide slowed considerably last week as only six rigs were deactivated — one in the Gulf of Mexico and five offshore — leaving 871 still working. The latest Baker Hughes tally represented dips of 6% from a month ago and 7% from the comparable period last year.

Canaccord Genuity analysts said Friday morning that while they were encouraged to see front-month futures snap a recent losing streak Thursday, “our enthusiasm is quickly tempered by the fact that we have set an all-time record high for gas storage despite another year of scorching summer weather. And we’re not done yet. Next week should see [about] another 20 Bcf crammed into to storage and the following week could see a minor injection as well if current weather forecasts hold.”

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