Firmer

Prices were generally a bit higher Wednesday as traders with heavy hearts struggled to resume business as close as possible to normal. There was a decided lack of consistency as production-area numbers ranged from mildly softer to about a dime higher, and market-area deliveries were similarly varied.

Much of the market seemingly was put on hold Tuesday as flat to slightly higher numbers prevailed. Tropical Storm Chantal continued to recede as a potential threat to Gulf production, and hot weather demand remained generally light outside the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast and Midcontinent areas. Mostly, though, the market was reported as very quiet as the trading community awaited this afternoon’s first release of new AGA storage data since last week’s bombshell of a low volume.

Traders returned to a fairly quiet market Monday in which prices increased by about a dime or less at most eastern points but by considerably larger amounts in the West. California was heating up rapidly and registered triple-digit recoveries from weekend softness.

Despite turning downward again Friday, the screen’s uptick of nearly 15 cents the day before had a residual supportive effect for Friday’s cash prices in eastern and Permian/Waha markets. They ranged from flat at a couple of Northeast points to 15 cents or so higher (Gulf South was a rare softer point in Louisiana), with most gains between a nickel and a dime. Most western points declined by various amounts ranging from small to huge.

With California acting as the out-of-step market yet again,overall swing prices ranged from flat to moderately higher Monday,with Pacific Northwest points achieving gains of 12-20 cents. Awinter storm that developed over the Upper Plains during theweekend was moving eastward and was largely responsible for themild post-weekend rally, sources said.

While the rest of the swing market began February flows atprices only moderately up or down from last-of-January levels innearly all cases, California numbers spiked in triple-digit amountsWednesday.

After beginning the post-Thanksgiving week with two days ofsoftness, the cash market got back on a firming track Wednesday intrading for the last day of November. The upticks were fairlymoderate overall, ranging from slightly down at a few scatteredpoints to Northeast gains in the teens.

Flat to moderately higher prices predominated in a quiet Mondaymarket in which some were out on holiday. The larger advances ofabout a dime or more were concentrated in the Rockies and Southwestbasins.

A Southern California border spike of about 80 cents Friday,with a few quotes peaking in the lower $6.70s, was by far the mostattention-grabbing feature of a weekend market that was mostly flatto moderately higher but included a bit of backsliding at San JuanBasin/Rockies points.