Except for moderate firmness for intra-Alberta and Rockiespoints Monday, the cash market tended to stay on the downward slopethat had developed Friday. However, Monday’s declines were smallerthan those for the weekend, ranging mostly between a nickel and adime.

It was easy to see why most pipes kept losing price ground,sources said. Natural gas and crude/heating oil futures were downbig-time, and mild temperatures continue to dominate the weatherpicture. “We’re getting a little bit of heating load at night,”said a trader in the Upper Midwest, but overall he peggedweather-related demand as neutral to slightly bearish.

One marketer said he couldn’t find much utility load in Texas,but with Waha prices creeping up during the day, he found itfeasible to ship gas from Katy to Waha with California as itsultimate destination. Another trader also found some Waha numbersabove those at Katy, and at a backhaul rate of about 2-3 cents onOasis he also was moving gas east-to-west across Texas.

A western source saw steady buying demand from Californiautilities, saying they preferred to buy day gas in the high $5.60s,rather than November supply at $5.52-635. “With index swaps tradingat plus 10.5-12 at Topock, that puts next-month gas well abovecurrent swing prices,” he said.

Northwest-domestic (up) and Sumas (down) moved in oppositedirections by about a dime or so, bringing the two points backessentially to parity. They had traded slightly more than a dollarapart less than a month ago (see Daily GPI, Sept. 25).

The intra-Alberta market, usually a close tracker of the screen,was in a contrary mood Monday and rose to the C$6.90 area, aCalgary trader said. That was due to NOVA linepack being low andshippers drafting the system, he added. He was a bit puzzled aboutthe low linepack, saying there was “good golfing weather” aroundCalgary and little heating load of any consequence, but concludingthere might have been some storage demand to make up thedifference.

A low-pressure area about halfway between Bermuda and thenorthern Bahamas possibly could become a tropical depression ortropical storm by today, the National Weather Service said Mondayafternoon.

©Copyright 2000 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.