Weekend prices drifted lower by varying degrees Friday, rangingfrom barely a penny down on a couple of Gulf Coast pipes todouble-digit decreases throughout much of the West. A flat screenprovided no cash guidance, traders said, so it was primarily milderweather plus the typical drop in weekend load that promptedmoderate declines of about a nickel or less at most eastern points.

There was additional reason for prices to get depressed in theWest, however. Both of California’s two giant distribution systems,Southern California Gas and Pacific Gas & Electric, hadhigh-linepack OFOs in place for Saturday (see TransportationNotes). Not only were the Golden State’s three major price pointsdown by more than a dime, but similar negative price effects fromcurtailed deliveries into California rippled back into the Rockiesand Southwest production basins.

The only western points with small declines tended to beCanadian-oriented, such as Sumas, Stanfield and intra-Alberta. Notall traders in the city attended the Calgary Stampede rodeo paradeFriday, but the annual event drew enough of them out of the officethat few wanted to bother with fixed pricing, preferring to indexmost weekend deals, one source said.

The weekend market slump could have been worse, a Gulf Coastmarketer said. Demand was consistent with gas trading more than adime below index, he observed. “Anybody with a cranny or a crevicein which to stick gas” (storage, that is) was eager to buy Gulfsupplies in the mid $2.10s, he said.

A trader quoting Chicago at $2.18 said citygates trickled downthroughout the morning trading session as sellers scrambled tounload gas for a relatively mild weather weekend. Chicago basis forAugust is currently plus 3.25, he said.

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