The cash market went into a general stand-pat mode Wednesday,awaiting developments on the tropical storm, cold weather andstorage fronts. Nearly all points were united in seeing littleprice movement either up or down.

Keith regained named status by re-strengthening to a tropicalstorm after moving offshore from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. As ofWednesday afternoon it was about 275 miles east-southeast ofTampico, Mexico, according to the National Weather Service, and itswest-northwestward course would take it ashore in Mexico well southof the southern tip of Texas. Thus any potential threat to U.S. gasproduction in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be waning. However,hurricane movement can’t be predicted precisely, and NWS said Keithcould become a hurricane again before making landfall.

What NWS called a “subtropical depression” formed just offFlorida’s east coast, but it’s projected tracking was expected tokeep it on the Atlantic side.

AGA’s report of a 78 Bcf storage refill last week seemed bearishto cash traders, but the screen reacted by regaining some of itslosses from earlier in the day.

Colder air began to move into the Midwest, and it was expectedto reach the South by the weekend. A Northeast utility buyer saidhis region wasn’t expected to get down quite to freezing levels byFriday, “but we do expect it will cold enough to push gas prices upsome.”

El Paso extended its Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situationthrough at least Wednesday. Although one source reported seeinglittle effect from the OFO, Permian and San Juan quotes softenedslightly. A marketer noted that Southern California border numbersinto the SoCal Gas and PG&E systems were diverging widely againafter having closed most of the gap a week earlier. She was takinggas into PG&E in the $5.50s while SoCal Gas deliveries averagedaround $6.00.

Traders continued to speculate on the significance of VectorPipeline’s one-month startup delay to Dec. 1. A producer said therehad been a “knee-jerk reaction” Tuesday when Dawn basis forNovember rose to plus 36, but he said basis weakened again to plus31.5-32.5. Meanwhile, Chicago citygate basis was hanging in prettytough Wednesday at plus 10-11, he said. “People are unsure what theeffect will be on Chicago; it’s a funny market. It will get floodedwith gas by Alliance in early November, but there’s other outletsbesides Vector. There’s a lot of emotion in this market.”

Another trader chimed in, “We knew the Vector delay was coming,and we doubt it [startup] will be in December. It probably won’t betill January.” He reported seeing plus 10 bids for Chicago basisWednesday.

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