Eastern points followed up on Monday’s screen drop of 15-pluscents and subsequent milder softening Tuesday by falling 15 centsor more themselves yesterday. However, the West’s continuing heatwave kept Malin and Rockies pipes generally flat while otherCalifornia points and San Juan Basin were down only a nickel or so.

In addition to futures weakness, a delayed warm-up of the Northeastand Midwest market areas was contributing to lower cash numbers in theEast. A week ago the National Weather Service projected thattemperatures in the two regions would be much above normal by now (seeDaily GPI, Aug. 10). But a low-pressurearea hanging on stubbornly in the Northeast and severe rainstorms inthe Midwest are keeping weather cooler than expected. Even though theMidcontinent and Gulf Coast are feeling the heat, their prices alsoare depressed by the lack of cooling load in the North.

Tropical Storm Beryl remained a non-factor. It was downgraded toa tropical depression after moving inland early Tuesday morningnear La Pesca, Mexico, about 140 miles south of the southern tip ofTexas.

It had appeared Monday that Beryl was having no effect onoffshore production along the Texas Gulf Coast. However, forTuesday’s gas day MOPS (Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System),operated by Enron’s Northern Natural Gas, reported relatively minorsupply losses due to Beryl in the Mustang Island and MatagordaIsland areas. Five platforms with a total nominated volume (numbersrounded off) of 37,600 MMBtu/d were scheduled to zero, while asixth platform where 24,500 MMBtu/d had been nominated was reducedto 13,300 MMBtu/d.

A Gulf Coast producer found it rather paradoxical that futurestraders “made such a big deal about [Hurricane] Alberto last weekwhen it was well over 1,000 miles from the U.S. East Coast. Nowwe’ve actually had a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico and Nymexpaid it no mind.” He said his company had lost a little offshoresupply it was buying from another producer that errs on the side ofcaution in shutting in whenever a storm is around.

Western prices saw considerably less softness than in the Eastas intense heat in California and the desert Southwest kept powergeneration load high. The California Independent System Operatordeclared a Stage Two Electrical Emergency for the second day in arow, saying power supplies were limited with about 2,200 MW ofgeneration capacity, mostly in Southern California, unavailable dueto plant mechanical failures. The Stage Two notice asked thestate’s major electric utilities to shed about 1,200 MW ofinterruptible customer load.

San Juan quotes fell only a few cents, but Permian Basin andWaha were the rare western points joining the overall downturn ofmore than 15 cents. There was still pretty decent demand from Texaselectric utilities fighting sizzling heat in much of the state, amarketer said, but that was tempered by the southern part of Texasreceiving cooling rains from Beryl.

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