Prices usually spend Mondays recovering at least partially fromthe declines of the previous Friday. Yesterday was a reversal formost eastern points-they were giving back some of the gains thathad been realized Friday. The East tended to range from flat todown as much as a dime or more on a few Gulf Coast pipes.Trunkline’s two Louisiana pools were especially weak.

Once again it was a quite different market in the West. TheRockies and Permian Basin were flat to slightly higher, and thethree points that fell slightly Friday in the face of an overallfirmer market (San Juan Basin, Southern California border andPG&E citygate) saw Monday’s biggest increases of a dime or so.Power generation demand remains fairly strong in the West, amarketer said, since not only does PG&E have one of the two1,100-megawatt units at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant down for 30days of refueling, but hydropower availability is significantlyless than it was earlier this year.

Atlantic tropical storm activity remains light, but forecasterswere monitoring a tropical wave west of Florida and a tropical lowin Mexico’s Bay of Campeche.

Several sources reported having cleared out their swingpositions for the rest of September in order to concentrate onbidweek. A Gulf Coast producer who had done that said so far he wasmaking October sales flat to index; “we can’t find any premiums,”he added.

Other traders agreed that the October market is looking soft dueto the low demand of a shoulder market and lots of gas being put upfor grabs. “It’s awfully quiet out there,” said a Midcontinentmarketer, noting that a flat futures screen “didn’t give anydirection to a market that sorely needs it.” But on the producers’side, they can stand to be patient, the marketer went on. Even ifprices drop and they have to sell $2.30 gas in the Midcontinent,”it will still be much better than last year’s $1.80 gas,” he said.”In that sense, prices are strong.”

Midwestern citygate basis got a bit weaker, said a sourcereporting that MichCon basis of plus 9 on Friday was down to plus 7Monday. He also said Consumers Power and Chicago deliveries fellabout a penny to plus 6-7 and plus 5-6 respectively. He and anothertrader agreed on minus 13-11 basis ranges for most Midcontinentpipes, while one pegged Northern Natural’s demarcation point atminus 9. However, another source said demarc basis was minus 8-7.

Here is a sampling of other basis reports Monday: Texas EasternM-3, plus 21.5-21.75; Transco Zone 6 (non-New York City), plus21.5; Transco Zone 6-NYC, plus 22-25; Tennessee Zone 1 (both 500and 800 legs), minus 8; Texas Eastern-East LA, minus 9-7.75;Tetco-West LA, minus 8.75; Tetco-South TX, minus 11.25; TGT ZoneSL, minus 3; Transco Station 65, minus 1.5; Columbia Gulf-onshore,minus 4; Waha, minus 13-12.5; El Paso-Permian, minus 16; andSouthern California border, plus 10.

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