The cash market advanced at all points Thursday, getting a major push from the previous day’s 38.8-cent gain by April futures and still finding a generous amount of heating load in northern market areas.

Gains ranged from about a nickel to nearly 65 cents. The top increase at the Florida citygate was something of an anomaly, however, as other points were up about 40 cents at most.

Northeast citygates recorded most of the smallest upticks largely because the region’s low temperatures Friday will remain above freezing except in western New York and the northern end of New England. However, it will be the calm before the storm, which is due to spread heavy snow over western and northern New York along with northern New England during the weekend.

Most of the Midwest citygates joined their Northeast counterparts in seeing $10-plus quotes. Much of the region will be experiencing temperatures 10 to 25 degrees below average Friday, according to The Weather Channel (TWC). Chicago will see a low of less than 10 degrees Friday, and highs will range from the single digits in northwest Minnesota to the 20s in the northern Ohio Valley, TWC said.

The South, which has been relatively moderate this week with highs mostly in the 60s and occasionally the 70s, is about to start feeling winter’s sting again in some sections. The high in Jackson, MS, will plunge from about 66 Thursday to 46 Friday, and Atlanta has a low slightly above freezing in its forecast, according to Madison, WI-based Weather Central.

A storm that was bringing rain, freezing rain and snow Thursday to Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas is expected to cause problems for much of the East over the next few days, TWC said.

Despite a modest warming trend in the Rockies, prices there were up strongly at all points and most of them were scoring some $9-plus quotes. Cheyenne Hub even managed to average above $9. Most of the rest of the West will continue to have moderate weather. Supply shortfalls had ended on El Paso, which rescinded its warning of a possible Strained Operating Condition due to low linepack late Wednesday.

Sumas and Northwest-domestic were trading at virtual parity Thursday after having begun the week with Sumas commanding a 61-cent premium. Northwest made a large reduction of capacity at its Sumas Compressor Station late Wednesday afternoon (see Transportation Notes), although as of Thursday nominations through Sumas were less than the new limit.

The completion of the western segment of Rockies Express (REX) got another setback. In recent weeks operator Kinder Morgan had been projecting a mid-March in-service date for the 210-mile section of REX-West from the ANR interconnect in Brown County, KS, to the Panhandle Eastern interconnect in Audrain County, MO, but Thursday it said it is now expected to be late March. Adverse weather was again cited as the reason for the latest delay. “All welding has been completed with the exception of the final tie-ins. Hydrostatic testing has been completed on all but 23 miles. The remaining hydrostatic test segment is expected to be completed next week. Drying the pipeline, final tie-ins and caliper pig runs will have to occur prior to purging and packing the pipeline with gas,” a bulletin board posting said. The pipeline faces other potential problems: Missouri officials have asked FERC to investigate reports that REX-West construction workers have damaged water lines in Audrain County (see related story).

The Energy Information Administration’s report of a 135 Bcf storage pull during the week ending Feb. 29 was within the range of prior expectations but less than consensus estimates centered around 140 Bcf. Though the figure could be seen as nominally bullish because it further reduced the year-on-five-year average surplus, Nymex traders figuratively gave a collective yawn and finally settled on a miserly 0.1-cent gain for April natural gas futures. The disconnect between the gas and crude oil markets was obvious as April crude soared nearly another dollar to establish the latest in a series of all-time highs at $105.47/bbl.

Prices were rising in early trading but beat a modest retreat toward the end of the session, a Midcontinent producer reported. He looks for prices to be mostly close to flat Friday, saying there will still be a fair amount of heating load but he expects the weekend loss of industrial load to partially offset that. And after super-strong support from Wednesday’s futures spike in Thursday’s market, the screen will provide neutral guidance in Friday’s cash trading, he said.

Intrastate OGT is still stronger than most interstate pipes in the Midcontinent, the producer said, and the reason remains a lack of liquidity. It’s a similar situation on Oklahoma intrastate Enogex, he added. When he needed to buy a package into Enogex Wednesday, he had a lot of trouble finding a seller.

Producers may be liking these prices but marketers hate them because pipeline fuel charges are becoming a major expense, he continued. The fuel rate is about 1.5% for most Midcontinent pipes, and at prices in the $9.10s like they were Thursday, that makes a fuel cost of nearly 14 cents per Mcf, he said. “And that’s before you add the actual transportation charge,” he added.

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