Cash prices took a hard fall across the board Friday, weighed down by a 46.5-cent prior-day futures plunge, the continuance of relatively light cooling load outside the southern U.S. (including the Midcontinent and Rockies) and the loss of industrial demand during a weekend.

Declines ranged from a little more than C25 cents (NOVA Inventory Transfer) to about 75 cents. The West in general was the weakest regional market and the Rockies took nearly all of the biggest price hits, despite the forecast for a Saturday high in Denver in the mid 90s.

Operations offshore South Texas were nearly back to normal following the passage of Hurricane Dolly. Shell reported no impact to its operated production in the Gulf of Mexico and said it had commenced the restart of production and drilling at its onshore South Texas facilities, where it produces predominantly natural gas.

Seasonal peak temperatures in the 90s were forecast in the South, but few locations in the Midwest were expected to get above the mid 80s. New York City and Boston had Saturday forecasts of highs around 90 and in the upper 80s, respectively, but The Weather Channel (TWC) said two fairly weak cold fronts would bring cooling thunderstorms to the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic later in the weekend and Monday.

“With the remnants of Dolly finally out of the way this weekend, the heat wave will be the big story from Oklahoma and Texas to the lower Mississippi River Valley as highs increasingly top 100 degrees,” TWC said in its Friday afternoon forecast. “Oklahoma City is under a heat advisory through Sunday and Tulsa is under an excessive heat warning through Monday. Dallas will swelter around 104 Saturday and around 105 both Sunday and Monday.”

A high-linepack OFO by SoCalGas (see Transportation Notes) led to a drop of about 60 cents at the Southern California border.

Tennessee said it might have to issue customer-specific OFOs due to high linepack and storage levels hampering its ability to absorb positive imbalances; however, it did not do so.

A Midwest utility buyer said his company was experiencing “medium throughput for July, maybe down a little from past years.” Local forecasts have predicted above-normal temperatures in the last two weeks, “but to me it’s seemed more like normal,” he added.

The buyer reported buying one August baseload package at Northern Natural-demarc Thursday for $8.64 and then another at the point for $8.20 two hours later. August prices were falling fast along with the screen plunge following the bearish storage report, he said. He said he also did demarc deals Thursday at index flat and index minus 0.5 cent, but on Friday was paying index plus a penny.

A Florida utility buyer said he was seeing little bidweek activity so far. “I’m not intentionally waiting, but we’re flat on supply and only plan to get a small amount of baseload,” he said. On the ICE on-line trading platform he had seen Florida Gas Zone 3 basis deals get done at plus 53.5-54.5 cents, and said they were being offered at plus 55 cents and bid at plus 49 cents Friday afternoon. That may seem pretty strong basis, he said, but it pales in comparison to July Zone 3 basis at more than a dollar. The state of Florida was getting a lot of rain in July, which helps explain the weaker basis, he said, and of course both the cash and futures markets have gotten much softer this month.

The buyer said he expects the Florida citygate index to be less than $10 for the first time since March.

In its final advisory on Tropical Depression Dolly, the National Hurricane Center said the storm was moving to the west-northwest just south of the Texas Big Bend area Friday. It expected continued weakening of Dolly into a surface trough later that day.

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