The cash market was mixed again Friday, but leaning considerably more to the downside than on Thursday. Several points were flat, while losses ranged to about 30 cents and gains got as high as about 15 cents. The chilly West had most of the advancing points.

The weekend was due to be stormy in most areas, but not particularly hot or cold outside of parts of the West. Even the record-setting heat in South and East Texas was forecast to subside into highs in the mid 80s. The lack of weather load and the typical drop in industrial demand over a weekend were the primary causes of softness in most of the market.

Energy futures provided good reason to expect large rebounds on Monday. The natural gas screen soared a little more than 40 cents in sympathy with the petroleum offerings at Nymex. Crude oil for December delivery (November expired Wednesday) made the crude contract’s first-ever daily settlement above $55/bbl after hitting a new intraday peak of $55.50.

But probably even more important to the gas market was heating oil continuing to scale new record heights since the two products constitute the chief winter heating fuels. A producer said that by his calculations, heating oil futures at $1.5944/gallon (Friday’s closing price) work out to the equivalent of a little more than $10.60 for natural gas. That gives gas futures wiggle room to go even higher, he said.

It was hardly surprising that after continuing to rise Wednesday and Thursday in the face of a high-linepack OFO by PG&E, Malin and the PG&E citygate would be among Friday’s strongest gainers with the OFO being lifted Saturday. And even the declaration of a similar OFO for Saturday by SoCalGas sent the Southern California border average down less than a nickel.

Last week’s screen run-up gave a huge boost to November prices. On Monday a source had said bidweek numbers looked to be about 15 cents above October indexes at that point. But a producer reported a $7.25-40 range for November Sumas deals done Friday. That compares with an October Sumas index of $4.66.

After stagnating for three days, the process of restoring shut-in offshore production resumed. More than a month after Hurricane Ivan heavily damaged infrastructure off southeastern Louisiana, Minerals Management Service reported that shut-ins still stood at 1,521.58 MMcf/d Friday, a drop of 22.5 MMcf/d from the day before and a little less than 178 MMcf/d below the week-earlier level. MMS’ cumulative total of deferred production since Sept. 11 reached 97.154 Bcf, or 2.183% of annual Gulf output.

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