Once again a previous-afternoon screen uprising worked its magic on next-day cash prices. Friday quotes for weekend flow mostly ranged from approximately flat to nearly a quarter higher. A majority of the gains were relatively modest at around a dime or less.

The highly conspicuous exception to the overall trend was a spike of more than half a dollar in the San Juan-Blanco pool. San Juan numbers had been dragged down by nearly 80 cents over the past couple of days largely due to waning weather-related demand in the east-of-California markets, one source said, but 100-degree-plus temperatures in the desert Southwest were starting to expand again Friday and expected to spread further over the weekend.

Columbia-Appalachia (TCO), which has been unusually strong lately relative to neighboring Appalachian pipe Dominion, soared nearly a quarter into the low to mid $3.90s, which handily surpassed such normal price strongholds as Northeast citygates. A producer explained that it’s almost impossible to get gas into TCO interconnects because the pipeline’s storage is close to full, and more interconnect receipts would raise pressure problems. Thus, downstream markets are forced to buy out of TCO’s Appalachian pool. “You’re still able to sell TCO at the pool because customers with firm takeaway capacity must have that gas,” the producer added. Those customers can handle price spikes like Friday’s if they hedged their purchases properly at the first of the month, he said.

Friday’s advance took TCO prices about 80 cents above NGI‘s $3.12 first-of-month index.

Northeast citygates tended to see some of Friday’s smallest gains, and a utility buyer in the region said he was seeing prices retreat at several points in both the market and production area as trading went on. It was a mixed bag, though, he continued, as certain points got heavily discounted while others held firm.

Noting that NGPL-TexOk continued Friday a week-long trend of averaging a few cents above the Chicago citygate, a marketer said, “You can’t buy higher in the field and sell for less in the market area after adding transportation costs. We’re stranding our [TexOk to Chicago] transport for now, and I’m buying all my gas at the citygate instead.” He added that his company is taking TexOk gas into NGPL’s Louisiana Line instead, where it could access premium South Louisiana points like FGT Zones 2 and 3, Henry Hub and Transco Station 65. Also, the marketer observed that hot weather continues in Texas, and TexOk gas could feed the needs of electric utilities in the region such as TXU, SWEPCO and Houston Lighting and Power.

One trader commented that a lot of western utilities are leaning on Rockies production for their supplies currently with prices so cheap there. However, he expects the Rockies market to get “really nasty” Monday because of a total outage for up to 30 hours starting Tuesday of a Northwest segment near Grand Junction, CO (see Daily GPI, Aug. 23). “My guess is that NW domestic and Opal prices will suffer more than any others during the one-day Northwest outages coming up,” he said (similar projects are planned for Friday and Sept. 4). Sumas numbers should do OK because there’s enough demand in the Pacific Northwest to hold them up, the trader added.

A trader reported that the Midwest LDCs “I’ve been talking to say they are doing fine on storage; they’re more worried about having too much gas on their systems. I don’t know what’s going to happen in September and October when we run out of storage space. Basis especially should get much weaker around that time.”

Most sources reported they have not tried to initiate any September business yet. A producer said some people had approached his company about getting an early jump on September trading, “but we’re just not ready yet to get into it. Try me back Monday or Tuesday.”

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