There was to be no rebound Tuesday from holiday weekendsoftness. In fact, price drops got much larger than those on thepreceding Friday. The range of declines was delineated by Stanfielddown only about 15 cents and the California border falling morethan a dollar. Drops ranged about 20 cents to either side of 50cents at a large majority of other points.

A winter blast in parts of the Rockies and southern Plains and amodest cooling off in the Midwest were no match for the streak ofunseasonably mild weather that continued unabated in most otherregions. More screen weakness also was a drag on cash prices,sources noted, as was the expectation of a relatively small storagewithdrawal figure this afternoon by AGA. They reasoned thatbelow-index pricing for much of last week combined with fairlybenign weather demand for this time of year to produce some refillinjections.

For eastern traders, the market continued at the generally quietpace that has characterized it in the new year. There was no needfor a weekend shut-in of Sonat supplies behind processing plants atToca, LA (see Transportation Notes).

But things were still hopping in the wild, wild West. Californiawas at it again with a Stage Three Electrical Emergency, but norolling blackouts were in effect as of press time. In itsannouncement Cal-ISO noted that gas curtailments in the San DiegoGas & Electric service area led to the “derating” of a majorpower generator, cutting supplies by 800 MW as the generator’sthree units converted to oil.

A Sempra Energy spokesman said SDG&E was experiencing recordgas demand and had curtailed two power generators and sixcommercial firms through noon PST today. The impact was about 5MMcf/hour (or 120 MMcf/d) in total for all eight customers, hesaid.

Questar Pipeline confirmed it had begun compressor-drivenwithdrawals from Clay Basin storage at 11 a.m. MST Tuesday. Amarketer said it was too early to be planning any respone topotential resulting liquids problems at Northwest’s Green River(WY) Station. Northwest basis for February got tighter (lessnegative) for a while Tuesday, probably in response to the ClayBasin action, he said, but then the basis widened out again.

One source said he couldn’t help but wonder why Enron, throughits EnronOnline electronic trading service, bought a “whole lot” ofSoCal border gas in baseload transactions in a range of$11.00-12.50. The border was first offered at $10.50-11.00, hesaid, but gained about a dollar or so largely as a result ofEnron’s purchases. His only guess was that Enron might be bettingon SoCal Edison/PG&E bankruptcies and was stockpiling gas tosell after it would be better assured of getting paid.

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