It had appeared Thursday the tumble back down for cash pricesmight get just as steep as the climb upward had been earlier lastweek. But in Friday’s trading for the weekend, the downward slopegot considerably gentler as few points other than the Southwestbasins fell more than a nickel, and many declines were milder thanthat. In fact, Northern Natural’s demarc and Ventura points sawsmall upticks due to freezing temperatures in parts of the pipe’smarket area, and Chicago citygates also rose, probably fromforecasts of the Upper Plains chill moving eastward.
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Northern California Escapes Overall Price Plunge
Until a major sell-off came Friday, it appeared that priceswould realize fairly substantial week-to-week increases, thankslargely to double-digit gains that started the week off lastMonday. But Friday declines that constituted almost a mirror-imagereversal of Monday’s upticks left most points flat to just a fewcents above week-earlier levels. Northern California (Malin andPG&E citygate) showed the most strength, rising almost a dimeabove the previous Friday.
Near-Month October Debuts With Strong Up-Tick
October Henry Hub futures appeared likely to continue lastweek’s downward correction early yesterday in its debut as the newnear-month contract. It opened down nearly 4 cents and took anearly step backward to $2.860, but local buying prompted an11.5-cent intra-day surge to a high of $2.975. The contract settledat $2.969, up 4.7 cents on the day, and the relatively strongup-tick continued during the after-hours Access trading session,with October inching up 1.6 cents to $2.985 as of 6:30 p.m.
Tropical Wave Arouses Stir in Otherwise Quiet Market
Tuesday’s trading appeared to bear out one Daily GPI source’spredictions Monday of generally stagnant pricing for the rest ofthis week. Eastern numbers formed almost a mirror image of theprevious day’s pattern. Instead of being flat to a little higher,they were flat to a little lower. And prices in the West, which hadbeen busy recovering lost weekend ground Monday, joined inTuesday’s overall flat-to-lower trend with the exception of smallgains at the PG&E citygate and a couple of Rockies locations.
Critics: Transwestern Order ‘Inconsistent’
In what appeared to be an unremarkable decision, FERC this weekrejected a proposal that would have allowed Transwestern Pipelineto negotiate and share in the revenues that shippers would receivefor releasing capacity on its system. But the ruling piqued theinterest of some, especially shippers that were caught in acapacity squeeze when Dynegy Inc. contracted for much of thecapacity on El Paso Natural Gas.
May Prices See Little Movement; Swing a Bit Softer
As trading for next month picked up some momentum Wednesday, theMay market appeared to be developing with less volatility than inprevious bidweeks this year. One marketer reported Chicago citygatedeals Wednesday in the exact same $2.36-39 range as he had tradedTuesday. Many other points also were reported to be staying closeto their starting levels. However, a couple of sources reportedSouthern California border numbers falling slightly to $2.22-24from the mid-$2.20s., while a marketer said Sumas was recovering tothe mid $1.90s after having dipped slightly Tuesday.
Futures Sift Lower in Quiet Trading
For about an hour yesterday it appeared as if the futures marketwas ready to break out of its recent rut. Feeding on emotiongathered in Monday’s active session, the April contract quicklymapped out a 7-cent trading range in only the first hour oftrading. But, that would be about all the market could handle andthe prompt month spent the rest of the session drifting aimlesslywithin that range. April finished down 0.5 cents to $1.696.
Touch of Winter Gives Humongous Lift to Prices
In a huge turnaround of the cash market spurred by the arrivalof weather that finally appeared more wintry than springlike,prices were skyrocketing Monday from the abyss into which they hadsunk prior to the weekend. To say that double-digit increasescharacterized trading was a gross understatement when many pointswere rising by 50-60 cents or more.
Tropical Depression Spurs Initial Rig Evacuations
A tropical depression formed quickly Tuesday afternoon from whathad appeared to be no more than a disorganized bunch ofthunderstorms in the morning. A storm warning was issued forpractically the entire coast of Texas (Brownsville to High Island).Although a mid-afternoon spot check of some larger producersindicated mostly a “keeping an eye on things” attitude rather thanactual platform evacuations, it was likely that tentative planswere turning into concrete action that evening.
Cash Prices Hot in West But Cool in East
Hot weather appeared to be the primary driver of gas pricesMonday. When you’ve got it, as regions from the Rockies westwarddid, quotes went up by about a nickel at many points; when youdon’t have it, as the relatively balmy Midwest and Northeast marketareas didn’t, prices were flat to down as much as 7 cents.