Nearly all points were “flat to up a smidge” Tuesday, as onemarketer described it. But the consensus among sources was thatprices will be coming down hard today, based on the Nymex screen’sbig downturn Tuesday. In fact, the cash reversal had alreadystarted in Tuesday’s late trading as some pipes dropped as much asa nickel from their heights.

After starting out higher, TCO prices basically were followingthe screen down, a marketer said. “We were scratching our headsMonday wondering why futures was rising [then]. Now it’s headingback down to levels more to our liking.”

A Midcontinent source agreed there “could be a big plunge[today], but I’m not so sure with this heat” in the South. Electricutility operator Entergy was a big purchaser Tuesday on NorAm-eastat prices ranging from the low to mid $2.00s, he said.

Some of the larger gains occurred in the West, such as SanJuan-Blanco up more than a nickel into the low $1.60s, PG&Ecitygates up almost a dime to the mid $2.00s and Northwest-Sumasrising more than a dime to the low $1.40s. There wasn’t much demandfrom the California utilities, a trader told Daily GPI; rather itwas mostly the heat in east-of-California markets (Phoenix topped100 degrees) driving Southwest and border pricing.

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