Cash prices were able to recover Monday all of the ground they had lost Friday and more as numbers moved higher at all but two points. There was cooling load developing in the South and Southwest, still-substantive heating load on both sides of long stretches of the U.S.-Canadian border, support from the 20.4-cent advance by May futures Friday and the return of industrial demand from its typical weekend hiatus.

Only a drop of a couple of pennies by Northwest-domestic and flat Cheyenne Hub quotes averted an across the board run of cash bullishness. Monday’s gains ranged from a little less than a dime to a little more than 70 cents and were especially strong in the Gulf Coast, Appalachia, Waha/Permian, Arizona/Nevada, California and Midwest/Northeast citygate markets.

Tuesday’s cash market will again have prior-day screen support as prompt-month natural gas futures based a 14.6-cent increase on another record-setting performance by the crude oil contract, which rose above $117/bbl because of new geopolitical concerns and a weakening U.S. dollar (see related story).

High temperatures are starting to reach the low and mid 80s in much of the South, creating some cooling load for gas-fired peaking power generation units. Even some Midcontinent locations such as Oklahoma City are expected to peak in the low 80s. However, the East Coat area from Georgia through the Carolinas to Virginia remains mild to cool for now.

Tuesday’s forecast for the Northeast and Midwest wasn’t especially cold except for Canadian border areas, but it included lows in the 40s and 50s.

The Pacific Northwest, Western Canada and northern Rockies contain just about all of the West’s remaining cold weather. Meanwhile, desert Southwest highs will be in the 90-degree area Tuesday.

There was a bit of supply tightness in the West. PG&E issued a low-inventory OFO for Tuesday (see Transportation Notes), helping the PG&E citygate and Malin soar by about 45 cents and half a dollar, respectively. And El Paso said it had set the probability of declaring a Strained Operating Condition or Critical Operating Condition to “moderate” due to low linepack.

Market-area customers were warned by Florida Gas Transmission that its linepack is lower and warmer weather is forecasted in Florida, so they should be aware of the potential for the pipeline to issue an Overage Alert Day on an upcoming gas day. That was sufficient for the Florida citygate to record Monday’s biggest gain by far, while quotes were up on either side of 45 cents in Florida Gas Zones 2 and 3.

Northwest-domestic likely was the only softer point Monday due to pig runs and engine maintenance starting Tuesday that will reduce available capacity at the Plymouth North constraint point and Pegram Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, April 17). In contrast, Sumas quotes were up about 20 cents and commanding a premium of about $1.45 over the domestic product.

A Midwestern utility buyer said his area had “a beautiful weekend” but temperatures were turning colder again. The new spell of cold should last only a couple of days, though, he added. He believes cash prices have one more day of firmness left in them Tuesday because they will continue to have prior-day futures support and the colder temperatures are expected to last through Wednesday.

The utility’s throughput is down overall during April, the buyer said, and he has been a seller of gas “off and on this month.” He reported having to work around a couple of transportation hassles. ANR lost a unit at its Sandwich Compressor Station during the weekend (see Transportation Notes), and that should last all week, he said. And Northern Natural Gas also has a restriction in place due to maintenance at Oakland Compressor Station, he added.

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