Once again Monday flat to higher Western numbers were in starkcontrast to Eastern prices that mostly fell by around a nickel,although there were a few pockets of resistance in the East thatsaw flat to slightly higher pricing. Trading was predictablysubdued because of the simultaneous Thanksgiving Day in Canada andColumbus Day in the U.S., although few in the gas industry otherthan utilities took off for Columbus Day.

The weekend produced no change in a longstanding picture of weakfundamentals. One trader summed it up as too much production, toomany people long on supply, too much storage inventory and notenough gas load to make a difference. “This is pure shoulder-monthpricing.”

According to a Texas source, “All these OFOs, both actual andpotential [see Transportation Notes], to guard against excesssupplies tell me there is a lot of gas around looking for a homesince so many people have been stuffing the pipes.”

The Southern California border was by far the day’s strongestpoint with almost a dime uptick. Malin and some Rockies pipesmanaged smaller increases. Although one source attributed Westernprice strength to heavy storage demand, another couldn’t figure itout. If the numbers he’s been seeing are correct, he said, JacksonPrairie storage is already full and Clay Basin is about 96% full.

ANR-Southeast was trading at a rare premium Monday to NGPL’sLouisiana Line, a marketer said. She pegged the reason as a littleshortness on ANR and gas getting backed up on NGPL because of thepipeline limiting market-area storage injections.

Although several sources saw the screen fall to the $2.05 areain Access trading Monday afternoon as a sure sign of cash declinestoday, one marketer wasn’t so sure. “There’s already a pretty biggap between cash and futures, so I don’t expect [Monday’s] drop infutures to have much of an impact on cash [Tuesday]. If cash doescome down, then the market is a lot weaker than everybody thinks,”he said.

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