The week opened with swing price increases Monday that werealmost uniformly in the vicinity of a nickel but were more like adime or so for the Northeast, Appalachia, PG&E citygate andintra-Alberta, but only a couple of pennies for Kern River andNorthwest in the Rockies.

A sizeable rise of more than 6 cents in the May futures contractgot most of the credit for the swing cash upticks. There also wassupport from northern temperatures that are below seasonal norms,one trader said, but they’re not cold enough to generate anythingmore than moderate heating load.

A lot of the Midcontinent pipes were trading tightly within the$2.95-3.00 range, according to a marketer. Waha prices were nudgingabove the $3 level again, he said, as they got a boost from someintrastate Texas air conditioning load, “but not all that much.”All gas in the West that can do so is flowing eastward, themarketer said, “because there’s almost no demand in westernmarkets.”

Another source reported prices tending to weaken in the West andMidcontinent as the morning wore on, citing Northern Natural-demarcnumbers that started in the mid $3.00s but wound up more than adime lower. However, Henry Hub and most eastern pipes managed tohold their price positions fairly well, he said.

A marketer said some sort of “problem” out West caused a floodof gas to become available late in the morning at NorthernNatural-demarc and Waha. However, he was not sure what the”problem” was.

Things were a bit slow for Canadian traders due to the nation’sEaster Monday holiday; however, one Calgary source estimated onlyabout 25% of gas traders were taking off for the holiday.Intra-Alberta numbers were up about C10 cents after NOVA restoreddaily imbalance tolerances Sunday to the normal +10%/-10% afterhaving tightened them to +2%/-18% prior to the weekend due to highlinepack.

Bidweek got off to its usual slow start with few deals beingdone that weren’t indexed or basis. However, the May market isshaping up as a strong one going by the screen’s strength and basisranges, several traders said.

Physical basis at the Southern California border has weakenedconsiderably since the April bidweek when quotes ranged from plus 2to plus 7.5, a marketer noted. By contrast, he was doing borderbasis deals Monday at minus 7. That primarily reflects the factthat it’s a low-demand period in the Golden State, he added, andthat hydropower is fairly abundant in the West this spring.

Other May basis numbers reported by Daily GPI sources Mondayincluded: CNG plus 20-21; Columbia-Appalachia plus 17-18; TranscoZone 6 (New York City) plus 30-32; Texas Eastern M-3 plus 28-29;Transco Zone 6 (non-NYC) plus 28-29; Northwest domestic minus 35;Waha minus 12.5-11; San Juan-Blanco minus 30-29; Permian Basinminus 20.5-18; Houston Ship Channel plus 2-4; and Katy flat to plus0.25.

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