The cash market closed out last week on a somewhat balancednote, with new upticks of a nickel or more in the Northeast arrayedagainst drops between a nickel and a dime at western points. Inbetween there was a vast sea of mostly flatness.

The Arctic cold front that was expected to bring freezingtemperatures to much of the East over the weekend seemed to bereticent about advancing very rapidly out of the Upper Plains andUpper Midwest, according to one forecaster. That helped explain thegenerally flat showings and the fact that new citygate increaseswere fairly modest. It did seem a bit odd that Northern Natural’sdemarc and Ventura points, serving just about the coldest marketterritory in the U.S., were falling back 3-4 cents. Midcontinentpipes in general tended to show more softness than their Gulf Coastcounterparts.

At less than a penny higher, gas futures had a negligible impacton cash. However, crude oil futures for December (November tradinghas already ended) rose more than 80 cents to settle comfortablyabove the $23/bbl level again.

Altough citygate rises were small at 1-3 cents, a Houston-basedproducer reported Midwest LDCs “buying like crazy for the weekend.”Chicago was slow at first in the upper $3.10s, he said, then “tookoff” around 10:20 CDT for the $3.20s.

It was still pretty warm in California, a marketer said, but notenough to keep western gas prices from slipping. She also notedthere would be almost no coal or nuclear plants still off-lineafter the weekend. Though it did not issue an OFO Friday, PG&Esaid it was expecting linepack to be at 200 MMcf above its targetlevel through Sunday.

One trader was hearing Questar being traded for November at$2.85, which would represent a jump of 51 cents from the Octoberindex. Another source reporting basis of minus 11 for Waha and plus1 for the Southern California border, concurred that barring aradical change this week, signs were pointing to index increases ofabout half a dollar.

A marketer citing Michigan citygate basis of plus 20.5-21 forNovember, said winter term basis (November-March) was more likeplus 24.5. Other physical basis quotes Friday included: Chicago atplus 16.25; Panhandle Eastern at minus 9; and NGPL-Midcontinent atminus 10. NGPL-Midcontinent was being bid at index plus 0.5, aproducer said. A western trader said she heard Sumas was going atfixed prices of $2.98-3.00.

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