The frigid conditions predicted to be occupying the Midwest, Northeast and to some extent the South Friday finally got the upper hand over prior-day futures weakness and produced gains at most points Thursday. Except for large increases at Northeast citygates, most of the cash market advance was rather timid.

A few losses of a couple of pennies to nearly a quarter occurred primarily in the Rockies and Midcontinent, both of which were due to see slight weather moderation. Although Denver’s low will remain below freezing, its high is forecast to jump dramatically from the mid 20s Thursday to the mid 40s Friday.

Otherwise the market ranged from flat to a little more than 80 cents higher. Outside the Northeast a majority of upticks were limited to single digits.

The Energy Information Administration fell a bit short of consensus expectations in the high 60s Bcf when it reported a storage withdrawal of 64 Bcf. Despite the freezing forecasts for northern market areas, Nymex traders took January natural gas futures 33 cents lower, no doubt also influenced by another plunge in the price of January crude oil (see related story).

The Northeast had been largely experiencing seasonal temperatures through Thursday, but highs Friday will be five to 15 degrees below average, according to The Weather Channel. The Algonquin citygate recorded Thursday’s biggest gain and handily outpaced Transco Zone 6 and Texas Eastern M-3 for highest price average.

Most of the Midwest will still be unable to reach even the freezing level, but temperatures there will be rising a few degrees at many locations Friday. In the South, Florida has warmed greatly from a brief shot of cold, and most of the rest of the region east of the Mississippi River will continue to see lows around freezing, but those will be counterbalanced to some degree by highs around 50 or so.

Outside the cold remaining in the Rockies, the West will be cool to moderate.

A Midwest utility buyer said her company had a lot of gas throughput going Thursday, but she anticipated less during the weekend with milder temperatures. It will still be cold, she said, but the moderation, combined with Thursday’s big screen drop, should result in lower cash prices Friday.

The buyer said the utility was a little surprised when Northern Natural called three System Overrun Limitations (SOL) in late October because it seemed too early in the season for them. Of course, under current conditions another SOL wouldn’t be surprising now, she said.

A Midcontinent producer didn’t quite agree with the softness prediction, at least for his area. “I think [with] Midcontinent prices, you’ll see the same, maybe a slight gain,” he said. However, the regional market remains plagued by “just too much supply and not enough takeaway capacity,” he added. His company has had pressure issues in delivering to OGT of late, the producer said. There are also continuing issues of excess supply on CenterPoint, but they have been easing recently due to demand picking up with colder weather, he said.

Florida had a little shot of cold with freezing lows earlier in the week, but now it’s getting as high as 80 in South Florida, a utility buyer in the Sunshine State said. Demand is kind of slack for the utility right now, he said, and he didn’t see much more on the horizon.

The buyer said he has been exploring opportunities for making use of Southeast Supply Header (SESH), which feeds into both Florida Gas Transmission and Gulfstream. However, he said he is still holding back for now because the company doesn’t have FT on SESH, and at least initially the IT rate was too expensive to be attractive.

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