Anyway

Heating load was still plentiful going into the weekend, but prices dropped across the board anyway Friday. The cash market was swayed mostly by the subpar storage pull that was reported Thursday and the accompanying screen weakness, along with the National Weather Service’s forecast of above-normal temperatures during the coming workweek in most of the East and as far into the Southwest as Arizona (see Daily GPI, Feb. 18).

Cool to cold temperatures were due over the weekend in most areas, but the cash market did not find that enough incentive to sustain Thursday’s sharp gains into Friday. Instead, prices fell at almost all points between a little less than a nickel and nearly half a dollar (the sole gainer was Transco Zone 5’s rise of about 4 cents).

Oversupplied Rockies/San Juan gas failed to share in mostly substantial price gains throughout the rest of the market Friday. Virtually all of the upticks were measured in double digits, ranging up to about 40 cents higher in the Pacific Northwest.

While gas traders, especially those who deal with western points, pondered the ramifications of the PG&E bankruptcy filing (see related story), most of the cash market saw moderate firmness Friday. A large majority of the upticks were in the vicinity of a dime, although scattered points rose as much as about 15 cents and others were up only about a nickel. There were small declines in the Rockies and substantially larger ones in California.

While technical conference participants hotly debated FERC’snatural gas transportation initiatives last week, there appeared tobe some areas of agreement – starting with the need for more timeto argue.

Brokers and speculators (at least some, anyway) may havebreathed a collective sigh of relief on Wednesday, as volatilityreturned to the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April contractfinally broke out of the tight $2.105-205 trading range that hadbeen containing its movements since March 6 by virtue of its 8.4cent rise to $2.239. Sources agreed the activity was led byanticipatory buying ahead of the release of the latest AGA storagereport. “It was more buy based on rumor today, but the rumor wasstrong enough to drive April above major resistance at $2.205,” oneof the sources told NGI.