Noticing continued futures strength and a growing threat of newstorm shut-ins in the Gulf of Mexico, cash prices built onTuesday’s gains with even bigger ones Wednesday. Increases oneither side of 20 cents were common at nearly all points. TheCalifornia market, far removed from Gulf storm influence, sawsmaller gains of about a dime, although a Malin rise of 13 centsnearly fulfilled one source’s prediction of up 20 cents there (seeDaily GPI, Sept. 16) based on Tuesday’s intra-Alberta pricestrength.

Wednesday marked the first day in almost two months for HenryHub to trade solidly above $2; the Hub had a $2.04-12 range on July21. (It was still averaging $2.00-even on July 22, but quotes thatday dropped as low as $1.97.) Since then Henry has dropped to a lowaverage of $1.56 (range $1.50-72) on Aug. 31 before strugglingupward again.

However, the bullishness that some traders are starting to feelwas tempered by an AGA storage injections report of 70 Bcf, wellabove most expectations. However, an aggregator regarded the figureas “somewhat of a correction” from last week’s 35 Bcf, “which Ididn’t really believe.”

Some platform evacuations of “non-essentials” were already underway Wednesday as a tropical disturbance developed in theeast-central Gulf. Chevron said it was taking ashore non-essentialpersonnel throughout the Gulf and probably would be evacuating someplatforms entirely starting today. “We have about 1,600 offshoreworkers,” a spokesman said, and can’t afford to delay evacuationsbecause there’s not enough equipment to handle all of them in ashort time.

A producer said she was getting early warnings Wednesday fromthird-party suppliers who feared they would be losing gas thisweekend.

The National Weather Service said the latest data from an AirForce reconnaissance plane indicated the disturbance had not yetdeveloped “closed circulation,” but the plane recorded tropicalstorm-force winds at flight level in the northeastern portion ofthe system. Development conditions remained favorable and thesystem could be upgraded to a tropical depression or directly toTropical Storm Hermine soon, NWS said.

Tropical Storm Georges was still in the eastern Atlantic and aremote threat to the U.S., although the NWS “official intensityforecast” called for gradual strengthening that could make Georgesa 70-knot hurricane within 72 hours.

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