LONDON (Commodity Online): The headline could be: "Gas prices decline despite a bullish storage draw," but there are many more moving parts to the gas market.
Certain weekly storage forecasts were much closer to the actual draw, and thus the number was not bullish versus those views.
Others were carefully watching for signs of more Coal displacement and were disappointed by the size of apparent demand in the power sector. Regardless, the move lower in gas prices was seen as just a continuation of still-high storage levels pressuring gas prices lower.
The short cover rally is old news unless other producers add announcements of their own. The prompt contract slid 12 cents, to $2.61/MMBtu, while the rest of 2012 was off 11 cents, to $2.96.
Calendar 2013 dropped by a dime, to $3.65. The prompt contract is 30 cents off the lows, but could move back in that direction in the absence of supportive news. To that end, weather remains uniformly above normal, although a bit of colder weather has crept into the 10-14 day outlook for the Southeast.
Cash markets were up everywhere but in the volatile Northeastern market. New York prices (Transco-Z6) were down 15 cents, to $3.01. Meanwhile, Henry Hub drifted seven cents higher, to $2.68. SoCalBorder shed six cents, to $2.95.
