It seemed that virtually everyone in the gas trading communitywas glad to bid a not-so-fond farewell to a September fraught withhurricane hassles and get on with an October in which theaftermarket is starting out very strongly. Swing deals being doneWednesday for today’s flow generally ranged from 10 to 20 centsabove bidweek averages. Late quotes for October baseload also wererebounding after most points had sunk steadily to the bottom end oftheir ranges.

Sources had various explanations for October’s initially higherswing prices. The run-up in the November futures contract was anobvious factor. That should help keep incremental numbers higherfor at least a few more days, a marketer said.

And after weeks of talking about a lack of weather fundamentals,traders finally had some real weather to discuss. A Canadian coldfront was spreading southward and was expected to dominate most ofthe eastern two-thirds of the U.S. by today. It probably wouldn’tdo much more than bring sweaters out of the closet from theMidcontinent and Middle Atlantic south, one source observed, “butit might actually have Granny cranking up her furnace inMinnesota.” That would be a welcome change from September’s steadystream of hurricanes, he added.

Speaking of hurricanes, their lingering aftereffects also playeda part in the rising cash market. Gulf pipes with offshoreconnections were in various stages of recovery Wednesday fromGeorges-related production outages, with those toward the easternGulf finding the process slowest. All coastal tropical stormwarnings had been discontinued. But Destin, being a relatively newline, remained totally shut in, according to operator Sonat. Andone trader reported hearing of nominations from the TexasEastern-East LA pool being cut substantially due to lack ofsupplies on the pipe’s Venice System. A Duke Energy spokesmanconfirmed that the Venice System was flowing only “a little bit”Wednesday.

In the West, it was generally late-developing supply squeezescausing buyers to pay up in last-minute October bidweek deals and1st-only trading, a large aggregator said. Intra-Alberta quotesskyrocketed to as high as C$2.70 due to field receipts running300-400 MMcf/d short and exports to the East through Empress risingfrom 6.1 Bcf/d to 6.5 Bcf/d, another trader said.

“September has been a tough one on us all storm-wise,” amarketer commented. He thinks it will take a long time for peopleto account for their supply fluctuations throughout the month.

©Copyright 1998 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.