Straight

While extending an Overage Alert Day for market-area customers into its fourth straight day Thursday, Florida Gas Transmission tightened the tolerance for negative daily imbalances from 25% to 15%.

Most of the cash market dropped again Thursday, pressured lower by Wednesday’s third straight day of futures weakness and unable to rebound despite increases of cooling load in some areas.

Prices rose at a majority of cash market points for a second straight day Thursday, and again the chief reason was prior-day strength in June natural gas futures. Quite a few points in the West provided a harbinger of what is expected in Friday’s market: major losses due to the shrinkage of weather-based load to near nothing. High-linepack OFOs by both of California’s biggest distributors contributed to overall western price weakness.

El Paso Corp. last week reported its fourth straight profitable quarter, the longest stretch since 2000, but the news received a mixed reaction from analysts and shareholders.

El Paso Corp. reported its fourth straight profitable quarter on Tuesday, the longest stretch since 2000, but the news received a mixed reaction from analysts and shareholders.

Triple-digit plunges by Northeast citygates led a second straight day of prices falling across the board Friday. The South was an exception, but warming trends were due to continue into the weekend in many other areas. The previous-day decline of 7.4 cents by March futures and the typical weekend loss of industrial demand were other bearish factors.

March natural gas futures recorded a third straight day of gains Wednesday despite the fact that New York City was basking in 58-degree weather on the sixth day of February. However, they don’t call it the “futures” market for nothing. Temperatures later in February continued to look colder than first expected, helping to drive the prompt-month contract to a high of $8.070 before closing out at $7.994, up 5.2 cents from Tuesday’s close.

Four straight days of increases on the Nymex set the stage for a significant cash market rebound Wednesday. Daily averages approached the $4.90s in New England and were largely back above $4 in the Rockies except for Northwest Pipeline and Questar. Kingsgate and Station 2 in British Columbia remained below $4.

Flat quotes for Questar made it the only point failing to bow to weak fundamentals and five straight prior trading days of falling futures Thursday. The rest of the cash market saw price drops ranging from a little less than a nickel to about 55 cents.