Both the April swing and May baseload markets were reportedgetting slightly softer Wednesday, mostly because of a small screendownturn and an approaching end of Northeast chill.

Incremental quotes tended to range from flat to down about anickel, with the larger drops concentrated at Northeast citygates.Low temperatures were still not far above freezing in the region, abuyer said, but that won’t last much longer. Meanwhile, most of theMidwest is enjoying warm spring weather.

The main news in western markets was PG&E’s electing not toextend a customer-specific OFO, one trader said. That allowed thePG&E citygate to rebound several cents for Wednesday’s biggestgain, he said, but it wasn’t a reflection of any special citygatestrength because that point also had recorded Tuesday’s biggestdecline. However, he was seeing signs of mild strength at theSouthern California border, which he attributed to end-of-monthbalancing concerns and higher power prices in California.

It appears storage injection season has finally gotten startedin earnest, sources said, after AGA reported 19 Bcf put intofacilities last week. That might seem bearish since some people hadprior doubts about whether any injections at all might be reported,the sources added, but the belated start of the season leaves along haul to go on refills.

The small decreases in May bidweek numbers almost exactlymatched the futures expiry drop of about 2 cents, one marketersaid. However, another trader said he was doing Chicago citygatedeals at $3.11 Wednesday after reporting a $3.15-20 range forTuesday.

A buyer who had no fixed prices to report so far said he wasseeing bids on an electronic trading service at $3.01 forANR-Southeast, $3.05 for Columbia Gulf-onshore and $3.095 for HenryHub. He thought some people were trying to push the market higherartificially just by posting higher offers, but those offersweren’t getting hit, he said.

“How does the May market look to me? Crappy and overpriced,”responded a midwestern buyer to NGI’s question. “Oh well, let’sjust wait until the first major heat wave of the summer and seewhether these gas deliverability worries are really justified.”

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