Despite prospects for a potentially severe winter storm in theNortheast and moderate screen firmness, the cash market generallyranged from flat to down about 20 cents Friday, as falling weekenddemand made an impact. Northern California numbers retreated fromThursday’s spike, but the Southern California border tacked on morethan $2.50 to its market-leading average.

“Yesterday [Thursday] the border exploded just on theanticipation of a supply cut that didn’t materialize” when El Pasopostponed a maintenance shutdown of a key Permian Basin stationthat would have caused the shut-in of 400 MMcf/d, a marketer said.”But that supply cut will be real over the weekend, so the borderwent even higher [Friday].” He also noted that El Paso had extendeda low-linepack OFO through at least Friday.

Although the California border fell 50 cents short Friday ofmatching Thursday’s high quote of $33, its average moved up to morethan $27.00.

The border market could get even dicier this week. A marketersaid SoCal Gas had posted a storage level of 13 Bcf on its bulletinboard late in the week, and another source reported that the giantLDC had withdrawn 1.1 Bcf in one day around midweek. “At that ratethey [SoCal] will be down to a few fumes in another couple ofweeks,” the marketer jested. More seriously, she added, if regionalweather doesn’t moderate soon, “we’re afraid SoCal could go to 100%daily balancing [this] week.” That would require that allnominations to the utility be covered by either physically flowinggas or firm storage every day, and likely would drive prices evenhigher, she said.

A Houston-based trader thought it odd that Northeast citygateswould be among Friday’s softening points. “Some forecasters aresaying there could be a very heavy ‘snow event’ starting Sunday inthe Northeast,” he said.

Bulletin board postings by Columbia Gulf and Tennessee (seeTransporation Notes) indicate that processing operations arebeginning to come back into economic style on the Gulf Coast. Bothpipes were able to relax certain restrictions on receipts havingtoo much heating value content. However, a producer said he wasbusy Friday working on getting more processing arrangements underway. “Last month it was other Gulf Coast pipes forcing us to getour gas within specs. Now it’s NGPL adding to the burden,” he said(see Daily GPI, March 1).

“I’m watching the snow melt off the hills today [Friday],”remarked a Calgary marketer. Area temperatures went from minus 20degrees Celsius at start of week to plus 12 degrees Friday, “andthat’s downright balmy for us,” he said. “Does this mean spring hassprung?” Despite the milder weather and a NOVA imbalance tolerancechange to 0/-20%, intra-Alberta prices gained a little more thanC10 cents into the upper C$7.20s largely due to the screen’s rise,he said.

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