Prices soared everywhere Friday except in Northern California asmore bullish weather forecasts and current conditions, along with asecond straight day of rising futures, propped up what had been arecently sagging cash market. Nearly all gains were within therange of 50-90 cents.

Malin and the PG&E citygate stood out from the overallmarket with large declines as the utility projected system linepackaround the middle of its target range of 4.0-4.5 Bcf through theweekend. The Southern California border, however, rose a littlemore than half a dollar as traders anticipated that a SoCal Gasswitch to 90% daily balancing requirements is possible as early asthis week. A SoCal spokeswoman said the giant LDC’s storageinventory stood at 29.2 Bcf as of Jan. 30, and 90% balancing willbe triggered at the end of the five-day period in which it falls to25 Bcf.

Although it later retreated from a high of $6.93, the screen didregister an advance of a little more than 36 cents on the day. Thecrude oil and heating oil futures contracts for March also made biggains, with crude surpassing $31/bbl in volatile trading.

A Midcontinent-area marketer said reports Thursday of an AVNweather model projecting the approach to North America of a Siberianair mass later this week (see Daily GPI,Feb. 2) are “consistent with what we’re hearing from our privateconsultants about a mid-month shift back to December-type weather.”

A Calgary trader displayed some skepticism, though, saying,”I’ll believe that Siberian front when I see it.”

Despite the general weekend price strength, a western sourcemixed her metaphors somewhat in saying “everything was tanking likea rock” in late deals. She traded El Paso-Permian early in the high$6.70s but said later numbers plunged into the $6.30s and $6.40s.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.