The cash market, which had been fairly consistent in overallprice movement for most of last week, went into the weekendstarting to diverge on an East-West axis. While Friday’s mix ofgains and losses amounted to a generally flat wash, Eastern pointstended to be flat to about a nickel higher, and their Westerncounterparts tended to range from flat to about a nickel lower.

A strong performance by the Henry Hub futures contract (upnearly a dime) gave some support to cash, although a westernmarketer said most of the screen rise came after he had finishedtrading. A Gulf Coast producer had this viewpoint Friday afternoon:”We’re watching that screen run up, [and] watching those people whoare short on physical gas getting a little panicky.”

Other sources agreed that swing prices were unexpectedly firmduring the first week of March largely due to traders who enteredthe month with short supply positions. “Now they have to buy,” saidone source who suspects several of the larger marketers are amongthe shorts.

It’s hardly surprising that western numbers tended to be off alittle, according to a marketer. The San Onofre nuclear plant isback on-line, and the West Coast’s electric utilities “arewallowing in hydropower,” she said.

Sumas pricing was getting back to normal as traders anticipatedNorthwest Pipeline restoring its mainline link around a rupturesite in Washington state over the weekend, one source said. Sumasbegan the day only a little lower in the high $1.50s, but amarketer saw numbers there drop steadily to the mid to high $1.40sin his last couple of deals.

“It doesn’t matter that storage is at an all-time high [for thispoint in the year],” said a trader at several Texas points. “Ifanybody has any [storage] space, now is the time to buy gas.”

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