Although this week’s winter siege likely was reaching its maximum area of penetration Wednesday, for the most part it had lost much of its price-boosting power. Except for big advances by Florida citygates and some citygates in the Northeast, the rest of the cash market had settled down for a generally flat performance, with scattered points showing 1 to 5 cent increases.

Because they so seldom ever experience cold weather, Florida residents must be hypersensitized to it. How else to explain Florida citygates being the day’s top gainer for the second day in a row, rising about 70 cents to around $4.50? A utility buyer in the state shunned any citygate purchases as “way too pricey,” preferring to buy production-area gas and transport it. There certainly was plenty of demand for delivered gas, she said. Wednesday night temperatures in the 20s were due through the central section of Florida, the buyer added, “and you can bet the orange growers have their smudge pots ready.”

Even in the now-frigid Northeast, not all citygates achieved as much as double-digit increases. Transco’s two Zone 6 pools were again the region’s big gainers, primarily due to severely limited market-area IT on the pipeline.

“There’s nothing but cold weather driving the market right now, and that will be going away over the weekend,” said one Northeast trader. That leaves the question of whether it will then be time for prices to collapse, as many people have been expecting since last fall, he added.

AGA’s report of 64 Bcf taken out of storage last week was well below most prior expectations, although a marketer said it was close to the forecast in his model of 68 Bcf. The figure not only got the year-on-year surplus rising again but took the surplus above the symbolically important level of 1 Tcf. For that reason a couple of sources tagged the report as a bearish one that will weigh negatively on prices today.

A producer noted that Sonat and Florida Gas Transmission are commanding some of the Gulf Coast’s higher prices in the low $2.50s because of cold-weather OFOs by both pipes.

A western marketer said trading activity for March was “real thin” Wednesday, especially considering it was the next to last day of bidweek. March numbers are strong compared to February indexes, he said, but well below end-of-month swing levels. A Northeast trader concurred, quoting bidweek prices that were about 15-20 cents below his daily deals. The big difference was at Transco’s Zone 6-NYC pool, which he reported in the mid $3.70s for swing but only around $2.90 for next month.

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