Eastern prices rose about a dime or so Wednesday, in whatsources said was almost purely a delayed response to the screen’sadvance of nearly a quarter the day before. Despite a coastal stormthat left the Southeast shivering in some areas, and was movinginto the Northeast, weather was almost a total non-event for gasdemand, they said.

The market is all technicals right now with essentially nofundamental factors for guidance recently, said a Gulf Coast riskmanager. Henry Hub cash steadily stayed about a nickel back of thescreen Wednesday, he said. “It’s definitely not a cash-led market;it’s just been following the screen around recently.” A gain ofnearly 50 cents in crude oil futures lent some support to cash gasWednesday, he said.

Midcontinent quotes held strong at first based largely on theprevious day’s screen strength, according to one marketer, but fellback to barely over $5 as trading proceeded. Generally mild weathermade Midwest demand quite weak, he said.

What traders have consistently described as a “dead” marketthroughout March was made even “deader,” if such a thing ispossible, by Wednesday’s opening of exhibits at the Houston EnergyExpo. Sources said activity was reduced because some traders wereattending the fair.

Northern California prices kept diving as PG&E extended asystemwide high-linepack OFO (seeTransportation Notes). Malin was “long, long, long” on supply, amarketer said. Besides the OFO, continuing maintenance at PG&E’sMcDonald Island storage facility helped depress citygates below $6 insome cases, as it limited the utility’s ability to inject excess gas,the marketer said. The McDonald Island work is due to end thisweekend. However, the Southern California border remained strong,surpassing $12 in a few deals, even though the state was hopeful ofavoiding a third straight day of rolling blackouts, he added.

Permian numbers began the day just under $5, then dropped to themid $4.80s before rallying late to the low $5.10s, a western sourcesaid. Only a small amount of business was done at the high end,though, and the bulk of trading was done in the $4.90 area, hesaid. He assumed that maintenance constraints in San Juan Basin andthe rising California border made buyers value Permian gas more inthe late going. Waha was strong at about a dime up from Tuesday, headded.

One trader reported strong April basis of minus 1 cent at Sumas.”That’s made a lot of sellers willing to leave their gas in theground for now and wait for next month,” he said.

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