Cash prices continued climbing by another nickel or more at mostpoints Wednesday, but traders sensed the market might have peakedfor the first week of the May aftermarket. They cited late dealsbeing done several cents below the early-morning highs. And the AGAstorage report of 34 Bcf in injections last week, although it cametoo late to affect Wednesday’s cash business, was regarded by manyas contributing to a more bearish mood. One source characterizedthe figure as “kind of middle of the road” (because it met theexpectations of many) but leaning slightly to the bearish side. Heand others noted the drop in Access futures prices after the reportcame out.

Unlike Tuesday, when people could point to a screen rise as themain rationale for firming cash numbers, the Nymex trading pit wasproviding no clues Wednesday, remaining unchanged during regularsession action. Fundamentals remained virtually nonexistent; “thereare no big pipe constraints or significant weather anywhere,” aNortheast-oriented marketer said. “This [cash] market seems to havea mind of its own.”

That may have been true for her region, but a Southwest tradersaid a scheduled outage today of Transwestern’s La Plata CompressorStation on the Ignacio-to-Blanco segment helped push up San JuanBasin numbers about a dime into the mid $2.00s. The work will cutabout 500,000 MMBtu of supply for today only at theNorthwest/Ignacio, Williams/Ignacio and Amoco Florida points.Northwest-domestic prices performed similarly to those for SanJuan.

One marketer reported mid- to high-$2.40s numbers at Niagara,about 8 cents less than her Transco Zone 6-NYC deal at $2.56. Shesaid she can buy relatively cheap gas at Niagara and economicallytransport it via National Fuel Gas to Leidy (PA) and from there toZone 6 via Transco, even with two pipeline tolls to pay.

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