US Northeast spot gas prices down nearly $4/MMBtu as demand fades

Houston (Platts)--22Feb2013/1123 am EST/1623 GMT


US Northeast spot gas prices fell as much as $4 or 39% Friday on expectations that weather demand will fade due to an impeding warm-up scheduled to start on Monday.

Regional temperatures will top out in the high 30s over the weekend, but warm to as high as nearly 50 degrees Monday, as much as 6 degrees above average levels.

Total Northeast demand is projected to fall from 23.68 Bcf Friday to as low as 20.03 Bcf Sunday and end up at 20.53 Bcf Monday, according to Platts unit Bentek Energy.

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The biggest fall in the region was the volatile Algonquin Gas Transmission city-gates point, which shed nearly $4 to average in the mid-$6.10s/MMBtu on IntercontinentalExchange.

Following close behind was another New England market city-gate -- Tennessee Gas Pipeline zone 6-200 leg -- where the price fell nearly $3.50 to average around $6.10/MMBtu on ICE.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line zone 6-New York slid nearly $1 to average in the high $4.10s/MMBtu, which narrowed its discount to Algonquin to nearly $2 Friday from $5 Thursday.

Transco zone 6-non New York dipped 10 cents to average in the low $3.60s/MMBtu, narrowing its discount to the downstream New York market to 52 cents Friday from $1.40 Thursday, in another indicator of waning demand.

--Samantha Santa Maria, samantha_santa_maria@platts.com
--Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com