Except

Except for continued rises at some Northeast citygates, most ofthe cash market was in rout mode Wednesday. Price decreases of adime or more-much more in a few cases-prevailed at nearly allpoints despite cold weather blanketing much of the U.S. from theRockies eastward. A falling screen and forecasts that some areaswill be warming up this weekend constituted the main cashdepressants, sources said. Despite what one trader called a “ratherhealthy” AGA figure of 116 Bcf withdrawn from storage last week,few saw much chance of a holiday weekend rebound.

Except for the Rockies and Pacific Northwest, fundamentalsremained kind of on the wimpy side in most markets Monday. However,going on the theory that a bird in the bush (weather forecast) isworth more than two or three in the hand (current conditions),traders sent prices higher by about a dime or more at most points.Although the screen provided a smidgen of support with a gain ofslightly over 6 cents, sources agreed that a new forecast for muchcolder temperatures than anything seen previously was the mainfactor in rising cash prices.

Rocky Mountains ski resort operators were starting to breathe alittle easier Tuesday. After many had missed traditional openingdates of Thanksgiving Day weekend or earlier, they welcomed asnowstorm that either was arriving or on its way. For much the samereason, Rockies/Pacific Northwest and Southwest points constitutedthe only region seeing meaningful price gains on either side of anickel Tuesday. The rest of the cash market was a sea of flatnessthat, unlike Monday, leaned slightly to the downside instead of theupside.

Mild weather and a weak futures screen combined to drop cashprices early for the second straight trading session yesterday. Butunlike last Friday, there was no late rally in the futures screento spark an afternoon rebound. The Northeast and Midcontinentexperienced the most significant drops, with many points in the tworegions falling more than a dime. Some western points avoided thegeneral weakness, with PG&E climbing almost a dime and theSoCal Border and Opal rising a few cents.

With the futures screen lending little to no direction to thecash market, weather took over as the dominant influence Tuesday.Existing and expected chilly temperatures caused gains between 4and 10 cents in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent regions. Northeastpoints made the biggest moves of the day, with many jumping morethan 15 cents.

Koch Gateway has planned maintenance for today and Friday forits Index 129 segment (West 30-inch mainline in East Texas). Exceptfor gas received and delivered south of Mile Post 98.33 (Koch’sColorado River crossing near the Wharton/Fort Bend County line),all other receipts south of 98.33 will be scheduled to zero.However, at shippers’ request, up to a total of 233,000 MMBtu/d ofdeliveries (the pipeline’s total firm obligation from the area)will be kept whole.

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Except for some western upticks, the cash market bore remarkableresemblance to a pancake Wednesday. Flatness remained the order ofthe day at nearly every trading point. And much as on Tuesday, thelittle bit of price movement that did occur in the East wasgenerally a little lower.

Except for small upticks in San Juan Basin and related pointspartially due to an unexpected compressor station outage (seeTransportation Notes), the cash market again was mildly softerMonday. Much like last week, a screen decline of about a nickelprovided about the only influence meaningful to cash traders. Evensome cool weather returning to the Midwest failed to keep Chicagoand Michigan citygates from dropping 2-3 cents, while Midcontinentfield numbers were mostly flat.