Records are made to be broken, or so the saying goes. Whileprices continued to dive Friday from the Rockies/Southwesteastward, the California and Pacific Northwest markets kept revvingit like never before. Malin and the PG&E citygate hit the newall-time high mark of $61.

“We might as well burn dollar bills instead of gas,” jested onewestern trader. “It would be cheaper that way.”

The West Coast was destined to feel the effects of this week’swidely anticipated severe cold snap before other markets, sourcesnoted. A moderation of last week’s earlier chill allowed weekendsoftening to the east, but those markets are certain to berebounding early this week as the front moves eastward, they said.An afternoon screen run-up of a little more than 20 cents alsosignaled renewed bullishness this week, but futures providedessentially no guidance to Friday’s cash trading as they remainedmostly flat throughout the morning.

West Coast ranges continued to be tremendous as prices startednear their daily lows and then skyrocketed. The PG&E citygatewas quoted as low as $33 before soaring to nearly 30 dollarshigher. But the upward trend was detected in other areas also. Onetrader said MichCon citygates were less than $7 early beforemanaging to finish above $8. He thought people pushedMidcontinent/Midwest numbers traded down too low in the earlygoing, then bid them back up after pipes began warning of potentialOFOs.

Told about the new super-high pricing in California, aMidwestern marketer replied, “We can’t worry about California’sproblems. Gas at $9 is enough of a problem for our customers.”

A Calgary producer, noting that intra-Alberta quotes were mostlyflat in the C$11.00s to C$11.20s, said he didn’t know why theprovincial market wasn’t taking part in the West Coast “madness. Ifwe could get it there, we would.”

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