Prices responded accordingly Tuesday as just about everythingturned bullish for the spot gas market – chilly to very coldweather almost everywhere, rising futures in three importantcategories (gas, heating oil and crude oil), and expectations of alarge withdrawal volume in this afternoon’s storage report.

Swing quotes in most areas went up from about a nickel inCalifornia and the Rockies to about 20 cents in Appalachia, withGulf Coast and Midcontinent increases mostly in the neighborhood ofa dime. But it was time for the Northeast price roller-coaster tostart climbing again as triple-digit upticks dominated the scene.Transco Zone 6-NYC managed to see a few quadruple-digit quotes asit led the price pack with a top trade of $12.

Despite a snow and ice storm that was punishing much of the EastCoast, don’t expect any new sendout records by Northeastdistributors, said one utility buyer there. “It’s cold, but not ascold as last week. Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 17) was our coldest[day] of the winter so far,” he said. It will get colder towardsThursday and Friday, he added, but still not as cold as last week.Apparently the sharply rising Northeast citygates eventually metsome buyer resistance because they were retreating late in themorning, he said.

Another utility in the region said all IT customers that hadbeen curtailed last week were receiving full service again. Demandis strong, but no IT has been cut and the situation is fairlynormal for this time of year, a spokesman said.

Tennessee Line 500 recorded some of the stronger numbers in theGulf Coast, and a producer thought that was due to the prolongedspell of cold weather in the Northeast. “Even though it’s not ascold as last week there,” she said, “the sustained cold is startingto affect the production-area market more, and that New Englanddemand is helping to push Tennessee higher.”

Another Gulf Coast producer said deliverability tightness due toless drilling in the last couple of years also is having moreimpact. “We’re starting to really feel the loss of production moreand more every month,” he said. “As a result, we’re buying more andmore third-party gas, and that is hurting our bottom line.”

West Texas gas continues to go mostly eastward and northward tothe Gulf Coast and Midcontinent, according to a marketer. In fact,Northern Natural-demarc price rises were actually being held incheck by available supplies traveling north on the pipeline fromWaha, he said. “Demarc started as high as $2.64 but came off to a$2.57 late to trade less than a dime above Northern at Waha.” ARockies trader thought a lot of gas there was also heading east tothe Midcontinent.

Although OGT prices stayed on par with those of neighboringMidcontinent pipes, demand was much heavier than usual fromOklahoma utilities because today’s high temperatures in the statearen’t even expected to reach freezing, one marketer said.

Although intra-Alberta numbers rose almost a dime into the lowC$3.00s based largely on the screen run-up, the related Kingsgate,Sumas and Stanfield points were about the only ones to registerlittle better than flat Tuesday. Temperatures were normal for thistime of year in Alberta, but a Calgary marketer was seeing moreprovincial demand than before after NOVA returned tolerance rangesto normal as system packing ceased.

February bidweek started with an emphasis on indexed deals andnot as much basis trading, with very little in the way of fixedprices happening, a Midcontinent marketer said. Basis volatilityover the past few days has knocked a lot of brokers out of themarketer, he believes. “If you weren’t already long or short, the[basis] market was moving too fast to get in and get out withoutbeing slammed,” the marketer said.

Here is a sampling of Tuesday’s basis quotes: San Juan-Blancominus 17-18; Permian minus 16; Waha minus 11; Reliant-east minus 9;Panhandle Eastern minus 10.5-9.5; ANR Southwest minus 9.5-9; NGPLMidcontinent minus 12.5-12; Chicago plus 9.5-10; Consumers Powerplus 9; MichCon plus 7.5; Houston Ship Channel minus 2-1.5; ANRSoutheast minus 5; Columbia Gulf-onshore minus 2.25; TexasEastern-East LA minus 3.5; TGT Zone SL minus 1.25; andTrunkline-East LA minus 4. Transco Station 65 at plus 1.5 was theonly Gulf point with a plus basis reading, a producer said.

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