Marketers were greeted last Thursday morning to something theyhadn’t seen all last week: unequivocally bearish indicators. Ahealthy storage injection, small futures retracement, and wiltingdemand ahead of a holiday weekend had sellers fast out of the chutelooking to unload their gas before the market cratered. This leftprices down anywhere from a couple of cents to almost a dime.However, one source said there was a certain “warm and fuzzy”feeling about trading this week and he looks for continued strengthMonday.

An Oklahoma marketer believes the volatility of this market haspeople a bit shell-shocked. “This is a dicey market with a muchbigger downside than upside potential. Everyone knew how to play it[Thursday]. Sell early buy late,” he said.

A Gulf Coast marketer said there are some limitations onSouthern Natural (see transportation notes) effective Saturday thatcould cause a gas scheduler’s beeper a time or two Easter Sunday.”Sonat has taken some non-constrained points and turned them intoconstained points. It is going to really make some people upsetwhen they find out firm baseload gas is not flowing, and to top itoff the prices in the swing market aren’t quite what they wereduring bidweek.”

A Texas marketer looks for a tight Waha-Katy spread this summer.”While the rest of the country has started to replenish storagegas, the West is still withdrawing. Gas is going to have to startgoing into the ground out there. That should keep Waha pricespretty strong for a while.”

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