Recede

On the verge of Tuesday’s official start of winter, it seemed like the season had already gotten off to a strong start last week but was tending to recede a bit. However, except for some fairly big slides from last week’s $10-plus heights in the Northeast, most points registered moderate increases Monday.

With heating load continuing to recede and replacement cooling demand still missing in action for the most part, prices fell at nearly all points Thursday. Although softness had replaced firmness as the dominant characteristic of price movement, near-flat numbers were still in vogue as few points changed by a dime or more.

While cooling load is due to grow in some areas Thursday and recede in others, the market saw too much overall weakness in weather fundamentals to sustain Tuesday’s general rally and fell at most points Wednesday. In addition, the screen had provided minuscule negative guidance for cash prices with a 1.9-cent drop by September futures Tuesday, and the perception of potential tropical storm threats to Gulf of Mexico production retreated somewhat.

With Hurricane Dean continuing to recede as a potential threat to U.S. offshore production, cooling load remaining sparse outside the South and Southwest and a near-dollar plunge by September futures the day before serving as highly negative guidance, the cash market continued to fall by mostly large amounts at all points Tuesday.

Prospects for construction of Canada’s Mackenzie Valley pipeline continue to recede as the federal government lays out conditions for supporting the pioneer arctic natural gas development with favorable financial terms.

Prospects for construction of Canada’s Mackenzie Valley pipeline continue to recede as the federal government lays out conditions for supporting the pioneer arctic natural gas development with favorable financial terms.

Weighed down by continuing mild weather in most of the East, with heating load starting to recede again in the Rockies and Plains after a blizzard had passed, and by a January futures drop of more than 31 cents a day earlier, the cash market was in retreat at nearly all points Thursday. Only a couple of flat to slightly higher locations in the still-frigid Rockies avoided the overall softness.

Prices were in a steep slide across the board Monday, with heating load continuing to recede and the cash market no longer having prior-trading-day screen support. All points yielded more price ground Monday than they had gained on the previous Friday.

Making Monday the fifth consecutive day to close lower, the May natural gas futures contract settled at $5.509, down 10.1 cents after trading in a range from $5.50 to $5.70. The week started on uncharacteristically heavy volume as 85,318 contracts changed hands.