Despite a trend toward milder weather in virtually all regions,the great majority of the swing market was seeing flat to slightlyhigher prices Wednesday. Considering the weather and little supportfrom a moderately higher Nymex screen, it must have been cash-outprices that kept late-December quotes from continuing to fall, onesource suggested.

The glaring exception to overall mild firmness was in theNortheast. While most points in the region registered declines of25-40 cents, the formerly high-flying Transco Zone 6-NYC pool wasdiving by more than a dollar in extremely volatile trading thatdipped below $3 at the bottom end. Not only was New York-areaweather alleviating, but transportation constraints were easing up,said an aggregator who picked up a late package at an even $3.Transco’s IT boost that takes effect today wasn’t having mucheffect Tuesday but obviously made a difference yesterday, he said.

Transco said Wednesday afternoon it would keep IT availabilityat Linden (NJ) Regulator Station at 50,000 dth/d effective Jan. 1until further notice. Also, Tennessee said it plans to lift aservice seal on meters downstream of Station 325 (Libertyville, NJ)today.

Many of the early quotes for January indicate that indexes willrange from approximately flat at most western points to as much as30 cents higher in the Gulf Coast. Indexing was widespread forJanuary, especially since a substantial amount of business wasbeing done before Christmas.

A western trader was unable to detect any significant change inbasis from Tuesday. However, fixed prices were tending to rise afew pennies throughout the day Wednesday, he said, quoting theSouthern California border at $2.38-41, Permian and San Juan-Blancoflat to each other at $2.22-25 and Opal running about a pennyhigher than the two Southwest basins.

Basis ranges for January tended to be wider than in precedingmonths. A marketer reported Sumas basis at minus 10-4 duringbidweek, but said that was way down from as much as plus 20 in thesecond week of December.

Chicago citygate nominations to NIPSCO and Peoples were dueTuesday at 11:30 a.m. CST for both the rest of December and Januarybaseload, a marketer said. That caused a lot of basis and indexactivity to be done there, she said, and also contributed tocitygate strength. Only NI-Gas was still trading Wednesday, shesaid.

Although no futures trading is scheduled for either Friday orMonday, many cash traders have said they will be taking only one orthe other of those days off, not both. “We’ll be in for at leasthalf a day Friday, although we don’t expect to conduct any newbusiness,” an Oklahoma marketer said. Another trader said mostearly-January swing deals are being done through the 4th because ofthe varying holiday plans.

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