After warning during the weekend that one might become necessary, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day for Tuesday with a 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.
Weekend
Articles from Weekend
Transportation Notes
Saying it had limited operational flexibility to manage imbalances in upstream Zones 0, L, 1, 2, 3 and 4 over the long holiday weekend, Tennessee issued an Imbalance Warning for shippers in those zones effective Friday until further notice. Affected delivery point operators are required to keep actual daily takes out of the system equal to or greater than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position. Receipt point operators must keep actual daily receipts into the system equal to or less than scheduled quantities regardless of their cumulative imbalance position.
Widespread Shift to Colder Forecasts Lifts Prices
Following rather moderate Thanksgiving weekend weather in most regions, traders returned to their offices Monday to face much more winter-befitting forecasts going into December. That, along with a modest futures advance on the preceding Wednesday and the return of industrial load from holiday hiatus, propelled a solid majority of the cash market to substantial gains.
Traders See Stage Set for Advance; December Gains Ground
December natural gas futures rose Wednesday in a quiet session punctuated more by trader anticipation of the extended holiday weekend than the release of bullish storage data or options expiration. At the close December had risen 4.5 cents to $3.460 and January had added 4.7 cents to $3.608. Oil and equity markets faltered. January crude oil dropped $1.84 to $96.17/bbl and with 45 minutes to the close the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 163 points to 11,330.
Transportation Notes
Due to forecasted lower demand this weekend and limited operational flexibility to manage imbalances, three Spectra Energy pipes — Texas Eastern, Algonquin and East Tennessee — are requiring operators of all receipt and delivery points to maintain flat or negative imbalances for the gas days of Saturday and Sunday.
Futures Remain Quiet Ahead of Fresh Storage Data
The natural gas futures market on Wednesday continued to limp back from the long holiday weekend as another round of light trading in the October contract produced a 14-cent range on the day before closing the regular session at $3.940, up two-tenths of a penny from Tuesday’s finish. The November contract followed suit with a 0.2-cent gain to close at $4.045.
Prices Barely Firmer for Second Day in a Row
With such locations as Little Rock, AR, and Shreveport, LA, destined to reach the low to mid 100s during the weekend and most other portions of the South hitting the mid 90s or so, cash prices managed to eke out small increases again Friday. That broke a down-up-down-up pattern established in the cash market earlier in the week.
WSI: Eastern Heat to Continue Through October
Summer heat, which has so far been “more impressive and widespread than anticipated,” will continue to blanket most of the country into the autumn, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based WSI Corp., who also reaffirmed their prediction of an “active-normal” 2011 Atlantic hurricane season.
Transportation Notes
In apologizing to customers for unexpected reductions in capacity on the Baja Path over the holiday weekend (see the bulletin board for details), Pacific Gas and Electric’s California Gas Transmission (CGT) system said in addition to planned maintenance, it discovered an excessive amount of odorant in a section of Line 300B late May 25. Operations personnel have been working to isolate and purge the overodorized gas and expected to have this situation resolved Wednesday (June 1), CGT said.
Technical Buying Lifts July to Double-Digit Gain
July natural gas futures rose sharply on a combination of technical buying ahead of the long weekend and algorithmic traders utilizing buy stop orders to limit losses. At the close July had advanced 15.8 cents to $4.518 and August had risen 15.2 cents to $4.557.