It was a tale of two cash markets on Friday, as the majority ofprice points east of the Rockies registered gains of 1 to 7 cents,while prices to the West dropped because of the typical weekenddecrease in California power demand exacerbated by a weekendconstraint announced on PG&E’s system. El Paso (non-Bondad) wasone of the pipes to fall the farthest, finishing in the mid $2.20s.

A high inventory OFO caused PG&E citygate to trade aboutflat to the Southern California Border on Friday, marking thesecond time in a week PG&E has put an OFO on its system whichhas seriously affected the basis between the two points. Yet unlikethe one that constrained Wednesday’s flow (See Daily GPI, August4), Friday’s OFO is “a pretty usual thing for them to do,” onewestern trader said. He added there were also rumblings of aSouthern California Border OFO planned for the weekend as well, butnothing had been substantiated by press time Friday.

Stanfield was the premium pipe in the Rockies, one trader said,as it followed the Nymex higher. It traded into the low $2.30s,while CIG and Northwestern stayed flat and Kern River fell into thelow $2.20s.

Aeco prices rose again Friday, finishing the week in the low$C/JG 3.20s. The rise is attributed to a rush in Alberta to put gasin storage, as well as increasing ties to the rising Nymex. Onetrader said sellers in the Rockies are looking to Aeco for pricedirection and are unwilling to sell gas much below Alberta levels.”Aeco [strength] is the only thing keeping the Rockies fromcollapsing,” the trader said.

On the other side of the country, Gulf Coast prices roseslightly. “The Gulf was really strong from the start today,” onetrader said, quoting early Tetco West Louisiana prices in the lowto mid $2.60s. “Late in the day, prices came back a bit and thereseemed to be a lot of gas out there, but for the most part Fridaywas pretty strong.” He said summer heat in the Midcontinent and inthe Gulf was a main reason behind the uptick.

Midcontinent prices were also up slightly as the Chicagocitygate finished in the low $2.70s and Northern NaturalDemarcation finished in the mid $2.50s.

Adding flames to the bulls’ fire is the National WeatherService’s (NWS) new six- to 10-day weather forecast. While theNortheast will experience normal temperatures, the NWS alsoforecasts most of the Midwest will be engulfed by above-normaltemperatures. It also predicts that a small area in Northern Texas,including Houston, and Oklahoma will experience much above-normaltemperatures.

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