The overall market continued to consolidate mostly flatpositions Tuesday in another session of quiet trading and fairlytight price ranges. The little bit of movement tended to beslightly to the downside. Once again traders gleaned little in theway of guidance from a stagnant futures screen or from mild weatherfundamentals. A couple of sources seemed resigned to finishing outthe rest of the week in a sideways market.

Mild weather remains very much a non-event for gas in theNortheast, according to a regional end-user. But as a dearth ofpower generation load continued, gas still has at least a 15-centcompetitive margin below fuel oil at the burnertip, he said. Hepegged current New York Harbor prices for No. 2 oil in the $2.60sper MMBtu but was paying in the mid $2.40s Tuesday for Transco Zone6 gas deliveries.

The Florida market is staying pretty weak for now, said a GulfCoast source. He reported a lot of people trying to buy Florida GasTransmission-Zone 3 in the low $2.20s, “but I just couldn’t reachthat low.” He did close one Zone 3 deal at $2.27. Utilities aretrying to buy low in Zone 3, then sell gas in Zone 2 and pocket thebasis differential premium for Zone 2, which has been running 2-3cents above Zone 3 recently.

A marketer quoting a $2.25-28 range for Sonat expressed surpriseat a long period of no operational flow orders from the pipeline.”We’ve only had one that I can remember since April,” he said.

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