Multi-dollar price movements during various trading days about a year ago may have been more heady, but many traders are likely to think of last week’s bidweek and swing markets as among their most hectic ever. The near-chaos situation resulted from the unprecedented virtual collapse of Enron, previously the dominant market-maker, as a viable trading entity.

The December aftermarket was launched Friday on an extremely weak note. Weekend swing quotes tended to average 30 cents or more below first-of-month indexes, and also were mostly 30-60 cents down from the end of November. Border-SoCal Gas was a conspicuous exception to the overall trend by falling only several cents from index, although it was nearly 40 cents below the last-of-November level.

However, hypervolatility was in play again as prices started the morning near their lows and registered huge run-ups in subsequent deals. Ranges of 50-60 cents or more were seen at many points, with some Northeast citygates spanning a dollar-plus. A Gulf Coast producer said he caught both the low and high ends of the Henry Hub market with an early sale in the mid $1.50s (which is where one source had reported the Hub trading for the weekend on the previous afternoon) and a late one in the low $2.20s, just above Thursday’s average.

The cause of the run-up mystified some sources, such as a marketer who noted that weather forecasts for this week were quite bearish, at least in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., and that there seemed to be “plenty of gas to go around for the weekend.” But a producer attributed much of the late rebound to the Enron fiasco, saying a sizeable group of buyers was re-sourcing purchases that they feared Enron might not be able to deliver. Also, he said, there likely were a few traders with storage space still open who wanted to top off their accounts with Friday’s cheap gas.

Some of the lowest numbers were recorded at Gulf Coast points, which often averaged below those in the Midcontinent and weren’t much above the Rockies. That was hardly surprising considering that several Gulf pipes, especially those to the Northeast, had high-linepack OFOs or warnings of potential OFOs in effect.

Quotes for Transco, normally a premium-priced pipe, suffered mightily from its first-ever OFO going into effect Saturday. Prices in the Transco Zones 1-3 production area pools went as low as the $1.20s, and the Zone 4 pool bottomed out at $1.40. Texas Eastern and Tennessee, which also were battling high-linepack conditions, saw low-end pricing nearly as weak, and several other Gulf points fell below $1.50 in some early deals.

EnronOnline was up again Friday, but other than basis postings for quite a few points, offerings of physical gas product were close to non-existent, a couple of traders agreed.

The uncertainty connected with Enron transactions had some sources on pins and needles about whether Dec. 1 flows would get disrupted to any great extent. One buyer said he planned to be in the office Saturday just in case supply adjustments were necessary.

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