Lacking any influence from weather or a flat screen, cash pricesranged from flat to down about a nickel Wednesday. Nearly alldeclines were by smaller amounts than the increases that hadpreceded them Tuesday. In one marketer’s view, “Apparently priceswent back down to compensate for Tuesday’s unsupported rise.There’s no weather and no [pipeline capacity] restrictions.”

Calling it another one of 1999’s many quiet trading days so far,a large aggregator thought cash was still pretty strong “relativeto where people think it should be fundamentally.”

Coming too late to affect day trading, AGA’s report of 87 Bcf instorage withdrawals last week was considered moderately bearishafter expectations in the 100 Bcf area.

A Gulf Coast producer wasn’t sure why, but Tennessee’s 500 Legwas surprisingly strong. “People would call and ask us what we wereoffering, and we’d sell it. Then we’d boost our [asking] price by apenny, and more people would call and buy that up.” He reportedfour deals rising steadily in penny increments from $1.72 to $1.75.

Somewhat similarly, a marketer saw Transco Zone 6-NYC pricescreep higher from $2.02 to $2.06 in 2-cent jumps.

Northwest quotes were nearly even in the high $1.40s for bothSumas and domestic gas after the domestic product fell about anickel while Sumas was flat to off a penny. However, a marketerexpects Sumas to get softer relative to Rockies prices afterNorthwest identified a mechanical problem with its Sumas Unit #8turbine Wednesday afternoon that required immediate repairs. Theunit will be out of service for eight to 10 days, Northwest said;meanwhile Sumas/Sipi capacity is restricted to 1,020,000 dth/d. NoFT cuts are expected, but lower-priority volumes will be cut, thepipeline said.

A marketer usually active in the Southern California bordermarket had no quotes to report, saying she was hampered by KernRiver constraints due to inspections this week at the Muddy Creek,Fillmore and Goodsprings stations.

In new basis talk for April Wednesday, a producer reported auniform minus 6 for ANR Southeast and Zones 0 and 1 of Tennessee.Columbia Gulf-onshore was minus 2.5-2.75 and NGPL-Louisiana wasminus 5-5.25, he said. The producer pegged Houston Ship Channel atminus 0.5 to flat, while a buyer said all her Ship Channel offerswere at flat basis. Basis was getting tighter Tuesday, the producersaid, but he saw no change Wednesday.

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