All-around price increases Wednesday received support fromcontrasting weather conditions and rising power generation load(plus a tiny assist from a barely higher screen). Most upticks werein the neighborhood of 4-8 cents, although smaller ones were aslittle as two cents at the PG&E citygate.

Electric utilities continued to increase gas purchases inseveral regions as nuclear plant outages either continued or began.Major nukes remain down in Texas, Arizona and California, sourcessaid. A Commonwealth Edison nuclear plant reportedly went off-lineunexpectedly, helping to propel Chicago citygate numbers upward byjust over a nickel. In addition, a Midcontinent trader said he washearing several coal plants were down for maintenance.

The gas market was in “double jeopardy” between hot weather inthe South (high temperatures in the 80s) and unabated cool weatherin the West, a Houston marketer said. That had gas coming and goingboth ways, he said, adding, “We’re kind of long on gas right now,so it’s quite all right with us.”

Though it was canceled Wednesday, a temporary electric capacityalert Tuesday in peninsular Florida by utility giant Florida Power& Light kept prices into Florida Gas Transmission-Zone 2 at thetop of the Gulf Coast ranks for a second day in a row. An LDC buyerconfirmed that demand remained very strong in Florida Wednesday,”and it’s definitely all power generation-related.” Floridacitygate index spreads doubled, he said, from index plus 11 Tuesdayto index plus 22-25 as buyers anted up for whatever deliveredsupplies they could find.

When Gulf Coast prices shot up nearly a dime in early trading, aproducer was surprised to see them settle down in much tighterranges than he expected after the initial high volatility.

As they have been for many weeks now, AGA’s report Wednesdayafternoon of a minuscule 2 Bcf in injections was considered alreadyfactored into market strategy and was expected to have little ifany price impact.

A marketer said she was able to do a National Fuel Gas saleTuesday at $2.20, a premium of 3-5 cents over her Transco Zone 6(non-NYC) and Texas Eastern M-3 quotes that day, because the NFGdeal was a week’s term. Daily NFG swing usually trades at a smalldiscount to M-3 and Zone 6, she said.

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