Disappeared

Prices were mostly on either side of flat Thursday. The Hurricane Alex threat to Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production had disappeared, but the prior-day futures gain of 6.8 cents and forecasts of almost-imperceptible increases in heat levels caused a small majority of quotes to be slightly higher.

Colorado regulators have approved the sale and transfer of Aquila Inc.’s utility operations in Colorado to Black Hills Corp. That leaves outstanding only the approval of Missouri officials for the multi-billion dollar, three-way transaction that will spell the end of Aquila and its predecessors, which have served portions of mid America since 1908.

With heating load starting to fade a bit in northern market areas and having nearly disappeared in the South, the cash market saw mixed pricing Thursday that included many flat points and leaned to the downside in a majority of cases. Because of colder weather than expected and linepack shortfalls in some instances, the Rockies continued to be much stronger than the overall market, but Thursday’s gains were considerably smaller than those on Wednesday.

With prior-day futures support having disappeared and mild-weather fundamentals coming more into play, nearly all points ranged from flat to down a little more than a dime Wednesday. A small gain by El Paso-Permian was a negligible exception to the overall trend.

Despite fundamental support having virtually disappeared, most of the cash market outside the Rockies managed to hang tough for at least one more day of firmness Tuesday, but new price advances slowed almost to a crawl. Non-Rockies quotes tended to range from flat to no more than about a nickel higher, with most points averaging gains of 3 cents or less.