No one appeared to be shocked when the September aftermarket got launched Friday with prices way below both bidweek and end-of-August levels. The double whammy of a long holiday weekend coupled with decidedly weak weather fundamentals proved to be a potent price-cutter. All Rockies/San Juan and a few other scattered points fell below $2. Rockies pipes were seeing their first sub-$2 averages since trading for June 11 flows.

However, ranges were wide as quotes made a fairly substantial recovery after mid-morning, a Midcontinent trader said. He attributed the rally largely to a number of traders deciding late that they were shorter on weekend supplies than they really wanted to be. Also, several nuclear plant outages in the Midwest helped drive regional citygates back up, he said. The trader thought a late morning rebound in previously weaker October futures likely was in response to the belated cash strength.

A marketer said the Midcontinent/Midwest rally apparently had an impact on western points because they also were very weak at first, but then a late pop was seen, especially in Permian Basin and Opal numbers.

A Northeast trader saw similar conditions in his market. TCO started in the low $2.20s and drifted lower to the mid $2.10s before starting a rapid rise that took it to nearly $2.50, he said. However, most deals had already been done toward the low end of Friday’s range, he said. He elected to pass on Transco Zone 6-NYC business, saying delivered prices were too low to cover his transportation costs from the Gulf Coast.

The National Weather Service offered a mild hint of potential price rallying with its latest six-to-10-day forecast, which calls for above normal temperatures late next week in the key Midwest and Northeast market areas. Much of the West will see below normal thermometer readings, however, while weather should be normal for the rest of the nation, NWS said.

Although one Calgary-based marketer reported hearing that a fire at a Fort Saskatchewan ethane plant had diminished greatly from earlier in the week and might be extinguished more quickly than expected, a spokeswoman for plant operator BP Canada said the producer was staying with its estimate Wednesday that the blaze would take 10-14 days to put out. Two wells at the plant were still burning Friday, she said, and it was possible that the brine well fire could be extinguished as soon as that night. It’s the products’ well fire that will take longer to control. BP Canada has managed to re-start three out of four outlet lines, so some plant operations have been able to resume, the spokeswoman said.

©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.