A mild retreat of a dime or more at Transco Zone 6-NYC, Algonquin citygate and Tennessee Zone 6 were exceptions to Thursday’s upticks that ranged from minimal (San Juan-Blanco) to about half a dollar (Niagara, Dawn). Most gains were between about a dime and a little more than 30 cents, with those of 20-30 cents being most common.

Most sources don’t expect the normal weekend slump in demand to dampen prices Friday. They pointed to forecasts of cold and wet weather returning to the Northeast this weekend, and a utility buyer in the region said even colder temperatures are due Monday. Meanwhile, the Upper Plains area was already feeling the effects of a new infusion of arctic air Thursday that was expected to spread into the rest of the Midwest.

A Gulf Coast marketer said Henry Hub was trading for the weekend around $6.60 Thursday afternoon, about 20 cents above the average for Friday flows.

The Energy Information Administration reported that 203 Bcf was taken out of storage last week, with the lion’s share of the pull (122 Bcf) being registered in the East. The volume was slightly above most prior expectations and unusually high for the latter stages of withdrawal season. However, a couple of cash traders agreed that the screen essentially greeted the report with a big yawn, staying barely a penny higher for most of the morning before eventually eking out a 2.8-cent gain on the day.

However, after settling at $6.162 futures continued to rise into the low $6.20s in late-afternoon Access activity, and some sources saw potential for even higher screen levels. “Gas at seven dollars will make you holler,” as one quasi-poetic marketer put it. A western trader said he didn’t really expect futures to reach that level but also couldn’t rule out the potential.

A Northeast marketer quoting Dracut on either side of $7.50 said ranges were getting tighter. “The market is comfortable with keeping it [Dracut] above $7.40″ even with the currently milder weather.” He thinks Thursday’s numbers were “as low as we’ll see prices in the near term” and that there is a good chance for $10-plus quotes in the Northeast early next week. However, the marketer cautioned, we might be seeing “the last hurrah” for prices this winter. “I see only a couple of weeks left for panic buying” based on the weather. “If I had plenty of storage, I would definitely be selling it” before March rolls around.

A western source said there was virtually nothing going west from the Permian Basin to California lately. “Utilities there [California] are selling their gas back into the Southwest basins,” he said. However, the Permian/Waha market remains strong due to cold-weather demand in the Midwest. An approximate 40-cent spread from Permian to Northern Natural’s demarcation point was certainly more than adequate to cover transport costs, making it a good deal to ship Permian gas north, the trader said. He said the Waha-Permian spread has been averaging 13-13.5 cents this month, a little wider than the usual dime.

He and a Gulf Coast source concurred that relatively mild weather has made the intrastate Texas market somewhat weak for now. The Gulf Coast trader provided some confirmation with quotes in the mid $6.30s for Tennessee’s 500 and 800 Legs in Louisiana, but his Tennessee Zone 0 numbers for South Texas were about a quarter lower on either side of $6.10. He wasn’t sure why the Texas prices lagged so far behind, since he was unaware of any meaningful Tennessee constraints in the production area.

Looking ahead to bidweek, a western marketer said a “lot of sellers are emerging” for March and that index deal premiums were “getting beat up” as a result.

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