With little in the way of fundamental support to speak of, cashprices still managed gains between a nickel and a dime Tuesday atalmost every trading point. “It’s got to be technical,” said autility buyer. The tone was set by the screen opening around $1.80,a dime higher than Monday’s opening, even though the April contracteventually ended the day with a small net loss, he said. Anothersource thought it was a case of cash starting to converge with thescreen.

Price movement wasn’t totally positive, however, as severalsources reported Gulf Coast, Midcontinent and Rockies pricesretreating in the late going. Midcontinent field quotes that beganthe day in the low to mid $1.70s dipped to just under $1.70 in hislast purchases, a marketer said.

Despite not having much in either heating or air conditioningload, electric generators were strong buyers in Oklahoma, Arkansasand Texas, one trader said. TUFCO’s Comanche Peak #2 nuclear unitin North Texas was down, he said, and he thought there must beother power plant outages in the area but wasn’t aware of anysignificant ones. A buyer said there was also a fair amount ofelectric generation load coming from the Northeast.

Some producers tried to get $1.70 for San Juan-Blanco gas in themorning, but that didn’t fly, said a marketer reporting a Blancorange of $1.61-64.

Guessing about this afternoon’s AGA storage withdrawal reportwas a popular activity. NGI sources mostly forecast figures oneither side of 102 Bcf. One just said the report “should behealthy.”

Looking ahead to the upcoming bidweek, a marketer said brokerswere showing ranges of $1.50-52 at Opal, $1.59-63 at Malin and$1.57-61 at Stanfield; however, she suspected the Stanfield rangewas bogus, saying it was too close to the Malin numbers. A Rockiessource reported basis at minus 25 for Northwest and minus 27 forCIG.

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