Despite having considerably lighter air conditioning load than last week, the cash market ranged from flat to about a dime higher at nearly all points Monday. Most increases were fairly small, but Malin achieved one in the mid teens, while the day’s champion gainer of about 60 cents due a maintenance-related constraint was Cheyenne Hub. CIG recorded the only significant loss of more than a dime.

The normal return of industrial demand after a weekend off played a part in Monday’s moderate firmness, according to a couple of sources. However, an eastern utility buyer said he had to believe prices were up slightly because many people have returned to injecting gas into storage. “Last week there was a lot of gas available even in the heat wave, which indicated to me that some was getting withdrawn from storage,” he said. “We found it a lot tougher this morning finding the supplies we needed.”

Another source suggested that traders might have been anticipating what is likely to be the first small injection volume reported in months by AGA Wednesday.

In weekend trading Cheyenne Hub averaged only 7 cents above CIG, but the Hub premium widened to about 80 cents Monday. One western trader said Cheyenne Hub numbers ran up due to a 24-hour outage of the Wyoming Interstate Company system west of Rawlins, WY, set for today to upgrade the pipeline to meet new class code requirements. Overthrust, Questar-WIC, Red Sand, Wapiti and Lost Creek must be shut in for the duration of the work, which means a large cutback in WIC deliveries to Cheyenne Hub for today only, the trader said. Things should be back to normal in trading for Wednesday flows.

Chicago citygates stayed pretty much flat to the screen, said a producer quoting numbers on either side of $3.

What was characterized as a strong disturbance southwest of the Cape Verde Islands off West Africa bears watching, according to one forecasting service. However, it dismissed development potential for another disturbed area between the Bahamas and Bermuda.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.