A storage report considered bearish by most traders set thestage for softness in the cash market Thursday, then a plungingfutures screen virtually guaranteed cash declines. Sure enough,nearly every point fell between 5 and 8 cents. “We’re just tradingdown with the screen,” said a Western marketer.

The receding of this week’s big winter storm was also a factorin falling prices, a Midcontinent source said. And although a”nor’easter” is expected to show up this weekend, it will not bringweather as cold as earlier this week, he said. In addition, hisweather forecasting service predicts the storm will track south ofthe bid Midwestern markets, so he sees little chance of a reboundin cash prices today.

Another bearish note was sounded by two traders who said thelatest six-to-10-day forecast calls for widespread above-normaltemperatures next week.

Intra-Alberta numbers started the day almost flat at C$2.35 butfell steadily to the C$2.27 area, a Calgary source said.

A producer said the relatively small size of the storagewithdrawal figure (69 Bcf) was no surprise to her, but she’sexpecting a much bigger number next week due to this week’s storm.

A bankruptcy filing and subsequent cutoff of gas flows byKimball Resources (see story in this issue) was causing problemsfor the marketer’s sales customers. One trader said he was havingto buy much bigger volumes than usual at the Michigan citygates,where Kimball was a large player, to replace supplies he had beenreceiving from Kimball.

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