Bigtime volatility was the name of the game Friday in the cashmarket. Price changes ranged from more than 20 cents higher at manyLouisiana points to about a nickel lower in Northern California.Ranges often were huge also, exceeding 30 cents in some cases. Anypoint with a high and low separated by less than a dime-well, theyjust weren’t trying hard enough, one source commented.

Naturally Hurricane Georges was responsible for both the marketconfusion and big price rises. Traders still couldn’t be sure whatGeorges would do as it began to leave Key West, FL, behind Fridayafternoon. Gulf platform evacuations and production shut-ins weregrowing throughout the day and expected to keep rising over theweekend (see page 2 for details).

“It was really weird this [Friday] morning,” said a Northeasttrader. Regional citygates and the Appalachian pipes started outmuch stronger (early Transco Zone 6 offers were at $2.60) but thenstarted coming off along with the screen after 9:30 CDT, she said.”Marketing companies were calling late to ask if I could take gasoff their hands.” She wound up making Zone 6 purchases mostly inthe $2.40s.

Meanwhile, except for dime-or-higher increases at Waha and thePermian Basin, Western markets figuratively were saying,”Hurricane? What hurricane?” Although the Southern Californiaborder gained about a nickel, PG&E extended a high-inventoryOFO into Saturday, resulting in softening at both Malin and thePG&E citygate.

Relative lack of demand in California and the Midcontinentlimited the Rockies to only small increases. San Juan Basin numbersstarted off strong because the screen was up, a marketer said, butthe bids just weren’t there and the bottom fell out late. “Onceeverybody figured out no one was buying, they scrambled to sellwhatever they could,” he said. Permian/Waha prices weren’t as weakbecause gas there basically was filling in for hurricane-relatedGulf Coast shut-ins, he added.

A lot of bidweek activity was put on hold in the East as tradersstruggled to cope with the growing incremental shut-ins caused byHurricane Georges. A Midcontinent producer said there were “atremendous amount of sellers out there right now and hardly anybuyers. The buyers are all waiting on the sidelines.” So far it hasbasically been an index market with Panhandle Eastern going atindex-flat to minus 0.5, the producer said.

A marketer reported Rockies pipes in general trading in a$1.73-78 range for October.

Commenting on hesitance to do fixed-price deals, a Houstonmarketer said the big question was whether Georges would cause muchin the way of damage that could keep supply off the market for sometime to come. “I think people are not willing to bet either way,”he said.

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