Moderate softness dominated a market in which most price movement saw little change either up or down from flat Thursday. A May futures increase of 3.9 cents a day earlier provided only meager support for cash numbers that appeared to be succumbing to an overall dearth of weather-related load instead of following the prior trading day’s screen lead as they have often done in the last week or so.

Western numbers led losses ranging from 2-3 cents to a little more than 15 cents (only one point, however, dropped by more than about a dime). Flat quotes were common throughout the rest of the market, and the occasional gains were small in being limited to about a nickel.

The Energy Information Administration’s report of an 87 Bcf storage injection for the week ending April 9 handily exceeded consensus expectations centered around the upper 70s Bcf. It was the second above-estimates build in a row and Nymex traders had a predictably bearish response in sending prompt-month futures 21.4 cents lower (see related story).

One source said the screen decline, combined with cooling but still fairly moderate weather forecasts and the usual weekend dip of industrial load, practically guaranteed softness Friday in most if not all of the cash market.

There may still be a little air conditioning demand left in the South with peak temperatures generally around 80 Friday, but it will be less than before as the region participates in an overall cooling trend. The Midwest/Midcontinent, Northeast and most of the West will also experience dropping temperatures, but the resultant chilly conditions in some areas were not expected to cause a significant burst of new heating load.

Prices tended to take the biggest hits in the Rockies and Southwest despite Questar’s Clay Basin storage facility being available for injections again (a producer estimated the capacity at about 600 MMcf/d) following two weeks of reservoir testing.

California numbers fell about a nickel or slightly less. SoCalGas again waited until the afternoon to announce that a high-linepack OFO was being kept in place through the following day (see Transportation Notes).

A utility buyer in the South said his area had experienced “close to [date-specific] record highs” earlier in the week, which caused him to wonder: “What happened to spring?” A cooldown is approaching, he said, with lows sinking to the upper 40s this weekend, but the utility shouldn’t see any appreciable increase in heating demand. The buyer said he thought most residents were determined not to turn their furnaces back on until sometime late next fall.

He noted that TGT has an inventory verification test scheduled for April 20-30 at its Midland Storage Field in Kentucky. That will throw the utility off its regular injection schedule temporarily, he said, but shouldn’t cause any problem because April has been so warm.

A western trader said cash prices fell along with futures after the storage report came out, but it had less effect in the physical market because most trading there had already been finished by then. He noted that below-average temperatures in Northern California were keeping PG&E linepack near minimum target levels, unlike SoCalGas, where near-full storage has prompted frequent high-linepack OFOs recently.

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