What had been only a moderately soft market Wednesday with mostly single-digit losses and some western gains tossed into the mix appeared to be turning into a near-rout Thursday as fairly large double-digit losses extended across the board. A continuing dearth of weather-based demand — in either the form of cooling or heating — was abetted by a prior-day futures decline of 3.4 cents in quashing cash quotes.

Drops ranging from about 15 cents to C70 cents were distributed fairly evenly among U.S. geographic market areas but tended to be much higher in Western Canada. Although it had not done so as of Thursday afternoon, NOVA was cautioning customers about the potential for an imbalance tolerance change due to high system linepack and morning decreases in border export nominations.

Also, Westcoast said a pigging barrel relocation would cause a restriction in Sumas capacity for Friday.

It’s highly unlikely that the cash market will be able to mount a rally Friday. The Energy Information Administration’s estimate of a 64 Bcf storage injection during the week ending Sept. 25 only slightly exceeded consensus expectations in the low 60s Bcf, but Nymex traders had a mightily bearish response in pushing November gas futures a whopping 37.5 cents lower amid overall weakness in the energy futures complex (see related story).

A minor warmth surge Thursday in the South was due to start receding again Friday, with most locations limited to the 70s. And although 90-degree highs may seem torrid to some, that is relatively mild compared to the mid 100s early in the week for Phoenix-area residents in the desert Southwest.

And although a slight warming trend will still keep overnight lows in Alberta and the Rockies in the upper 20s and 30s, most of lower Canada and the rest of the United States can continue looking forward to mild to merely chilly conditions.

The Anadarko-operated Independence Hub platform in the Gulf of Mexico is in the process of ramping back up following a maintenance project that began in mid-August and caused variable reductions in output while the producer worked on six of seven “allocation separators,” which take liquids out of the gas stream, said spokesman John Christiansen. Anadarko expects Independence (1 Bcf/d total capacity) to average 700-750 MMcf’/d of production for the rest of the year, he said.

El Paso said excess linepack had prompted it to set the probability of declaring a Strained Operating Condition to high.

The PG&E citygate and Malin, which had risen Wednesday despite the extension of a utility OFO, succumbed by about 20 cents each Thursday as the OFO was not only extended further but also set a stage higher with more expensive penalties (see Transportation Notes).

A Midwest utility buyer said his area has been seeing cooler nights and days lately, but couldn’t expect “any real cold weather” until at least after mid-month — if then. However, the utility had some crop-drying load enhancing its gas throughput starting about a week ago, and that will last through October before ending in early November, he said.

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