As sources had anticipated, Wednesday’s stall in this week’s bull market led to softer prices Thursday. A majority of losses were in the vicinity of a dime, but others ranged from only 1-2 cents down at a couple of Gulf Coast points to a drop of more than 30 cents at Transco’s Zone 6-NYC.

Although overall air conditioning load is tending to erode moderately as the week wears on, some wondered if a screen spike Thursday might be able to put a stop to the budding downturn in cash. Several cash traders were puzzled about the Nymex run-up after EIA reported that 53 Bcf was injected into storage last week, an essentially neutral number because it was in the middle of many prior expectations. One source speculated that short-covering had driven the screen more than 21 cents higher on the day. However, a marketer reported that he had been hearing guesses before the report that were all higher than 53 Bcf, so the bullishness seemed justified to him.

A Northeast utility trader said Texas Eastern East Texas in the low $2.80s “was the best buying bargains I could find today.” Although area delivered prices were falling Thursday, intraday numbers were still strong as she compared next-day Algonquin citygates in the low $3.40s to an intraday sale nearly 40 cents higher. The trader was able to make a “nice little profit” by buying intraday Tennessee Zone 6 gas in the high $3.10s and transporting it to the Algonquin gate.

Transco Station 30 and ANR Southeast were the Gulf Coast points that barely fell at all. A marketer said the relative Transco firmness was understandable because two days of pipeline allocations downstream of Station 30 were due to end Friday, but he had no explanation about ANR.

A marketer based in Houston, whose area was under flash flood warnings Thursday due to heavy rains, noted that the rain there and elsewhere was cooling off parts of the South, adding that he could definitely tell that regional power generation load was slacking off.

The Midcontinent/Midwest has been relatively cool recently and basis has been weak, a Houston trader said. Nevertheless, prices tended to rise as the morning went on, he said, likely in sympathy with the screen strength. He added that he did most of his deals before cash started rebounding.

In contrast to the Midcontinent/Midwest trending higher, a western marketer reported declining numbers as trading proceeded at San Juan, Rockies and Pacific Northwest points. Electric demand was waning in the Pacific Northwest as the high temperatures from earlier in the week recede, he said. However, he noted that a few Rockies pipes recorded some of Thursday’s smallest declines of less than a dime, and could only speculate that the end of a Trailblazer Station 601 outage earlier in the week was allowing more Rockies gas to move eastward.

The marketer went on to remark that a 300 MMcf/d-plus expansion of Trailblazer capacity, which went into effect this spring (see Daily GPI, May 7) and had Rockies suppliers anticipating substantially greater netbacks, “really hasn’t done much for Rockies prices; we’re still seeing sub-dollar prices in recent months.”

Illustrating once more how the intra-Alberta market often is a devout screen follower, one source quoted same-day Aeco numbers averaging in the high C$2.70s, while he and others did next-day deals at C10-20 cents higher. The futures strength also was reflected in trading for September, as one Calgary-based marketer reported an early next-month deal in the mid C$3.10s while two later ones were in the mid C$3.30s.

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