Cash numbers remained in their early-March climbing modeThursday, with advances of about a nickel to more than a dimeclosely mirroring those of the day before. However, a majordifference on Thursday was that western upticks tended to besmallest. The larger increases were mostly in eastern markets.

Although it eventually settled at a loss, the screen’s earlysurge into the mid $2.80s gave cash some impetus to follow ithigher, sources said. And though the weather is still not terriblycold in the major market areas of the Midwest and Northeast, it hascooled off enough there from recent days that heating load ispicking up somewhat, they said. Also, a marketer commented, “we’restill seeing the effects of people who came into March with shortsupply positions.”

But despite those factors, one trader said about the only reasonhe could figure for current price strength was “building demand forApril-November storage injections, and some people apparently wantto get an early jump on it during March.”

A western aggregator said he saw maybe a “hint” of weakeninglate but only by a penny or two. Other areas also were softening abit after strong starts, although one Gulf Coast source reportedexperiencing something of an “up-down-up bounce” in his deals.

The Gulf Coast market was starting to fall back aboutmid-morning under the weight of a glut of intrastate Louisiana gasthat has been “parked” since Wednesday, a marketer said. Dependingon the arrangement with any individual pipeline, a shipper may parkgas for a couple of days or so but eventually it’s going to have togo somewhere, whether it’s storage or a burnertip, he explained.Looking ahead to today’s trading, he expects excess gas to becomeeven more prevalent due to the usual diminished weekend load.

A Conoco processing plant in San Juan Basin returned to serviceThursday, and its addition of supplies into the market probablyaccounted for San Juan prices seeing some of the day’s smallestgains, a marketer said. Both Permian and San Juan numbers weretailing off late but the Southern California border “hung inthere,” he said, making the basin-border spread widen a bit towardthe end of trading.

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