With a midweek winter blast due to yield to more moderate conditions in key northern market areas, prices dropped at nearly all points Thursday by amounts ranging from a couple of pennies to a little more than 30 cents. A little more than half of the declines were a dime or less.

A few flat to modestly higher points were scattered geographically. In general, Gulf Coast and Rockies/Pacific Northwest quotes were most resistant to the softening trend, while Northeast citygates took most of the largest hits.

With cold and snow expected to persist through the weekend in Western Canada and the northern half of the western U.S., some points in the West may be able to record modest gains Friday. Otherwise, the return of milder temperatures and the slump in industrial demand that accompanies a weekend are likely to unite the rest of the market in falling prices.

The Energy Information Administration reported a storage withdrawal of 151 Bcf for the week ending Dec. 31. The volume was near the high end of prior expectations but was treated as only mildly bullish at first on the screen. But the natural gas contract got caught up by spikes in Nymex’s petroleum-related futures offerings and eventually ended the day up 21.6 cents. Crude oil for February delivery soared by more than $2 to $45.10/bbl, its highest level in two weeks, as traders apparently reconsidered their bearish reaction Wednesday to reports that arrayed a sharp drop in crude inventories against increases in gasoline and distillates. There was also news of a potential oil workers strike in Venezuela to stimulate traders, and one news service reported that the big natural gas pull contributed to the crude upswing.

Snow warnings in the Midwest were being replaced by flash flood warnings because the copious amount of frozen precipitation that was dumped on the region in the last couple of days was starting to melt, a Houston-based marketer said he was told by a resident of Chicago. “It’s still cold as heck there,” he went on; Chicago will stay near freezing over the next couple of days but will still be warmer than at midweek. He expects a softer market for awhile, but sees a slight chance for a rebound when the Upper Midwest is expected to get another cold front towards the end of next week.

Prices were trending modestly downward until the storage report came out and gave the numbers in late deals a little kick back up, the marketer added.

A winter storm that had begun in the Midwest was on its way through the Northeast and out to sea Thursday, but the region will be returning to unseasonably mild temperatures Friday, a trader reported. “Today we saw aggressive selling mixed with lighter loads. In the Northeast, it’s going to be looking more like the end of October than early January.”

What the trader called “unbelievably bearish weather” will last through next week, he said. He stressed that he was not saying there’s no chance of a rebound at some point for whatever reason, but said the weather forecasts indicate that the overall price trend through at least mid-January is downward.

“It’s quiet as a church mouse around here,” said a utility buyer in Florida. She noted that some maintenance constraints are in effect in Florida Gas Transmission’s Zone 1, but said that with demand so weak they’re not having any market impact.

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