With even higher temperatures still to come, natural gas prices skyrocketed by more than a dollar at Northeast citygates Wednesday while considerably more modest gains permeated the rest of the market, according to Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI).
Hot forecasts and prospects of continued heavy power plant load feeding air conditioning propelled the cash market higher at all points in North America, but most of the gains outside the Northeast were relatively small, single digit advances. With New York City anticipating highs around 100 degrees by the end of the week, it was clear that Northeast traders were stocking up in advance as dollar-plus increases dominated, and some of the top quotes exceeded $10/MMBtu, leaving in the dust Tuesday's top NE prices in the low $6.00s, according to NGI's daily price survey.
Despite the hot forecasts, Tennessee remained the only major pipeline into the Northeast with actions in place to prevent low linepack, although Maritimes & Northeast U.S. was encouraging shippers to run positive imbalances if feasible.
Tropical Storm Bret continued to move northeastward, where it was expected to weaken over the cool North Atlantic waters. Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center gave 60% odds of development to a low-pressure area about 440 miles east of Bermuda. But its tracking toward the northeast kept it from being any concern natural gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico.
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Intelligence Press Inc., is an independent publishing company serving the energy industry since 1981 with real-time news and price survey reports for the natural gas market in its publications: Natural Gas Intelligence, Daily Gas Price Index, Weekly Gas Price Index. Its new publication, NGI's Shale Daily at http://shaledaily.com/ is the first daily publication devoted exclusively to the unfolding shale revolution that is rewriting the energy outlook in North America.
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