Cash traders returned from the long holiday weekend Wednesday tofind most of the market turning considerably softer, and it’s asafe bet that prices will keep falling today, since the entireenergy futures complex was getting clobbered Wednesday, sourcessaid.

Declines ranged from a nickel or less at Malin, the PermianBasin and a few scattered Gulf Coast/Midcontinent points to a dimeor more in South Texas. Most of them were on either side of a dime.Intra-Alberta quotes, which were still just over C$5 going into theweekend, plunged into the C$4.70s for one trader Wednesday as NOVAtightened its imbalance tolerances to combat excessive linepack.

PG&E citygates were depressed by high-linepack OFOsWednesday and today, a marketer said. However, Southern Californiaborder numbers were up a little as SoCal Gas failed to follow suitwith an OFO. San Juan Basin and Rockies/Pacific Northwest pointsconstituted the only other markets seeing small increases.

Prices fell throughout the morning along with the screen, said aChicago citygate buyer reporting deals in the high $4.20s. “My onlyregret is that I didn’t wait longer to take advantage of prices inthe teens.” However, she noted that power prices for the upcomingweek were spiking, saying that could lend some support to gasprices.

A Midcontinent marketer had a similar perception, saying,”Anybody that sold early did well.” His company is looking for hotweather in Texas and the Midcontinent to get prices rising againnext week.

On the other hand, forecasts of below-normal temperatures nextweek in the Northeast made a regional utility buyer glad that “wedidn’t baseload that much [gas] for July.” He expects prices toremain well under index for quite a while, possibly throughout therest of the month.

Sources had differing takes on AGA’s report of 69 Bcf injectedinto storage last week, which matched the year-ago figure exactlyand thus neither increased nor decreased the year-on-year deficit.One thought the industry was expecting a much bigger injection, sothe report should have been seen as bullish. “We’re just not goingto get storage refilled for winter at these rates,” she commented.However, another trader said he was unaware of anyone beingsurprised by the AGA number, so the screen’s bearishness bothbefore and after the report seemed justified.

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