Largely due to a prior-day futures spike following a much-larger-than-expected storage withdrawal report, but also because of very cold weather continuing to dominate North America forecasts, cash prices were up at all points Friday.

Only a couple of gains were less than a dime in increases ranging a little more than a nickel to about 75 cents.

After starting the day in positive territory, it looked like January futures would have negative guidance for Monday’s cash market after slipping into the red early Friday afternoon, but the contract made a late recovery for a minuscule gain of 1.4 cents on the day (see related story).

Besides sub-freezing New England temperatures, the Algonquin citygate also saw a shortfall in supplies from the Northeast Gateway liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, reported on the pipeline’s bulletin board, propel it to Friday’s largest price gain. A Reuters news service story said one LNG tanker was having offloading problems Friday but another tanker was due to dock there later in the day. A request for a status update to Excelerate Energy, the facility’s operator, was not answered by press deadline.

Florida Gas Transmission signaled the spread of colder weather in the South in saying Friday that because of forecasts of lows in the 30s to 40s moving into its Florida market area soon, customers there should be aware of the potential for an Overage Alert Day being issued on an upcoming gas day.

And after a brief late-week warming trend, the Midwest could expect to see temperatures falling again over the weekend, with lows in the teens and 20 due at most regional locations. The Northeast forecast called for little change from highs at or just above freezing and lows mostly in the teens and 20s.

The weather status quo was also expected to remain in the Rockies with lows on either side of 20 and in Alberta with lows around 10, but the rest of the West was predicted to range from chilly to fairly moderate.

A Midwest marketer said that while it was personally uncomfortable, his area’s frigid conditions so far during December were “good for business.” The local forecast was for slightly warmer temperatures early next week before turning colder again between the holidays. Although he understood there were some capacity constraints on pipelines to the east, transportation was pretty smooth in the Midcontinent/Midwest, he said.

The market likely will be a bit less liquid next week as Christmas vacations begin early for some, the marketer said. He noted that there were fewer people than usual in his company’s office Friday, and he was finding similar conditions with several trading counterparties.

Because West Coast weather is relatively mild currently, a western trader said Thursday’s futures run-up was the main factor in the increases in his region Friday. It looks like SoCalGas is already making fairly hefty use of storage withdrawals, he said, while such activity is slower on the PG&E system. Most of the West can expect “average January weather,” he said.

Although some trading firms may be a little short-staffed as Christmas nears, his company generally keeps everybody on duty, he said, adding that after all, “we have to take care of bidweek.”

A lot of snow has melted in the last couple of days “but it’s still very cold,” a Midwest utility staffer said. She noted with some dismay that winter hasn’t even officially started yet.

The number of drilling rigs actively seeking natural gas in the U.S. rose again during the week ending Dec. 18, according to the Baker Hughes Rotary Rig Count. Its latest tally of 773 was up by 16, with a Gulf of Mexico decline of three rigs being offset by an onshore increase of 19. The count was up 6% from a month earlier but 43% less than the year-earlier level.

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