Citygates

Though not nearly as massive as those on Friday, further big drops at several Northeast citygates again led continuing softness in most of the market Monday. Most of the small gains were concentrated at western locations.

With even higher temperatures still to come, prices skyrocketed by more than a dollar at Northeast citygates Wednesday while considerably more modest gains permeated the rest of the market.

Northeast price spikes had some citygates in the region averaging more than $6 Tuesday amid a generally little-changed cash market. The tropical storm factor, which never was significant anyway, continued to fade into the open Atlantic, but very hot forecasts in many areas remained a constant for gas prices.

Prices continued to spike at Northeast citygates Tuesday, and they were joined by lesser displays of strength at some locations in the Midcontinent and West Texas. However, softer numbers again ruled in a moderate majority of the cash market despite a new winter storm moving into the South and lows around zero or lower being forecast for much of the Midwest.

Nobody is proclaiming winter as “over” yet, but the worst is past as far as many are concerned. The downhill slope for Northeast citygates grew even steeper Friday, and most other points joined them with more mundane losses. Several scattered points ran against the overall market grain by being flat to about a dime higher.

Northeast citygates and a few other locations, mostly in the West, were able to get a price boost from the severe cold expected to be occupying most of Canada and the U.S. by the start of this week. The rest of the market appeared to pay little attention as losses of less than a dime dominated.

It appeared pretty certain that the New Year’s holiday weekend weather would be noticeably milder than that of the previous week. Yet Northeast citygates essentially halted their headlong plunges from a day earlier, and small gains dominated mixed movement in the rest of the market with few points straying very far on either side from flat.

Wednesday’s cash market was quite a bit weaker than Tuesday’s; triple-digit declines continued at several Northeast citygates, but they were joined this time with falling numbers almost everywhere else as end-of-the-year weather forecasts were getting considerably milder.

They find it more at citygates rather than state borders, and the “it” is both reliability and competitive prices for wholesale natural gas supplies, according to natural gas purchasing executives who spoke last Wednesday at the “LDC Forum: Rockies and the West” conference in Los Angeles.