A skyrocketing futures screen took cash along with it Monday,with increases of up to a dime or more occurring at many pricepoints. The surge carried some Midwestern citygates at Michigan andChicago back to the plus side of $2 for the first time since earlyAugust.

One source characterized Monday’s upticks as a short-term rallythat was not led by fundamentals. In this time of poorfundamentals, he commented, “all I can says is that if the screenis trading at $2.10, then cash will trade at $2.10; and if it[screen] is trading at $1.50, then cash also will trade at $1.50.”That’s how little effect fundamentals have on the current cashmarket, he concluded.

A lighting-caused rupture of Florida Gas Transmission’s threemainlines in north-central Florida (see story this issue) cutsupplies to the Florida peninsula for part of the weekend. Abouthalf of the system’s 1.5 Bcf/d delivery capacity was restoredSunday. Although a trader speculated the curtailment might havetempted holders of Primary FT on FGT to take advantage with “pricemajeuring,” Zone 2 numbers in South Louisiana around $1.90 merelyreflected general Gulf Coast gains.

In fact, the crimp on market-area usage probably held FGT pricesback, a marketer said. “It probably just backed up some gas inTexas that might otherwise have flowed to Florida.” The resultinggas bubble seemed to be absorbed into the market with no trouble,at least for Monday, he said. Another trader said his companybasically just re-routed all of its FGT gas into Koch Gateway andtook it to storage.

Amoco said its Hugoton Jayhawk Plant in Grant County, KS, isback on-line, more than a month after a heat exchanger explosionput the plant out of commission (see Daily GPI, July 10). Jayhawkwas processing about 250 MMcf/d Monday, compared with 400 MMcf/dprior to the blast.

A marketer reported making a baseload sale into ANR-Southwest at$1.91, more than a nickel over the August index and several centsmore than Monday’s swing prices.

After sinking to the mid $1.40s last week, Sumas reboundedstrongly to the $1.60s Monday when a 21-day Fort Nelson Plantturnaround that had started Sunday was curtailing about 190 MMcf/don the Westcoast system, a marketer said. But the big day will beWednesday, when a total plant shutdown cuts 450 MMcf/d, he added.Some people are speculating Sumas numbers will climb higher todayto trade flat with domestic Northwest prices, which were in the midto high $1.70s Monday, the marketer said. However, traders havebeen packing Northwest north of the Chehalis (WA) CompressorStation lately, and that could cause the Fort Nelson outage to besomewhat of a price non-event once the initial hype has passed.

California was a rare market in shunning the general pricerun-up. Border prices were flat as mild weather dominated thestate.

September basis was static despite the big futures run-up, saida marketer who pegged basis for the Midcontinent in general atminus 9-10.5.

©Copyright 1998 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.