The cash market continued to eke out small gains Tuesday inquiet activity that was starting to remind some of last month’sgeneral lack of volatility. New averages ranged from flat to abouta nickel higher, with the varying increases scattered throughoutthe producing and market areas.

A marketer attributed Midcontinent firming both to Monday’sscreen strength and to colder weather moving in. Some weather wasalready showing up in the Northern Natural Gas market area, hesaid, causing demarcation point prices in the low $1.60s to leadother Midcontinent points by almost a nickel. Healthy demand wasshowing up in areas served by LDC Minnegasco, the marketer said; inaddition, some people were short-covering.

Early March prices may feel fairly firm because of how low theyhad gotten, one trader told Daily GPI, “but we still see somedownside left as the market gets set to flush out short positions.”There’s too much gas in the ground [storage], he said, but peoplemight as well buy new production at these low prices instead ofusing storage.

Sumas and intra-Alberta numbers tended to move up in unison,sort of feeding on each other’s strength, a Calgary source said.Alberta field receipts are down and some plant maintenance is duein the province by the weekend, she added. Northwest’s recentrupture has already faded into the background as mostly a non-eventin the market, she said.

A trader whose $1.60 Kingsgate pricing was only 4 cents underthe prevailing average at Malin said such a small differentialmeant a shipper of Alberta gas to California essentially was justbarely recovering fuel rates and otherwise having to eat demand andother transport charges.

A marketer hopes March “isn’t a doldrums market again. Icouldn’t take another month of that,” referring back to February.

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