Weekend prices were down by as much as a dime or so almostacross the board Friday. Although the screen’s almost imperceptibledrop provided no further impetus for cash softening, the decreaseswere widely expected as cold areas started warming and warm areasstarted cooling.

The major exception to falling prices was in western Canada,where intra-Alberta quotes were flat in the low C$2.30s andWestcoast Station 2 was reported around C$2.40. The Alberta numbersremain strong because of many plants currently undergoingturnaround outages, and these outages could continue until June, amarketer said. He and another source estimated 200-300 MMcf/d wascurrently off the provincial market, and that range could rise to275-400 MMcf/d this week. Although Sumas numbers were droppingbelow $2 Friday, Station 2 levels were buoyed by the Aitken CreekPlant outage, one trader said.

One marketer was doing May intra-Alberta deals at C$2.30-32.That indicates April and May are already pretty well converged, hesaid, and that Canadian prices are maintaining their recent biggains at least for a while.

Public Service Co. of Colorado said its Operational Flow Order(see Daily GPI, April 16 and 17) would end Saturday morning at thestart of the gas day. Snow had stopped in the Denver area but itwas still cold, a spokeswoman said. Also, more snow is predictedthis week. Rockies prices were slipping into the $2.20s and $2.10sFriday.

There was little basis differential between Midcontinent andGulf Coast pipes as both regions had prices mixed in the low to mid$2.30s. Gulf numbers were running slightly higher. The price leaderby far was Transco’s Station 65 in the low $2.40s.

For a change weather fundamentals rather than “following thescreen” appeared to be behind the general price drops, traderssaid. A Houston source thought the market could be reduced to asimple math formula: little heating load in the North + littlecooling load in the South = lower gas prices. But a Southwesttrader commented, “We’re all still screen-bound; I’m not seeing anydemand out there.

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