Once again all of the “hot” price action Friday occurred in theNortheast, and that’s because it was downright bone-chilling there.This time it was the turn of Algonquin citygates to occupy the toprung of the pricing ladder as they ran up more than $1.00 into the$4.80s and peaked at $6.50. A large aggregator said she later heardintra-day citygates trading as high as $8. She and another sourcesaid Algonquin was curtailing all IT and 50% of Secondary Firmservice downstream of the Cromwell (CT) Compressor Station Fridayand cutting Secondary Firm to zero past Cromwell for Saturday. Thataffected all deliveries to Boston, Rhode Island and the easternhalf of Connecticut, one said.

Tennessee, the other major pipeline that moves gas into NewEngland, saw its Zone 6 prices shoot up by more than 60 cents.Transco Zone 6-NYC actually retreated by nearly 40 cents, largelybecause many traders regarded Thursday’s Zone 6-NYC spike into thestratosphere to have been more hype than substance.

Even if Sable/Maritimes & Northeast had still beendelivering gas into New England, it probably would not have avertedthe area’s soaring prices because of the operational locations ofM&N delivery meters relative to the Cromwell bottleneck, amarketer said. He expects the weekend’s high prices to continuethis week “as the cold weather is forecast to be around for awhile.” Another trader said she understood that Sable OffshoreEnergy still had no prognosis Friday for when production from thehuge project off eastern Canada would resume; Sable was unavailablefor confirmation. Sable was averaging flows of more than 100 MMcf/dinto M&N (36 MMcf/d to the U.S.) after opening its valves Jan.1. However, it had to shut down less than a week later to removefrozen hydrates (ice slugs) from its subsea line.

Quotes for Texas Eastern M-3 were essentially flat even with thepipeline posting an OFO affecting M-3 (see Transportation Notes) alittle more than an hour before the 11:30 CST trading deadline. Onesource speculated the OFO had little effect on pricing because itrequired only evenly spaced gas deliveries over the course of thegas day.

Oh yes, there was trading in other areas beside the Northeast,but much like earlier in the week it was rather featureless incomparison. Zeroes were common in the price change column, and veryfew points outside the Northeast strayed more than 1-2 cents toeither side of flat.

The West’s Palo Verde nuclear Unit 2 was up to 99% power Friday,”and that was as good as 100%” for helping to depress San JuanBasin prices by a couple of cents, a marketer said.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.