High heat levels that kept air conditioners humming in many areas, plus a large dose of prior-day support from Tuesday’s gain of nearly 29 cents by August futures, led to higher cash prices at most points Wednesday. Northeast citygates constituted a conspicuous exception as the region is in transition from early week highs in the 90s to peak temperatures on either side of 80 degrees Thursday.

Most of the market ranged from flat to up about a quarter. Transco Zone 6-New York City led the Northeast losses by dropping about a quarter.

Thursday’s market will lack the screen support that helped prop up prices Wednesday. The August contract gave back about a third of Tuesday’s advance in falling 9.9 cents Wednesday.

The Midwest joined in the overall price firmness despite what The Weather Channel (TWC) called “relatively cool” high temperatures for mid-July being forecast for Thursday. They will range from the 60s in northern portions of the Upper Midwest to the 70s and 80s (north to south) elsewhere, TWC said. The South is pretty hot with heat indexes approaching and occasionally exceeding 100 degrees, but still is not reaching its normal cooling load potential for this time of year. Highs currently are limited to about 90 degrees in the region except in the western end, where the low to mid 90s are being reached.

Despite the pipeline reporting high linepack in the three farthest downstream (of four) segments, Kern River managed to rise by more than 20 cents.

Although no tropical storm development is expected, the National Hurricane Center was monitoring four tropical waves Wednesday in various parts of the Atlantic.

The National Weather Service expects below-normal temperatures during the July 20-24 workweek in three areas: the western third of Washington state; southeast, northeast and central Texas along with the western half of Louisiana and a small strip along the southern edge of Oklahoma; and the immediate area bordering the Great Lakes.

The federal agency looks for above-normal readings in the East Coast states from Virginia through Florida (with the exception of northwest Georgia and the western two-thirds of Florida’s Panhandle), and in most of the West as far east as Iowa and northwest Missouri with these exceptions: the western two-thirds of Washington and Oregon along with northwest California; the southern two-thirds of Arizona and most of New Mexico except the state’s northern edge; all of Oklahoma except the Panhandle; and southeast Missouri, the eastern edge of Iowa and all of Minnesota except the southwest corner.

Ron Denhardt of Strategic Energy & Economic Research expects a storage injection of 95 Bcf to be reported for the week ending July 6. Bentek Energy weighed in with an estimate of 97 Bcf. And Reuters said its survey of 21 industry players yielded an average prior expectation of 94 Bcf. Estimates ranged from 78 Bcf to 108 Bcf, the news service said.

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