The cash market was up to its old tricks again Monday, ignoring a general lack of hot-weather support and a significantly weaker screen to post moderate gains. Most of the upticks were a dime or less. Rockies points, which had seen the largest declines going into the weekend, rebounded more strongly than others, but several Northeast citygates also saw dime-plus increases.

A Northeast marketer reported finding a significant amount of intraday demand in the New York-Pennsylvania-New Jersey area, saying temperatures there apparently were warmer than many had expected during Friday’s trading. Cooling load for today is down considerably, though, as the warmth is due to fade, he said.

The marketer also noted that Texas Eastern M-3 and Transco Zone 6-NYC were trading at near-parity in the high $2.60s. Usually Zone 6-NYC commands a premium of at least several cents. The convergence is primarily a function of low demand at both points and higher variable transportation costs on Texas Eastern, he said.

Florida Gas Transmission ended last week’s Overage Alert Day notice over the weekend, but cautioned shippers Monday that another such notice could be issued as early as today due to high linepack and continuing hot weather in its market area.

Cheyenne Hub numbers in the $2.10s were running more than a dime above other Rockies points largely due to a maintenance constraint on the Medicine Bow Lateral of Wyoming Interstate Co., a marketer said. WIC’s Douglas Compressor Station will be out of service today and Wednesday, and will have one unit still down Thursday.

San Juan-Blanco was falling off near the end after trading mostly in the low $2.10s mostly, but Waha held up fairly strongly in the $2.20s throughout the morning, one western trader said.

Descriptions of current trading activity as “boring” and “dull” were common among Daily GPI sources. “It seems like everybody is waiting for something to happen to move the market decisively in one direction or the other,” one said. Hardly anyone feels a compelling need to buy more gas right now, he added.

The powerful Hurricane Erin was moving toward the north-northwest Monday after brushing the edge of Bermuda. It was about 585 miles south of Yarmouth, NS at midday, according to the National Weather Service. (That report brings up this question: Could a hurricane cause shut-ins at Sable Island and other gas development projects offshore eastern Canada? Answer: It’s highly unlikely, since the cold waters of the North Atlantic would quickly sap the strength of any storm that ventures so far north.)

Remote, but still posing potential threat to the Gulf of Mexico, was Tropical Depression Seven, a little more than a thousand miles east of the Lesser Antilles. The poorly organized system was on a west-northwest heading, NWS said. It was believed capable of becoming Tropical Storm Felix by today.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.