Despite good support from gas futures, eastern cash prices weredropping by a nickel or so Monday as comfortable fall-like weatherprevailed almost everywhere and Hurricane Isaac remained extremelyremote from the Gulf of Mexico.

It was a different market story in the West, where snow and coldin the Rockies and a California rally from last week’s crateringprices resulted in gains of up to about a dime at most points.

It appears the U.S. has escaped what was shaping up severalmonths ago as a scary summer for power consumers without anyserious interruptions (some Californians might want to argue thepoint, though). Now if mild to cool conditions continue for mostmarkets, it might become a good time for a serious catch-up attempton the storage refill front, one producer said.

A Northeast utility buyer noted that it’s “nice and cool, butnot [cool] enough to fire up many furnaces.” Temperatures shoulddrop a little more today and stay that way through the rest of theweek, he said, “but there’s still not much heating load to lookfor, though.”

Although the Southern California border was up on the day, itwas falling back in late going, said one power plant buyer. Withgas-fired peaking units getting turned off because the state hascooled off so much, he said, “that turned me into a seller insteadand I had to accept a low price near deadline.”

A Calgary trader thought it odd that intra-Alberta quotesstarted off only mildly softer but later plunged into the highC$6.10s, because that market is generally faithful about trackingthe screen either up or down. Perhaps it was paying more attentionto the November crude oil contract, which eventually settled downmore than a dollar, the trader suggested. Another reason could havebeen “nice shorts-wearing weather in Calgary,” she added. Sumas wasanother rare declining point in the West.

Hurricane Isaac was very powerful as it churned about 1,300miles east of the Leeward Islands late Monday afternoon, theNational Weather Service said. But Isaac was also far from any landmass and deemed no threat to anything but shipping.

Other than Southern California border quotes in the low $5.30sto about $5.50 and San Juan reported on either side of $4.30, fixedprices for October were scarce, with indexing and basis tradesdominant as usual. Eastern indexes appear headed upward with alarge screen jump Monday, a producer said, noting thatColumbia-Appalachia “looks very strong.” A marketer, however,predicts lower western indexes, with California drops a certainty.

The big story is a tremendous contraction in California borderbasis, which a couple of traders agreed was plus 19-20 Monday. Thatcompares with an average of about plus 250 for September. At leastthis week’s trading at the border should be much less hectic than amonth ago, a marketer commented. The big difference, added a largeaggregator, is “how hot it [California weather] was in late Augustversus how cool it is now.”

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