Except in the Northeast, cash price averages showed littlemovement yesterday as strong demand fought bearish weather to astandstill. Despite the lack of “real winter weather,” as onesource put it, the cash market’s recent resiliency had many tradersdisplaying quiet confidence about the market’s chances to maintainits bullish trend heading into the weekend.

One Gulf Coast marketer was surprised that the region was ableto stay flat to Wednesday’s levels and even squeeze out gains of apenny or two on some pipes despite the lack of cold. “There wasgood demand from all sectors today, but I can’t really explainwhy,” one Gulf Coast trader said. “Everybody just seems short.Prices may come off these levels over the next few days, but theoverall market has been so strong. I don’t see them falling back toindex levels before the March bidweek.”

Transco Station 65, Florida Gas Zone 2 and the Henry Hub alltraded in the high $2.60s. He added that the Texas Gas Transmissionand Columbia lines in the Gulf Coast were trading softer than therest of the region in late trading, but they still “were nobargain.”

Effects of Con Edison’s Indian Point No. 2 nuclear plant outagebegan to diminish yesterday, as Transco Zone 6-non NY, Tetco M3 andAlgonquin dropped well over a nickel. New York citygate prices werestill reacting to the news, however, as they climbed more than 15cents. The plant is expected to be up and running again within theweek.

Other points in the region either stayed flat or rose. Iroquois,which was strong because of restrictions on supplies at Niagara,jumped more than 20 cents.

Northeast prices heading into the weekend were mixed, oneNortheast buyer said. “The price level for the weekend is a toughcall. Today was the peak [flow] day this week, and aggregate demandshould continue to moderate into the weekend. However, the futuresmarket is up, and that could diminish the price erosion.”

AECO prices traded in a tight range yesterday and finished nearthe C$3.15 level for the third straight day, a Canadian sourcesaid. Weather in Alberta is cold, but not unseasonably so. Awarm-up is expected over the weekend, she said, and that might havean effect on price levels today.

With no fundamental influences taking control at the Chicagocitygate, one Midwest source pointed to the screen as a reason forthe increases there. He also added that citygate prices “hung inthere” relative to Michigan pipes.

Permian prices finally showed some weakness after a very strongrun, a western source said. He added that western prices may notfall into the habitual pre-weekend softening trend that occurs onmost Fridays. “[Today] should be interesting,” he said. “All theutilities I’ve talked to have said they are going to be activebuyers in the morning as they prepare for the long weekend. It’sdefinitely a stronger situation than the usual end-of-the-weekmarket.”

Early looks at basis numbers show “business as usual,” onesource said. He quoted Chicago citygates trading early in the +7.5range and +10 and +11 for the Michigan pipelines. In the GulfCoast, he said, preliminary quotes had basis for ANR Southeast,Trunkline East LA and NGPL LA in the -5 to -4 range.

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