Prices emerged from the weekend to move higher in fairly quietactivity Monday, mostly in amounts of a nickel or less. Theoutperforming points were concentrated in California and theNortheast.

Cash traders were encouraged by the screen opening flat at $2.94and managed to send prices a few cents higher at most points beforefutures turned south for the rest of the day, a marketer said.

As of Monday cold weather was mostly confined to the sparselypopulated states of the Upper Plains. However, the chill was movingsouth and east and causing the issuance of freeze advisories forMonday night from the Permian Basin through parts of the UpperMidwest. The approaching front gave extra support to Northeastdeliveries, according to a Texas source.

As expected, the California market was strong due to the totaloutages of Transwestern’s Topock and San Juan Laterals during thefirst half of this week. PG&E citygates were more than a dimeabove Friday’s quotes. It was a little surprising, though, that theSouthern California border gained only several cents and failed tomatch PG&E’s rise. However, the increases brought both pointsback approximately even with index.

For a while Sumas quotes in the mid $2.60s were running almost anickel above domestic pricing into Northwest. One trader attributedthat to continuing constraints at Northwest’ Kemmerer (WY) Stationthat limited the amount of interruptible Rockies gas that couldreach the Pacific Northwest. However, Sumas was responding late tothe screen’s softening and falling to mix with domestic numbers inthe low $2.60s, he said.

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