Unseasonably

Effective Saturday (April 9) until further notice, Nicor Gas implemented pipeline caps for deliveries to its citygate. The OFO Cap Day “is necessary due to forecasted unseasonably warm weather over the weekend period resulting in reduced system demand,” the northern Illinois LDC said. It also halted Nicor Hub interruptible storage injection services until further notice but said withdrawals will continue to be accepted. See the bulletin board for further details.

April natural gas futures rose Monday as end-users took advantage of sub-$4 pricing and discounted forecasts calling for milder if not unseasonably warm temperatures. At the close April had gained 11.8 cents to $3.927 and May rose 9.7 cents to $3.984. April crude oil added $1.02 to $105.44/bbl.

Despite recent unseasonably mild weather and a forecast of a warmer-than-normal April for portions of the East, colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate much of the region in May and June, according to the latest seasonal forecast from Andover, MA-based WSI Corp.

Despite recent unseasonably mild weather and a forecast of a warmer-than-normal April for portions of the East, colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate much of the region in May and June, according to the latest seasonal forecast from Andover, MA-based WSI Corp.

Despite recent unseasonably mild weather and a forecast of a warmer-than-normal April for portions of the East, colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate much of the region in May and June, according to the latest seasonal forecast from Andover, MA-based WSI Corp.

One Western Canada point managed to be the exception to overall double-digit price declines continuing Friday. Forecasts of unseasonably moderate late-November temperatures in many areas again were the primary drag on spot quotes, abetted by the usual drop of industrial load during a weekend. As a producer had predicted, Thursday’s rally of 8.8 cents by December futures was unable to induce a similar response in the cash market.

Citing “unseasonably high inventory levels at Clay Basin [storage facility],” Questar said it will not accept any ISS (interruptible) injection or transfer nominations there effective June 1 until further notice.

CIG declared a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) to become effective Friday until further notice. “With the unseasonably warm weather that is forecasted to continue through the rest of March and with storage inventories at higher-than-usual levels for this time of year, CIG’s ability to absorb imbalances caused by mismatches between scheduled receipts and deliveries or those imbalances arising from variations in actual gas flow from scheduled quantities is extremely limited,” the pipeline said. “These conditions also severely limit CIG’s ability to handle storage injections in excess of each storage shipper’s Available Daily Injection Quantity (ADIQ) or inventory levels above Maximum Available Capacity (MAC). During the effective period of the SOC, shippers should anticipate that CIG will require all transportation transactions to be in balance between receipts and deliveries.” See the bulletin board for other SOC conditions.

Most points kept falling Wednesday due to a prior-day screen plunge of 68.2 cents and unseasonably moderate weather continuing to prevail in many areas. Another bearish factor was the growing perception that Hurricane Gustav caused little significant damage to Gulf Coast infrastructure — either offshore or onshore — and restoration of shut-in Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production was under way and could be expected to ramp up fairly quickly.