A futures screen that was almost a dime higher during morningcash trading and continued cold temperatures were enough to allowprices to put even more distance between themselves and indexesTuesday. Meanwhile, transport-constrained Northeast citygates wereback for a repeat performance of their skyrocket act from lateJanuary.

Gulf Coast increases were mostly a dime or a little higher, withthe Rockies rising a little less than that and the Midcontinent andCalifornia up even less. Even with the Midwest experiencing colderweather than the Northeast, Midwest citygates were essentially atparity with or below Gulf Coast numbers. That meant the relativelyweaker Midcontinent market (and probably Rockies) was supplyingvirtually all of the Midwest’s new gas because it was uneconomicalto transport due north from the Gulf, a marketer said.

MichCon deliveries are particularly weak, a pattern that hasbeen developing in recent weeks due to very low liquidity, onesource said. “Some folks who are long MichCon have been just aboutforced to sell to one buyer only, and they don’t like it,” he said.The focus of trading in Michigan has definitely switched toConsumers Power, he added. “I basically don’t trade MichCon in theday market any more.”

It was time for the top quotes in both of Transco’s Zone 6 poolsto hit four digits again, with New York City deliveries peaking at$11.00. Texas Eastern M-3 and Iroquois Zone 2 deliviers also sawdollar-plus increases.

The Pacific Northwest is currently bearing the brunt of the mostsevere winter weather, and although Rockies prices were strong oneither side of$2.50, they lagged behind the general marketupticks. That may have been influenced by some of the day’s lowestprice hikes occurring in the California market, where PG&E’sDiablo Canyon nuclear plant was back to full power again, anaggregator said. Actually western traders had discounted Diablo’snear-outage Monday instead of running California electricty pricesmuch higher that day, he said, because it was generally expectedthe nuke’s cutback wouldn’t last through Tuesday.

So how long will this bull aftermarket keep running? As usual itdepends on the weather, a Texas-based producer said, but it’s hardto make the call when you’re hearing conflicting reports from theforecasters. “Our weather consultant is predicting even colderweather by next week, but a majority of others are calling forwarmer,” the producer went on. “Our guy knows he’s outnumbered, buthe wants us to be prepared.”

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