Overall movement of cash prices was lower Monday, but there wereconsiderable differences among markets as to the degree ofdownturn. The Gulf Coast, Appalachia and Rockies barely budged withvery few points falling more than a penny or two. TheMidcontinent/Midwest tended to occupy the middle ground-fieldprices were only off 2-3 cents, but declines at marketarea-oriented points such as Northern Natural-demarc, NGPL AmarilloMainline and Chicago citygates were more like a nickel or greater.The biggest losses of around a dime occurred at Northeastcitygates.

The Southwest basins at first appeared to sustain only mildsoftening of 3-4 cents, a producer said, but cash numbers came offpretty hard in late trading. Both Permian and San Juan gas fellinto the low $2.00s after starting off trading on either side of$2.10, he said. There was definitely more price weakness than onFriday, the producer added, and he thinks it will carry over as”buyers will try to talk it down again” today.

A few sub-$2 quotes were showing up in the Rockies, but mostwere still above that level. “This market continues to astound me,”said one area trader. “I keep on expecting the Rockies to soften,but here we are again. It’s the middle of the month, there is noreal weather to speak of, and Rockies gas is the only gas tradingabove index.”

After watching Waha trade at a premium to Katy last week, amarketer was “pleasantly surprised” Monday to see Waha pricessliding while Katy retreated only a couple of pennies or so. Wahaprices are much more responsive to changes in demand, he said.

A Northeast source said market activity was still on the quietside even with the distraction of Houston Energy Expo no longer afactor. Not everybody had returned to the office yet, he said, andsome that have “still seem to have cobwebs in their heads” fromtheir week in Houston.

A big aggregator thinks it will be interesting to seeWednesday’s storage report. The large divergence between cash andfutures recently has prompted people to pull from storage and buynext-month gas, he said. But on Monday “we took a big step towardconvergence” with April futures making modest gains while prices atHenry Hub dipped into the $2.10s.

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