Propelled almost entirely by the previous day’s 49-cent futures spike following a modestly bullish storage injection report, the cash market rose at nearly all points Friday. Although it was on the light side, residual heating load in Canada, the northern half of the U.S. and to some extent in the eastern end of the South provided auxiliary price support, and apparently the usual weekend decline of industrial demand had little impact.

The first official day of spring saw gains ranging from about a nickel to nearly C45 cents (both NOVA Inventory Transfer and Westcoast Station 2). Only flat quotes for CenterPoint-West and the SoCal citygate and a drop of less than a nickel at the demarcation point of Northern Natural Gas prevented an across the board run of firmness.

Although it fell far short of matching Thursday’s big run-up, the April futures contract will have positive previous-trading-day guidance again for cash traders Monday after rising another 5.3 cents Friday (see related story).

Although weekend temperatures were expected to be mostly seasonal and tending to get a bit milder in many areas, there were still lows on either side of freezing and occasionally in the 20s in the Saturday forecast across most of Canada and from the Northeast through sections of the Midwest into the northern Rockies. Some locations in the Midwest, such as Chicago and Omaha, NE, were expected to record relatively moderate lows in the 40s.

The outlook for the South was a geographically mixed bag, as it often has been in recent months. Generally from the Mississippi River eastward (and including some parts of Arkansas), Saturday temperatures were expected to be mostly in the 40s and as low as 40 itself in Atlanta, which likely had some furnaces being turned on. But Louisiana and Texas residents were predicted to continue enjoying balmy highs in the 70s and low 80s.

The Weather Channel said a “vigorous” storm would producer rain, mountain snow and gusty winds across Washington, Oregon and the northern half of California Saturday, with such conditions spreading into the northern Rockies. Toward the southern end of the Rockies, though, the forecast called for an unseasonably warm high in the mid 70s for the Denver area. Calgary was expected to bottom out in the frigid mid 20s, and while temperatures were starting to drop in the desert Southwest, Phoenix would still be peaking in the mid 80s, according to Madison, WI-based Weather Central.

A Gulf Coast producer considered the cash strength Friday “pretty much driven” by Thursday’s futures spike, as he noted that overall weather fundamentals would be getting weaker in most locations during the weekend. However, he said he thought the firmness was accentuated to some degree by the relative lack of liquidity resulting from many traders being out of their offices last week to take spring break vacations with their children. Trading rooms should be close to fully staffed again in the coming week, he added.

But even with the massive prior-day screen support, “there really was no reason” for Friday’s increases being so large in most cases, the producer said, so he expects prices to be mostly flat or falling this week.

The number of drilling rigs seeking natural gas in the U.S. fell by another 27 to 857 during the week ending March 20, according to the Baker Hughes Rotary Rig Count (https://intelligencepress.com/features/bakerhughes/). Three rigs left the Gulf of Mexico search and 24 were deactivated onshore, Baker Hughes said. Its latest tally was down 16% from a month ago and 40% less than the year-earlier level.

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