The great majority of the cash market elected to take it easyTuesday, yielding a lot of zeros, ones and twos in the averageprice change column. The only significant price drops of a dime ormore occurred at Northeast citygates, where temperatures abovefreezing were starting to reappear at some points. Transco Zone 6and Texas Eastern M-3 remain the only markets with a considerablecushion of more than a dime from January indexes.

The few signs of modest strength were concentrated in theRockies and San Juan Basin, where most pipes rose by a nickel orso. Sources have reported some short squeezes on Rockies supply,likely resulting from capacity limitations at Kingsgate and on theEl Paso system. A marketer estimated a one-day shut-in today of theTransColorado interconnect with El Paso will take 240 MMcf off themarket (TransColorado will be tying in the Coyote and Antler plantsin a Phase 2 project. See related story).

San Juan Basin and Malin joined the Rockies in rising about anickel, but even with a mild chill in the Los Angeles area, theSouthern California border remained flat for the second straightday.

Cash was stronger than most expectations, a marketer told DailyGPI. Flat quotes in Texas and Louisiana surprised people becauseearly bids were down 5-8 cents, “but that never reallymaterialized.” And despite trying to come off in the morning, thescreen probably gave some support to cash with a small uptick”probably in advance of a real bullish storage report [today],” themarketer said.

He also credited balancing and “back-filling” in the Midwest andNortheast market areas with propping up prices. There is stillplenty of demand in those markets currently even with milderweather due by the weekend, he said.

A Gulf Coast trader who did all but one deal at $1.79 said, “Itwasn’t that we found a number we liked and stuck with it; we justhad no choice. We tried to pound [prices] higher and couldn’t.”

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