Buying for storage injections finally proved unable to offset the retreat of weather-related load Wednesday, and the result was falling cash prices across the board.

Declines were remarkably consistent across geographic market areas in ranging from about a dime to a little more than 35 cents. However, Northeast citygates cornered the lion’s share of losses of 30 cents or more.

A combination of the extra loss of industrial load over a holiday weekend, continued widespread mild temperatures and Wednesday’s dime drop in futures makes it highly likely that prices will move lower again Thursday. However, one supportive factor for the market is that more cooling load is starting to emerge in the South, which is expected to see highs in the 80s Thursday in most sections.

Forecasts say only a few mountainous areas of the West will feel substantive cold approaching the freezing level Thursday. Meanwhile, springtime has established a tenacious grip on weather conditions elsewhere. Even Calgary is seeing highs approaching 60 degrees lately.

The South is getting warm enough that record or near-record highs are likely Thursday in parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas, according to The Weather Channel.

Predictions of another busy hurricane season fail to impress a marketer in the Upper Midwest. High storage levels mean that even if hurricanes disrupt offshore production again, there shouldn’t be any serious supply problems, he said. He noted that a lot of people in his area had turned off their furnaces last week and don’t expect them to get turned back on until much later this year.

The marketer said he has a strong feeling that energy conservation measures are going to start affecting gas market demand much more substantially in the near future. “People have been sensitized” by an extended period of high energy prices, he said, “and are doing things [to conserve] they never used to do before.”

Storage injection season appears to have arrived exactly on schedule. After the Energy Information Administration reported a smaller than expected 10 Bcf pull for the final week of March, all prior expectations call for a net injection in the first week of April.

Reuters news service said its survey of 25 industry players found estimations of the upcoming storage report calling for injections ranging from 14 Bcf to 59 Bcf, producing an average guess of 27 Bcf. Bentek Energy projects a build of 38 Bcf for the week ending April 7, saying its data for the measurement week indicates a 7.5% decrease in demand. Kyle Cooper of Citigroup said his final estimation calls for an injection of 32-42 Bcf.

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