Most points experienced double-digit price declines Monday,depressed by lower energy futures and continuing mild weather inthe key Midwest and Northeast market areas.

The notable exceptions to general softness were the San Juan Basinand California, where a new siege of extreme heat similar to lastweek’s prompted the state’s Independent System Operator to issue PowerWatch and Stage One Electrical Emergency declarations (see related story in this issue). Malin and theSouthern California border were up only slightly, but San Juan numbersrose by nearly a dime and the PG&E citygate achieved a dime-plusincrease.

Heat in east-of-California markets was probably even moreresponsible for the San Juan upticks than California demand, alarge aggregator said. Typically east-of-California utilities don’tbaseload much gas each month because they rarely have any gas flowproblems in the Southwest, he said. “Thus in periods of extremeheat like the current one, they tend to buy significantly largevolumes of swing gas out of San Juan Basin.”

Waha was trading slightly above Katy Monday. Waha gas was beingpulled by cooling demand in three different directions, a marketersaid: the West, the Midcontinent and intrastate Texas. A largeTexas electric utility was a heavy buyer at Waha, he said.

Northeast temperatures are staying unusually mild for midsummer,a utility buyer in the region noted, so that and futures softnessshould keep cash prices falling for at least a while longer. Itfelt kind of odd to be typing a “3” again in the dollar place ofcitygate deals, he said. Texas Eastern M-3 and Transco Zone 6-NYCoffers began the day slightly above $4, “so I passed on thosebecause I could get [delivered] gas about a dime cheaper onTennessee and Iroquois.” He heard M-3 and Zone 6 numbers later fellinto the low to mid $3.90s, “but that wasn’t enough to tempt me.”

Westcoast’s Fort Nelson Plant was still not back to fullcapacity of more than 600 MMcf/d due to a 12-hour maintenanceproject expected to last until 8 p.m. MDT Monday, a marketer said.However, full volumes were being scheduled for today, and theincrease of supply on the market helped push Sumas prices below $3in some deals, she added. It was the first sub-$3 Sumas tradingsince mid-May. Northwest-domestic and other Rockies pipes alsoexperienced some quotes below $3 for the first time in many weeks.

The intra-Alberta market, known as probably the closestscreen-tracker around, was acting contrary to habit for some reasonMonday. Prices started the day at their low of C$3.80, according toone Calgary trader, but had risen to the low C$4.10s thatafternoon.

Sources continued to remark on physical basis shaping up as muchstronger than usual for August. Last Thursday a producer said he washearing basis offers at minus 5 for El Paso-Permian (see Daily GPI, July 21). Yesterday a marketer reportedeven tighter Permian basis of minus 4-3 and Waha basis at plus 1,while another trader quoted Malin basis at plus 19. Another sourcesaid she could think of no other explanation beyond the cash marketadjusting to a falling screen after futures had stayed above $4 for solong.

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