A revised National Weather Service forecast, expanding theprediction of below normal temperatures for the Christmas weekendto the entire United States except for the sparsely populated UpperPlains, kept most prices from softening Friday, as some hadanticipated. Except for the still-most-expensive West Coast market,all other points realized gains from about a dime (San Juan Basin)to a little more than 50 cents (Northern Natural Gas market area).

“It looks like producers will be having a green Christmas”revenue-wise, jested a marketer.

Despite a futures advance of nearly a dollar, the cash rallycertainly was not a case of following the screen, one traderinsisted, because most cash deals had been completed by the timethe January natural gas contract made most of its move upward. Infact, he said, it was more a case of the screen “following thecash.”

Most sources agreed that the new forecast was pretty much thesole explanation for rising prices, but one also suggested thatboth cash and futures traders were having second thoughts about howserious the impact of this week’s storage report might be. AGA isexpected to report one of the larger weekly withdrawals ever, dueto the widespread nature of last week’s arctic front.

Gulf Coast and Midcontinent/Midwest traders reported mild spikesin late deals, mostly in response to the screen’s big uptick.Chicago citygates got an extra boost from tight supplies in WesternCanada, where NOVA tightened imbalance tolerances to preventdrafting of the system, a marketer said.

Only Kingsgate among the California/Pacific Northwest pointsjoined in the overall bull market, and Kingsgate’s rise also mightalso have been related to the intra-Alberta tightness, a producersaid. The others were led downward by a drop of slightly more thana dollar at the Southern California border. Despite theirsoftening, the West Coast points remained the only ones recordingtheir average prices in four digits.

After 12 straight days of beginning each morning with at least aStage One Electrical Emergency in place, the Cal-ISO thought itworth declaring to the world that an alert was not necessary Fridaymorning. However, it saw a possibility of having to issue one thatafternoon.

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