Other than isolated softness at a couple of Rockies points and the Southern California border, the cash market ranged from flat to about a dime higher Wednesday. Although a majority of gains were quite small at a nickel or less, price movement was starting to be based more on hot-weather fundamentals and less on the screen’s previous-day performance.

The Southwest from Texas through Southern California is maintaining its status quo of triple-digit high temperatures, and the addition of 90 degrees-or-greater readings in the upper South, the Midcontinent and some Upper Plains areas is being felt in growing air conditioning load. However, the incremental cooling demand isn’t all that large yet, a marketer said, and the Midwest and Northeast are still on the mild side, which will keep a lid on any budding price rally.

The screen did provide a modicum of support by tacking on a rise of nearly 7 cents Wednesday to Tuesday’s uptick of a little less than a nickel, one source noted.

Switching back to gas from alternative fuel sources is making its presence felt and helping keep the market relatively firm amid generally weak influences. A Midwest utility buyer said her gas control chief came by “to say all the [gas-fired] power plants on our system” had been turned on Wednesday afternoon. That was a good sign of fuel switching favorable to gas because a lot of those plants with dual-fuel capability had been on fuel oil previously, she said.

It’s still not very hot in much of the Midwest, the buyer continued, but humidity is getting higher, and that’s prompting regional consumers to run their air conditioners more than usual. But in her viewpoint, heat in Texas and other areas of the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent was the primary factor in Wednesday small price gains not only in the production areas but in her market area.

The Rockies market was decidedly mixed, producing not only the day’s only sizeable loss on Questar but also the only gains exceeding a dime on Northwest. The Aug. 5-7 shortfall of 600 MMcf/d or so from the Opal Plant may have been playing a part again in the Northwest strength, a trader speculated. But regardless of whatever happens Thursday in the rest of the market, he said, chances of softness in the Rockies that day are good because the Opal outage will no longer be in effect for Friday’s gas flows.

An eastern utility buyer sees a slightly bullish signal in talk about the Energy Information Administration’s storage report, due Thursday morning. “The EIA guesses are dropping,” she said. “I was hearing the 80s [Bcf injection] early this week, but now it’s the mid 70s. Everyone seems to keep coming up with a lower number as the week goes on.” The buyer acknowledged, however, that even a number in the 70s will lower further the year-on-year storage deficit.

Any potential “storm hype” in the market has faded again. A tropical wave is continuing to plow westward through the Leeward Islands, according to The Weather Channel, but the system is quite disorganized and further development is unlikely.

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