Except for continued rises at some Northeast citygates, most ofthe cash market was in rout mode Wednesday. Price decreases of adime or more-much more in a few cases-prevailed at nearly allpoints despite cold weather blanketing much of the U.S. from theRockies eastward. A falling screen and forecasts that some areaswill be warming up this weekend constituted the main cashdepressants, sources said. Despite what one trader called a “ratherhealthy” AGA figure of 116 Bcf withdrawn from storage last week,few saw much chance of a holiday weekend rebound.

Once again Transco’s Zone 6-NYC pool ran contrary to the overallmarket, gaining more than 60 cents and surpassing Tuesday’s peakquote of $5.05 by 45 cents. Transportation constraints and Enron’scontrol of much of the pipeline capacity into the Big Appleremained the major factors behind the Zone 6-NYC strength, traderssaid (non-New York Zone 6 quotes were flat in the low $3.20s).Transco’s announcement that a modest amount of IT through theLinden (NJ) Regulator Station bottleneck will become available thisweekend (25,000 dth/d Friday only, 50,000 dth/d Saturday andSunday, and 25,000 dth/d from Monday until further notice) didnothing to stanch the NYC increases.

New England citygates (Tennessee Zone 6 and Algonquin) joinedZone 6-NYC in avoiding the general softness, but Iroquois Zone 2and Texas Eastern M-3 registered mild declines.

Due to a number of utilities and pipelines being closed today,many of Wednesday’s deals were being done through Monday. It wasrather confusing in the Chicago area, a buyer said, because NI-Gasand Illinois Power will be closed, but NIPSCO and Peoples willremain open. MichCon also will be closed, another trader said. Anda Gulf Coast source said Carthage Hub operator Duke, realizing thatmany people would be out of the office this afternoon, wasrequiring five-day nominations Wednesday to allow itself morescheduling time. A marketer said Texas intrastate Lone Star alsowas requiring all-weekend trading.

Five-day trades were not much of an issue in the West, amarketer said, but he did them in a few cases, choosing to indexthe deals as did several other sources.

The confusing weekend holiday scheduling at Chicago shouldn’tmatter all that much anyway, according to a trader who expects verylittle new gas to get bought today. Moderating temperatures areexpected in the area by Saturday, he said.

However, “fire up those peaking units!” exclaimed one sourceafter hearing Detroit Edison’s report that its customers had set awinter-demand record for electricity Tuesday for the second timethis week and the fourth time in this heating season. Because mostpower load comes from air conditioning in the summer, Tuesday’sload of 8,190 MW did not surpass the all-time record of 11,026 MWset June 10, 1999, Detroit Edison said.

Intra-Alberta joined in the bear market with a drop of about C20cents into the mid C$2.70s as Calgary temperatures remained abovefreezing and were expected to hit the 50s F. this weekend, amarketer said.

A marketer pegged Chicago citygate basis for January at plus6.5-7.25.

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