A Southern California border spike of about 80 cents Friday,with a few quotes peaking in the lower $6.70s, was by far the mostattention-grabbing feature of a weekend market that was mostly flatto moderately higher but included a bit of backsliding at San JuanBasin/Rockies points.

The continuing shortfall of supply from El Paso’s South Mainlinecombined with California heat to send border prices zooming higher.The state’s Independent System Operator declared the only otherStage One Electrical Emergency of the week besides one late lastMonday. Climbing temperatures in Northern California and a lack ofreserve resources prompted the emergency, Cal-ISO said.

The PG&E citygate was the only point besides the Californiaborder to squeeze out an increase of much more than a dime. Mostmarkets were flat to up about a dime. San Juan Basin’s decline ofabout a dime led the few retreating points.

An aggregator found it mildly curious that all hisNortheast/Appalachian deals averaged within about a nickel of eachother in the mid to lower $4.70s. “You can pretty well put it inthe books,” he said. “The Northeast didn’t have any summer thisyear.”

Normally Permian Basin pricing is fairly homogenous, but the ElPaso outage has created a sizeable divergence between thepipeline’s Keystone and Waha pools, a large producer noted. Wahapool numbers got as much as 15 cents or so above Keystone’s lastweek, he said, because the Waha pool has superior access into ElPaso’s 36-inch Line 1600 lateral. Line 1600, which the producersaid has capacity of about 700 MMcf/d, is the primary bypass aroundPecos River Station on the South Mainline. It runs from thepipeline’s Waha Station to an interconnect downstream of both PecosRiver Station and Washington Ranch Storage Field.

Other than a few brokered deals reported by one source,virtually nobody had any September business to report. “People wantto wait until after the weekend to see what it’s like then,” said aproducer. “Will the storm [former Hurricane Debby] re-develop? WillEl Paso’s problem be any closer to a solution?”

Everything bullish that could happen has happened, said a traderin the California market. Border basis reached plus $2.30 Fridayand fixed prices were being bid at $6.65, he said. The Septemberspread between the border and San Juan Basin is now $3.10, headded.

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