Gradually

Any skepticism over a “Siberian Express” arctic cold front making a stop in the Lower 48 has been frozen off and the only question left is just how long it will stay the central and eastern regions of the United States.

While offshore production gradually returned toward normal Friday, traders began paying more attention to regenerated Tropical Storm Lili in the Caribbean Sea and noticing how its course eerily was resembling that of the now-defunct Isidore so far. Their concerns about potential new Gulf of Mexico outages in the coming week translated into price gains of about a nickel to a little more than 20 cents at all but a few scattered points that were flat to slightly lower.

Just as what could be remembered as one of the most intensehurricanes ever to make landfall on U.S. soil gradually turned tothe north and away from production assets in the Gulf of Mexico,natural gas futures turned south yesterday as traders priced stormconcerns out of the market. After gapping lower to open at $2.69the October contract never looked back, tumbling 14.5 cents on theday to finish at $2.636.

Nominations for the trip to Chicago on Northern Border reached490 MMcf/d yesterday, which shows the line has been ramping upgradually since beginning service on Dec. 22, but the pipe still isabout 175 MMcf/d short of being full.