The tropical storm threat was fading, but hotter weather was returning in many areas, prompting mild firmness in the cash market Monday. Most points ranged from flat to as much as about 30 cents higher in the case of Transco Zone 6-NYC, but there were a few small downturns thrown into the mix.

Many of the larger advances were concentrated in Northeast citygates, where the weather is expected to remain hot and humid through Friday, but a cooldown will commence after that, one marketer said. Appalachian prices fell nearly a dime from their early high points as the morning went on, he said. Grid operators for New York state and the Mid-Atlantic region on Monday turned to the public for help in meeting what are expected to be all-time peak demands for electricity through this week.

Former Tropical Storm Barry was downgraded to a tropical depression after making landfall Sunday in the Florida Panhandle. The National Weather Service discontinued all coastal warnings at 7 a.m. CDT Monday and said it would issue no further advisories about Barry. Some production shut-ins remained in effect yesterday but were expected to be disappearing rapidly.

Sonat was still missing about 500 MMcf/d at mid-afternoon Monday, an El Paso Energy spokesman said. Tennessee lost 390 MMcf/d over the weekend and ANR shut-ins had risen to 300 MMcf/d Sunday, but both pipelines were at 100% capability again Monday. Markets for all the El Paso-operated lines were kept whole with storage withdrawals, the spokesman said.

All producers connected to Destin Pipeline were shut in over the weekend, a spokesman said. About 250 MMcf/d had been restored Monday out of normal throughput of 800 MMcf/d, but Destin was making no deliveries until its linepack was back to normal, which the spokesman estimated would be sometime Tuesday. The loss of receipts from Destin, coupled with high market area demand, prompted Florida Gas Transmission to declare an OFO Monday (see Transportation Notes).

An outage on Tennessee’s 500 Line is set to begin today. That caused 500 Line prices to fall about a nickel while the 800 Line saw a rise of about a nickel.

Panhandle Eastern numbers started about in the low $2.90s, but ran as high as the $3.00 area in late deals, a Midcontinent producer said. ANR also managed a runup, but not as strongly as Panhandle. Peaking power demand remained fairly strong in the Midwest, she said. One forecasting service reported that an excessive heat watch had been posted for Chicago while the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in Minnesota was under a heat advisory.

Several traders reported a generally quiet market to begin the week, but it was especially quiet in the West, where many were attending the annual Colorado Oil and Gas Association meeting in Denver.

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