Larger declines in the West led a parade of falling weekend prices Friday. Most of the non-western downturn was in the teens, although a few Midcontinent points near the market area fell a little more than 20 cents. Sumas and the Permian Basin were almost alone in the West by dropping a quarter or so; other regional points were down by about 35 cents or more, led by a San Juan-Blanco plunge of more than 80 cents.

Cash got little influence from a wavering screen, but softening was practically preordained by little weather-related demand and the lingering impact of a large storage injection report. Naturally the drop-off in industrial load over a weekend also had a role.

Lower Midwest prices occurred despite chilly temperatures remaining in the area and winter storm warnings being posted for Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. It also was still snowing Friday in Calgary, said a producer based in the city, and the forecast was for snow to continue through the weekend before a warm-up began arriving towards midweek. Even with the inclement weather, though, intra-Alberta prices fell C40 cents or more into the C$3.70s and C$3.80s.

“I was so frustrated with Opal that I wanted to go kick the cat,” said a western marketer. “It was because prices were so much below next month’s and I don’t know why. It’s hard to explain trading at $1.09 now [Friday] and $2.60 only three days ago.” Nymex has come off since then, and there are still the Clay Basin storage and Trailblazer constraints, but that doesn’t nearly explain the Rockies weakness, he said.

Swing trading for the weekend was almost an afterthought anyway, as most attention turned to May business. The above marketer, who had done swing Opal deals at $1.09 for the weekend, said May gas at Opal was fetching more than a dollar higher in the mid $2.10s. He also quoted border-SoCalGas around $3. May prices were down 10-12 cents Friday from the previous day, he said.

A producer who had sold Chicago citygates on either side of $3.40 Thursday quoted numbers in the high $3.20s for Friday. Niagara was going for a little over $3.40, she said.

Another producer reported Houston Ship Channel basis of plus 2-2.25 cents, which would have put fixed prices around $3.34-35 based on the screen settlement Friday. A Midcontinent trader said Panhandle Eastern basis had “squeezed in a little” from minus 14 cents to minus 12 cents.

A marketer observed that in previous months, once the Nymex settlement got posted, “everybody would go immediately into trading fixed prices. But that doesn’t happen much any more. A lot of them just kind of wait until the next trading day to get serious [about fixed prices].”

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