Prices continued to rise Thursday in trading for both lateFebruary and March. It was mostly a response to the screen’sbelated run-up Wednesday, sources said, but there was enoughblizzard-like weather spreading out from the Upper Plains region togive prices a little extra boost.

As many had expected, the slowdown of March cash trading duringthe Nymex outage combined with the futures run-up in thefast-finish climax to inject more volatility into bidweek trading.A number of traders found their ranges at individual pointsstarting to hit double digits Thursday, and in all cases they saidthe low ends were early in the week and the high ends occurredyesterday.

There are still a number of utilities declining to buy anybaseload for March, preferring to “swing it,” as one said. ASoutheastern LDC commented, “With storage and weather in theircurrent state, we sat on our hands. We are not buyers at these highprices relative to the bearish fundamental picture.”

In its maiden run as an index, the PG&E Citygate had movedinto the $2.40s Wednesday and Thursday, but many figures have beencloser to the mid $2.30s. Several traders reported PG&ECitygates being done at Malin Index plus a sizable premium orSouthern California border index plus a small premium. A marketersaid he was seeing the Malin-to-citygate basis averaging 40-41cents in a range of 35-47 cents.

A producer provided an early hint on aftermarket direction (orlack thereof) with deals done Thursday for March 1-2 at prices ator just under bidweek averages.

A utility buyer, asked whether he had gone long or short forMarch, replied, “We prefer to think of it as ‘just right.'” Then heconceded he was maybe “a little” short.

One source finds basis spread of about 30 cents between SanJuan-Blanco and the Southern California border interesting. Thatgap is a pretty big number, he said, adding “We are looking to sellthat spread, then buy it back in March after it has narrowed backdown.”

Another trader looks for California border numbers to slumpduring March due to expected displacement of electric generationdemand by hydropower. He has already seen one Southwestern utilitysell its transportation rights for March, indicating it would shutdown a couple of gas-fired plants in favor of cheaper hydro.

Late-February activity was fading out since many packages hadalready been based up late last week or early this week. Those whowere still trading for today and/or Saturday found prices up acrossthe board, mostly within the range of 2-5 cents. The Rockies cameclosest to flatness, while Sumas had recovered to the mid $1.20safter trading in the low to mid $1.10s earlier this week. SouthernCalifornia border quotes also saw strong gains, rising a littleover a nickel to the $2.40 area. One source said border prices ran”on a bit of market hype” created with the San Onofre nuclear planttaking down one unit but restarting another. Also, upticks in theSouthwest basins lent support to border numbers, he said, althoughin recent months the border and basins have not always moved intandem.

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