The bloom was off the Northeast price rose Friday as weekendcitygate quotes began plunging back to earth. The non-Northeastmarket ranged from flat to a little more than a nickel higher.

Although prices set new peaks of $20 at Transco Zone 6-NYC andthe Algonquin citygate in the early going, it was a fast downhillslide for all Northeast deliveries from there. Zone 6-NYC got aslow as $4 in late trading, although it still averaged nearly $10.The rapid plunge created hypervolatility there and at otherregional points.

A Northeast utility buyer said he was making spot purchases forSaturday only. “Our local forecasters say it will stay coldSaturday but warm up on Sunday and Monday,” he said. “So we thinkwe’ll be able to get by after Saturday on term gas and storage.”

A few sources had been saying earlier in the week their privateforecasters disagreed with the National Weather Service’sprojections of above normal temperatures in the East this week.However, the big cash drops in the Northeast, along with thescreen’s dive of about 20 cents after starting higher in the low$2.60s, apparently showed that the market had decided to go withthe NWS viewpoint Friday, an aggregator said.

A marketer reported a mini-spike at Columbia Gas of Ohiocitygates. He said he had sold at $5.25 but talked with someoneelse quoting an $8 citygate. Restrictions on Columbia GasTransmission were the chief cause of the rise, the marketer said.”TCO pool gas was plentiful, but getting it to the gate wasdifficult without firm transport.” CNG’s North Point has beentrading considerably higher than the South Point for much the samereason, he went on. “South Point gas can’t get past CNG’s ValleyGate bottleneck into the Northeast unless it’s going firm.”

There was very little utility load in Texas, a marketer said,but there were still some worthwhile storage plays around theHouston Ship Channel.

San Juan Basin prices were up a couple of cents for the day butdropping as trading proceeded because of very little demand inCalifornia, a marketer said. He figured Friday’s San Juan-borderspread would just barely cover variable transportation costs ofabout 12.5-13 cents. Williams Field Services is reducing availableSan Juan supplies a bit due to maintenance on one of the fiveprocessing trains at its Milagro Plant in Blanco, NM. Normal plantcapacity is 640 MMcf/d and the maintenance, expected to lastthrough Wednesday, is affecting 50 MMcf/d, WFS said.

San Juan basis for February is minus 17.5-16.5, according to onemarketer. He was doing February index deals for minus 1.5-1 at theSouthern California border and for plus 0.75-1 on Rockies pipes ingeneral.

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