The slippage in April swing prices that had begun mildlyWednesday gained more momentum Thursday as quotes fell by about anickel or more almost across the board except in California, led bydrops of about 15 cents at some Northeast citygates. May bidweekprices also softened, but only by a couple of pennies or so in mostcases, sources said.

Even with cold temperatures lingering longer than expected inthe Northeast, deliveries there recorded most of Thursday’sdime-plus decreases. The effect rippled down to the Gulf Coast,where most Louisiana quotes were barely clinging to the high sideof $3 and a few dipped under that level. The Houston Ship Channel,Transco Station 45 and TGT Zone 1 were about the only Texas pointsstaying solidly above $3.

Although Malin joined the overall downturn of more than anickel, the PG&E citygate and Southern California border sawonly mild declines of 2-3 cents. Cal PX electric prices were downconsiderably from Wednesday, a marketer said, but high temperaturesin desert Southwest markets helped keep regional air conditioningload fairly strong. In addition, he thinks end-of-month balancingissues on the California LDCs continue to support prices. “Nobodywants to go into the weekend having to buy gas just to balance ifthey can avoid it.”

As May trading began to wind down, quotes were edging a bitlower primarily due to new softness in the June futures contract,but not by much, traders said. A producer was accepting a high$3.00s sale at the Chicago citygate, about 2-3 cents underWednesday’s levels and about a dime below where Chicago had begunthe week.

Waha was trading for May in the low $2.90s, about 15 cents belowKaty, a marketer noted. That represents one of the biggestWaha-Katy spreads seen in quite a while, he said, and is due to acombination of weak California prices and tight capacity on thewest-to-east intrastate Texas pipes such as Oasis, Lone Star andPG&E Gas Transmission-Texas.

A Midwestern trader called MichCon basis of plus 15-16 unusuallystrong. A large marketer helped to support such levels by being”very active” buyers, he said. On the other hand, Houston ShipChannel basis was weakening to minus 0.75, according to a largeaggregator. That was partially due to weak shoulder month demand,he said, but also to extra supplies making it into the Ship Channelmarket from new interconnects established last summer in TexasEastern’s East and West Louisiana pools.

Speculation in recent months about a potential approachingdeliverability crisis continues to arouse argument. A buyer at theHouston Ship Channel said he was having “lots of gas offered to me,even late in the week. That makes me wonder if all this tightsupply talk is credible.”

Although virtually all end-users are dismayed at the currenthigh prices for a spring shoulder month, one sounded almostrelieved as he commented, “Actually, we were more afraid of highvolatility than we were [of] high prices.”

Noting that the Shell Houston Open tournament opened Thursday, alocal source said there weren’t many traders exiting the officeearly to watch golf that day, “but you can bet there will be[today].”

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