Markets

Coming off a much warmer than normal weekend in which a number of eastern population centers welcomed the official start of winter with temperatures in the high 60s to low 70s, the return to more seasonable cold on Monday, with forecasts of more to come, saw the value of physical gas traded for Tuesday delivery increase at nearly all points across the country.

Demand for natural gas isn’t likely to spike unusually higher over the next three months, based on a forecast from Weather Services International (WSI) that calls for temperatures to average warmer than normal across much of the United States, with the exception of parts of the North Central and Northeast regions.

Physical natural gas for weekend and Monday delivery on average nationally was flat in Friday’s trading, hiding the fact that there were major weather-driven declines along the Eastern Seaboard and healthy gains at points positioned to move gas to the Midwest.

Physical natural gas trading Thursday for Friday delivery was muted for much of the country, with gains or losses of a few pennies, except for in the Northeast, which saw another day of steep price drops. The real news Thursday was made over in the natural gas futures arena, where a record-setting storage withdrawal report opened the gates for the bulls.

Prices of natural gas for delivery Thursday inched higher across much of the country except for in the East, where prices dropped from a dime to $1 at most spots, and up to $10 at some often constrained points serving the New England market.

January natural gas is expected to open 2 cents higher Wednesday morning at $4.31 as trader expectations of Thursday’s high inventory withdrawal offset near-term warming. Overnight oil markets rose.

U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) has seized upon recent comments by Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to urge the Obama administration to not allow export of U.S. crude oil.

Physical gas prices for Wednesday delivery fell across the country in Tuesday’s trading as many regions were seeing the mercury creep higher. The stoutest declines were seen in the Northeast.

Abundant supply and low prices will drive consumption of natural gas in the industrial and electric power sectors to new levels in 2040 as exports of U.S. gas via pipeline and in liquefied form grow as well, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Annual Energy Outlook 2014 (AEO2014) early release.