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Traders didn’t quite know how to handle the news Thursday morning that 86 Bcf was withdrawn from underground natural gas storage inventories for the week ending Jan. 22. Immediately following the 10:30 a.m. EST report, March natural gas futures — in its first regular session action as the front month — seesawed up and down before resuming its test of lower values.

Traders didn’t quite know how to handle the news Thursday morning that 86 Bcf was withdrawn from underground natural gas storage inventories for the week ending Jan. 22. Immediately following the 10:30 a.m. EST report, March natural gas futures — in its first regular session action as the front month — seesawed up and down before resuming its test of lower values.

There was still quite a bit of heating load left with many Northeast, Midwest, Plains, Rockies and Western Canada locations still bottoming around freezing or lower, including a few cases into the teens, but prior-day futures weakness, the extra depressant on industrial load from a long holiday weekend and further moderation or status quo conditions in the forecast for many areas caused prices to fall at virtually all points Friday.

BP plc’s 3Q2009 profits were down by more than a third from a year ago, but cost-cutting measures implemented two years ago by the oil major are paying dividends. Costs are projected to fall by $4 billion this year from 2008, which is $1 billion more than the producer forecast in June.

North American natural gas prices are expected to “remain quite low” through the end of 2009, but EOG Resources Inc. is even more bullish about 2010 and 2011 than it was earlier this year, CEO Mark Papa said Friday.

Can the cash market run the table this week? It extended its chances quite a bit Thursday by recording increases at virtually all points again. Cooling load was due to get a little boost in parts of the Midwest and was returning to some extent in interior California, although forecasts were mostly moderate in the rest of the Midwest and the Northeast. The previous day’s 4.1-cent gain by futures was an additional modest bullish influence.

Forecasts of very warm to sizzling weather Tuesday across quite a few market areas, along with the 14.5-cent rebound by futures Friday and the return of industrial load from its typical weekend decline, were able to raise cash prices at nearly all points Monday. The source of some of the demand was obscure, though, because cooling trends are due at some western locations in the South and Midwest.

Based on some solid increases in heating load in parts of the West and not quite as substantial gains in other areas, prices were flat to higher at virtually all points Wednesday. The cash market also had meager prior-day screen support from the 5.3-cent gain by April futures on Tuesday.

Spring-like weather was starting to bust out in quite a few areas Friday and due to continue through the weekend. That was evident in the spot gas market as prices fell at nearly all points. The weekend loss of industrial demand was another bearish factor, while the previous day’s 4.5-cent gain by March futures obviously did little to support cash numbers.