Wednesday’s cash market gains got even bigger Thursday asfutures continued to lend support. Virtually all gains were about aquarter or more, with the larger ones of more than 30 centsclustered mainly in the West. Malin led the pack by advancingslightly more than 40 cents.

It looked like weather fundamentals might be picking up in themarket as the Northeast market area was getting decidedly warmer.However, a cold front is due back in the region by this morning.

Zone 1 prices on Florida Gas Transmission saw about a dime’spremium over other South Texas points after the pipelineexperienced a line break south of Houston that caused the shut-inof upstream points (see Transportation Notes). Anyone who could getZone 1 gas to flow could almost name his price, a Houston-basedmarketer said. Since his Zone 1 nominations got taken to zero, heput the gas into storage instead. Texas utility load was lighterthan he thought it would be considering the state is experiencingtemperatures in the 90s.

“It was kind of fun watching the screen today,” a producerremarked. “They [Nymex traders] made four runs at the $4.60 mark,but pulled back each time it got close.” The entire energy futurescomplex was strong once again. The August crude oil contract (Julytrading closed out earlier this week at slightly over $33/bbl) rose82 cents to $32.19.

Intra-Alberta numbers started in the mid C$5.30s and went up tothe mid C$5.40s, but despite the futures strength were back downinto the mid to high C$5.20s in the afternoon “because nobodyneeded the gas,” a Calgary marketer said. The province is expectedto have “very mild weather this weekend,” he added.

A Rockies producer noted that for about four years his companyhad been offering multi-year fixed price contracts, mostly in the$1.20-40 range. With Rockies prices currently in the $3.80s, he’sglad that only one industrial customer took him up on the offer,paying $1.46 in a five-year deal. “That end-user is making lots ofmoney now getting super-cheap gas,” the producer said.

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