Firmer

The cash market was relatively quiet Monday, and for quite a fewtraders, dismayed by last week’s hypervolatility, that suited themjust fine. Points in the East tended to range from flat to about anickel or so higher, while the West was considerably stronger withadvances of about a dime or more in most cases.

The April swing market started to level off for the most partTuesday as price changes were dominated by flatness and smallincreases. The May bidweek remained slow in developing and featuredsome index-plus trading starting to turn into index-slightly minusdeals.

Despite a trend toward milder weather in virtually all regions,the great majority of the swing market was seeing flat to slightlyhigher prices Wednesday. Considering the weather and little supportfrom a moderately higher Nymex screen, it must have been cash-outprices that kept late-December quotes from continuing to fall, onesource suggested.

Buoyed by a much firmer screen and the pickup in load thatfollows a long Labor Day weekend, cash prices rose Tuesday by anickel or more at almost every point, with most of the increasesexceeding a dime. Not only did natural gas futures rise more than adime, but the crude oil futures contract for October also flexedits muscle with a jump of slightly over 60 cents, placing it wellabove $22/bbl, a marketer pointed out.

Finding little if anything impressive in the way of newinfluences, cash prices in general decided to take it easy Monday.Other than some sizeable western increases, which consisted mainlyof regaining price territory lost on Friday, most quotes were flatto slightly higher. A moderately softer screen combined with hotweather and no sign of an Atlantic tropical storm gave the marketlittle guidance, a Midcontinent trader said. Storage activityseemed little changed from last week, he said.

Concerned that a threshold number of Atlanta Gas Light (AGL)customers in certain warmer regions of Georgia may not switch toalternative suppliers by the next winter heating season, theGeorgia Public Service Commission is taking action to changeGeorgia’s gas competition law, SB 216, to get AGL out of themerchant function possibly by next fall.

Although generally moving a little bit below index levels, theinitial February aftermarket proved stronger Monday than manytraders were expecting. Several points managed to stay flat toindex. Considering how little weather demand there was in majormarket areas and the difficulty some suppliers reported inscrounging up buyers, it was surprising how little price erosionthere was, a Texas marketer said.

Pipes in the Gulf Coast and Appalachia achieved small gains ofup to about a nickel Wednesday, but prices were falling back fromearly highs, leading some sources to doubt whether the cash markethas any more upticks in it for a while. Otherwise most pointscontinued the flat pattern of the previous day.

Quotes for late December gas and the January bidweek tended tomove a few cents higher Wednesday. A Gulf Coast trader felt Januarycash had moved up about a nickel “in sympathy with the cold weathersweeping across most of the nation.”