Overall the cash market Thursday decided one bearish storagereport in the hand was worth more than two tropical storms in thebush. But although nearly all points checked in as flat to downabout a nickel, sources said the softness probably would have beenquite a bit greater if it hadn’t been for September’s thirdstraight weekly storm threat to Gulf of Mexico production,especially in light of the screen’s nickel-plus drop.

Georges officially became a hurricane in the central Atlanticand was expected to reach the Caribbean by the weekend. But Gulfproducers had more immediate concerns with Tropical Depression 8,considered likely to become Tropical Storm Hermine today. TD8 wasabout 200 miles south of the Louisiana coast and generated atropical storm watch for the coast ranging from Sargent, TX(south-southwest of Houston) to Grand Isle, LA (south-southeast ofNew Orleans).

Pipeline reports of production losses were incomplete owing tothe vague nature of conditions Thursday, but are certain to begrowing today as producers continue to evacuate platforms. FloridaGas Transmission said it had lost 70 MMcf/d from Mobile Bay. TheTrunkline and Sonat bulletin boards reported unspecified outagesoccurring Thursday morning. Other pipes with offshore connectionssaid they had not experienced any outages as of that afternoon butacknowledged there probably would be some to report today.

In a spot check of larger producers, Shell said it had evacuated804 platform workers as of Thursday afternoon. It had shut in somegas but had no volume figures available, a spokeswoman said. Amocoonly had shut in 10 MMcf/d so far, a spokesman told NGI, but hadevacuated personnel in the eastern and central Gulf. Amoco wasleaving skeleton crews on platforms but had helicopters standing byfor them, he added.

Most Gulf Coast points managed flat price performances, althoughdeclines reached about four cents on Sonat and Tennessee’s 800 Leg.The Midcontinent and Southwest also experienced only mild drops.But otherwise, except for Appalachian flatness, bearishness gotmore pronounced with distance from the Gulf Coast. Declines oneither side of a nickel dominated in the Rockies and California.Traders tended to cite Wednesday afternoon’s AGA report of 70 Bcfin storage injections, well above most expectations, along with thescreen’s decline in explaining non-Gulf softening.

A month-long maintenance outage that started Thursday onQuestar’s South System was causing a lot of supply cuts anddiversions of gas into CIG at Uinta, a producer said. That wasdepressing prices on both pipes as only those with FT were able tomove gas, he said.

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