As Gulf of Mexico producers played the waiting game with what was then still Tropical Storm Isidore, nearly all points were united in upward movement Thursday, with flatness at El Paso-Permian and a few Northeast citygates as the exception. Especially in the East, gains were considerably smaller than Wednesday’s spikes; the overall range Thursday tended to be from about a nickel to 15 cents.

Isidore became the second full-fledged hurricane of the 2002 Atlantic season Thursday afternoon. At 5 p.m. EDT it was about 95 miles southeast of Cuba’s Isle of Youth, an island south of the nation’s western end. On its west-northwest course at the time, Isidore would brush the western tip of Cuba before emerging into the Gulf of Mexico sometime Friday.

The NWS ceased issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Josephine after it became extratropical while passing toward the northeast a little less than 600 miles southeast of Newfoundland.

Asked whether there was any more substance to Thursday’s price upticks than in the “hype”-laden bullishness of Wednesday, eastern traders continued to say no, it was still virtually all hype with a dash of screen nervousness thrown in. “Prices are higher again, although not jumping as much as Wednesday,” a Northeast utility buyer said. Some might think there was more justification for higher numbers Thursday, but it’s still just people trying to push prices higher artificially, he added. “There’s no weather demand to speak of in the Northeast, but the combination of the storm and Nymex jacks up the price for what little gas we do need. There’s a lot of fear factor going around.”

A marketer noted that prices tended to rise in later deals. After snagging an early Transco Zone 6-NYC package around $4.10, all his subsequent quotes were on either side of $4.20.

A Gulf Coast trader agreed that the new price advances had little to do with fundamentals. “There was every reason for softer prices today, but it didn’t happen, so I’ve got to believe this rising market is still based on storm hype,” he said. However, the trader added that his company had “already gotten some warnings that we’re likely to lose some production around Venice.” Venice is near the southeastern tip of Louisiana, and losses there most likely would be on the Texas Eastern, Tennessee, Transco, Sonat and possibly the Columbia Gulf systems.

The two CMS Energy pipelines with offshore connections, Trunkline and Sea Robin, sent memos to shippers outlining the nomination procedures for dealing with production outages.

The Energy Information Administration said last week’s storage injections totaled 69 Bcf, a volume closely in line with most previous expectations. The screen made an initially bullish response but retreated to an eventual advance of 6.9 cents on the day.

A western trader attributed the Rockies rebounds chiefly to two straight days of Nymex strength. The screen also contributed to intra-Alberta gains, which in turn helped keep Sumas prices strong, he said. The PG&E citygate made another solid gain after the lifting of a two-day high-linepack OFO, he noted. The utility’s linepack was dropping fairly quickly, the trader went on. “I think loads on PG&E are bigger than they planned for. I’ve heard significantly warmer there [Northern California] for the rest of the month.”

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