End-of-December swing prices rebounded Friday from the week’searlier slide, rising by a dollar or more in many cases but alsofeaturing a few scattered declines. The January aftermarket beganabove first-of-month indexes by varying degrees except atCalifornia/Pacific Northwest points.

Deals for Jan. 1-2 were up from Dec. 30-31 numbers virtuallyacross the board. A large gain in the February futures contractprovided psychological support, but prospects for most regionsoutside the Southwest remaining close to or below freezing suppliedan even bigger fundamental boost.

Trading for the Dec. 30-31 period was markedly on the light sideFriday as many traders had already baseloaded their positions onthe previous day.

Northeast traders saw no significant market impact from a lateThursday afternoon explosion at a TQM Pipeline compressor station inEast Hereford, QB, just across the international border from NewHampshire (see related story in thisissue). The blast demolished the station’s control building and sent amaintenance worker to the hospital with burns. TQM deliveries intoPortland Natural Gas Transmission System were cut by about 40 MMcf/dto 150 MMcf/d, a spokesman said.

Of much more immediate concern to the Northeast market werepredictions of a “nor’easter” winter storm blowing into the regionaround New Year’s Eve. That had Transco Zone 6 (NYC) numbersspiking as high as $50 for Jan. 1-2 flow, although they latersettled back to either side of $40 after starting the day around$26, a marketer said. “You had all these buyers panicking for awhile, and everybody selling was looking for higher prices. Thenthe panic stopped and prices retreated again.” He and anothertrader concurred that the primary reason for New York City-areadeliveries standing head and shoulders above other Northeastcitygates is because the Zone 6 pool can be manipulated easily bythe limited number of market participants controlling most of thetransportation there.

A producer reporting Monday-Tuesday Chicago deals throughout the$10.20s said he had a lot of trouble finding any buyers.

Last-day bidweek business was almost non-existent Friday asnearly all of it had been wrapped up Thursday. A trader reportingidentical plus 40 basis for Chicago citygates and NorthernNatural-demarc remarked, “This is not very good when I’m paying asmuch for demarc [gas] as I am for Chicago.”

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