The Midwest snowstorm that gave such a lift to the first dailyprices of 1999 was being repeated to a lesser degree over theweekend and Monday, but this time there were no gains of 20 centsor more as a result. Instead, most of the cash market was flat todown as much as a dime Monday. Still-massive storage inventories,along with forecasts of warming weather in the North and a fallingscreen, were cited as reasons for the softness. Several sources described trading action as subdued.

The Southwest basins and California points were among the raremarkets achieving small gains, possibly due to several minormaintenance outages on the El Paso system this week (seeTransportation Notes).

Undoubtedly due to having the coldest market area around,Northern Natural Gas continued to command a premium at its demarcand Ventura points of about a dime over other Midcontinent pipes,said a marketer reporting Ventura in the low $1.90s and demarc inthe high $1.80s.

Both legs of Tennessee in Louisiana were relatively strong, saida couple of sources who had no explanation considering any pipelineconstraints were minor. A producer said Texas numbers were “offjust a tad, but still pretty strong for no weather” in the state.

A couple of sources expect little new market direction untilthis week’s AGA storage report. A marketer working the Northeastsaid storage activity has been strong there and he projected awithdrawal of 215-230 Bcf. One who trades the Midcontinent was abit more conservative, saying his company projected a figure oneither side of 200 Bcf at Monday strategy meeting.

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