Except for the still-falling Northeast, Tuesday’s developingmarket plunge came to a complete halt Wednesday and even reverseddirection at several Midcontinent and western points.

Quotes were flat to slightly higher in most cases, with thelarger upticks of a nickel or more tending to cluster in theRockies/Southwest and the demarc and Ventura points of NorthernNatural Gas, whose Upper Midwest market area was experiencing thecoldest temperatures in the U.S. Sources attributed the market’sleveling off following Tuesday’s plunges mostly to a moderaterebound in gas futures, but a couple noted that crude oil andheating oil futures were also on the rise again, and one gavecredit to “just a little bit of weather.”

Northeast citygates dropped by double-digit figures, but thatrepresented a slowdown from Tuesday’s much larger decreases. Theircontinued fall prompted one marketer to comment that the Northeastmarket is “slowly but surely returning to normal.”

Though issued too late to affect Wednesday’s trading, AGA’safternoon storage report held out the potential that the cashmini-rally could continue today. Most sources considered thewithdrawal figure of 213 Bcf during a period when winter stormactivity was dwindling at least moderately bullish; “our guys wereexpecting a little under 160 Bcf,” one said.

However, the National Weather Service threw some bearish wateron the tentative rekindling of gas price flames. Its latest six- to10-day forecast called for normal to above-normal temperatures overthe vast majority of the U.S., with much-above-normal temps due inall of Texas and the southern half of Oklahoma. The only areaexpected to see below-normal cold was a thin, mostly sparselypopulated strip below the Canadian border from Washington throughMichigan’s Upper Peninsula.

A marketer suspected the relatively greater price strength inthe West to be at least partially due to Southern California Gasstepping up purchases. “Usually when prices get below index [asthey just barely did Tuesday], SoCal then becomes a big buyer,” hesaid. He also cited upcoming maintenance on El Paso that might havehad utilities buying extra gas for storage in advance.

There were reports floating around that the Clay Basin storagefacility might start restricting withdrawals as early as today.Operator Questar confirmed water problems in the line at Clay Basinthat were a source of concern for Northwest Pipeline, but said nomaintenance allocations have been scheduled yet.

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