To some extent the West and East traded price patterns Wednesday. Eastern points, which had been softening a day earlier, registered gains nearly across the board ranging from about a nickel to a dime. In the West, only the San Juan Basin, Pacific Northwest, intra-Alberta, Malin and California border-SoCalGas markets continued to build on their gains from earlier in the week. Rockies and PG&E-related points (border and citygate) fell about 20 cents.

Weather across much of the midsection of the U.S. is showing little sign that it’s nearly June, and that was starting to show up in Wednesday’s mild eastern price hikes, a couple of traders said. One forecasting service listed a number of cities ranging from the South into the Upper Midwest that set date-specific low temperature records Wednesday, and there was even a little snow in Iowa and Minnesota. While the unseasonable coolness had little impact on the gas market earlier, its cumulative boost of heating load was making itself felt yesterday, the traders said.

“It’s pretty hot; that’s the price story for California,” a marketer commented. But although inland areas of the West Coast and the desert Southwest continued to bake under a heat wave, the two main PG&E points softened. The utility is projecting linepack near the center of its comfort range today and Friday, but thinks it may rise above the maximum target level Saturday.

Still, another trader agreed that the power generation market remains the main driver of prices in California and the West in general. “Everybody seems to be running all their plants at max levels,” he said. However, it should start cooling down again in California around Saturday the weekend, he added, and combined with the long holiday weekend that means prices are almost certain to go lower today.

The Memorial Day holiday historically has been among the lowest gas demand periods of each year. That has several pipelines a bit fearful that traders, finding it more difficult than usual to find a home for their gas today, may feel little compunction about parking it in the pipe system for the weekend. Algonquin, Tennessee, Texas Eastern and Sonat were among those posting bulletin board advisories warning shippers against excess receipts or delivery shortfalls, indicating that OFOs might be forthcoming if the warnings aren’t heeded.

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