Calm

While gas prices remain extremely high, R. Skip Horvath,president of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), last weekurged state regulators to be patient until the record number of gasrigs operating can do their work and provide desperately neededsupply increases.

While gas prices remain camped out at record levels, R. SkipHorvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA),urged state regulators yesterday to be patient until the recordnumber of gas rigs operating can do their work and providedesperately needed supply increases.

The cash market decided to calm down Friday following the heatwave and futures excitement from earlier in the week. Having littlein new guidance from weather or a static screen, prices ranged fromflat to down about a nickel in most cases, with larger declines oneither side of a dime occurring in the cooled-off Northeast.

There was no calm before the storm on Thursday as the futuresmarket experienced another day of volatile, choppy trading astraders turned to televisions in trading rooms across the countryfor the direction and strike probabilities of Hurricane Georges.The October contract bounced back and forth throughout the tradingsession as the market digested the imminence of supply shut ins.That prompted the spot month to move 4.8 cents higher yesterday,settling at $2.179.