“This gas market is stuck in neutral gear,” lamented a westerntrader Monday. “We’re seeing about the same prices as on Friday, soyou could almost ‘cut and paste’ those notes into today’s report.”Sure enough, except for a moderate spike at Transco Zone 6-NYC thatwas retreating in late action, Monday’s quotes maintained thepredominantly flat market that has prevailed since last Tuesday.

A buyer said he was able to pick up an early Zone 6-NYC packageat a slightly softer $2.48, “but then only a couple of phone callslater the offers had shot up to $2.70. We decided to take thatfirst package and hide with it.” However, offers were falling backto around $2.60 late in the morning, which made the buyer think the”hype factor” was wearing off.

The Zone 6-NYC average rose more than a dime despite a Transcoposting that more market-area IT would become available today (see Transportation Notes). Northeast weatherwas mild to start off the week, one source said, but should be gettingmore wintry by Friday.

The Southwest basins actually showed a bit of price movement bystarting flat, moving lower and then rebounding to about a pennyover flat, a marketer said. However, the net result was essentiallyno change from mid $2.10s averages, he added. The Palo Verde #2nuclear unit is scheduled to return on-line sometime today, hesaid, “but they usually take a few days longer than projected.”

Intra-Alberta numbers were flat around C$2.63 early on but thenrose a few cents, mostly in tandem with the screen, according to aCalgary trader. It’s cooling off in the province, he said, “but withNOVA packing a little, I through that would pull prices lower.” NOVA’srecent request for linepack tenders of 415,000 gigajoules, or almost400 MMcf (see Daily GPI, Jan. 10), isn’thaving any market impact at this time, the trader said.

Cash traders appear to be waiting on some direction from futuresbut aren’t getting any, a marketer said. “At this point, it lookslike flat trading in tight ranges will continue at least untilafter the next AGA storage report Wednesday.”

Northwest Pipeline’s bulletin board had a refreshing new way ofmaking its “Next Gas Day Projections for 01/11/00.” Reflectinglinepack, market demand and storage conditions that haveconsistently been good over the last couple of weeks, Monday’sannouncement read: “Same old stuff, different day.”

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