Increases of about a dime or more were common in the cash marketMonday. The upticks tended to be larger in the West, approaching 20cents in the California market and on some Rockies pipes. There wassome fundamental validation of Western firmness as the region wasunseasonably cool, especially in the Pacific Northwest, wheretemperatures were colder than in Alberta, a Calgary source said.

As for the East-“there’s no special reason for prices beinghigher there, but they are,” a marketer said. He speculated thatsome traders might be continuing to indulge in storage plays,buying physical gas now for injection and selling outer futuresmonths. That concept got a modicum of support when, in contrast tothe cash strength, Nymex’s Henry Hub contracts for May through Julyfinished slightly lower.

Some Louisiana points were seeing their first $2-plus quotessince early January. Sonat was running flat to slightly less thanthe Henry Hub Monday after commanding a modest premium for much ofMarch, one source said. Currently Sonat is “so packed that it ishard to bring gas into the pipe,” he added.

Prices “screamed upward” in the West, according to a traderwhose Malin deals in the mid $1.90s were 15 cents above thosepreceding the Easter holiday weekend. Not only was theresignificantly cooler weather than usual for this time of year inthe West, he said, but a modest screen gain achieved Thursday afterthe cash market had finished trading provided some support for thephysical gas market Monday morning.

A small NOVA rupture late last week (see Transportation Notes)was of little importance to cash traders, a marketer said, but alow-linepack tolerance change caught more of their attention. Also,what he perceived as a basis play at Aeco C storage was becomingstronger “especially now that the basis between April and May hasshrunk significantly.” His company was seeing much less gas makingit down to Malin from Alberta than in previous times “because theprices [Alberta-Malin basis combined with transportation rates]don’t make much sense.”

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