As traders had expected, the above-expectations storage injection report and a continuing dearth of heating load in nearly all areas outside the mountain West resulted in softening prices at all point Friday. Of course, the usual dip in demand over a weekend also played some part.

Declines were fairly moderate in most of the East, ranging from barely lower to as much as a quarter down, but with a majority between a nickel and a little more than a dime. After tending to lead eastern gains Thursday, Midcontinent pipes also saw many of the larger losses Friday.

Although the Southern California border joined the Pacific Northwest and Permian/Waha markets in recording relatively moderate drops of 13-19 cents or so, the Rockies and points related to Northern California fell by anywhere from a little more than 20 cents to more than 30 cents.

Going into the weekend, rainstorms dominated the national weather picture amid temperatures that ranged from cool in the North to warm in the South without stirring up a lot of gas load in any region. There were winter storm warnings (yes, “winter” no matter what the calendar says, according to The Weather Channel) or snow in effect or predicted for several mountainous areas of the West, even in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties in Southern California, but the more densely populated low-lying areas could expect mild conditions.

The interesting thing for one buyer in the Midwest “is how Tennessee has gotten so much weaker in the last couple of days” relative to other Gulf Coast pipes. She had no idea why Tennessee was being discounted, “but that’s made it a good buy for us” to transport gas to Midwestern and then on into the market area.

“There’s not much going on other than managing our [power] plants’ fuel supply,” said a Northeast trader. At least there was enough electricity load in the region for them to be scheduled, he added, noting that the gas-fired plants were high-efficiency and thus not categorized as peakers that are among the last to be turned on.

The western weakness had the intra-Alberta market trading mostly under C$6.00 for the first time since March 31 (April 1 flow date), and prior to that one has to go back to Jan. 7 trading to find the numbers failing to average above C$6.00. Westcoast Station 2 has been fairly consistent in running about C25 cents below Aeco levels recently, said one source.

A western marketer said Permian Basin and Waha numbers stayed consistently in the mid $4.80s and $5.00 areas respectively for most of the morning, then dipped late. “A few people seemed long and tried to dump some gas at end,” he said, adding that he was still getting “decent” power load from intrastate Texas.

The Kern River expansion has relieved quite a bit of transportation pressure in the rest of West, commented a utility buyer in the Southwest, who saw that as a probable factor in why San Juan Basin’s Bondad and Blanco pools were trading so close together.

A couple of sources agreed that after the May aftermarket’s strong beginning things had settled down quite a bit for weekend business. They expect trading to remain quiet through the first half of this week as the GasMart/Power conference draws a portion of the trading community to New Orleans.

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