Heights

Northeast citygates continued to scale new price heightsWednesday as the region braced for another onslaught of what isturning out to be the most severe winter storm of the currentseason by far. Transportation-constrained Transco Zone 6-NYC againtopped the price list with quotes that ran as high as $11, and acouple of sources confirmed that the point had already traded forFriday flow at $13.50. Other citygates in the region were allaveraging more than $5 Wednesday.

The Ohio Public Utility Commission reported that 280,000 retailconsumers are buying gas from alternative suppliers, a 25% increasesince September. The percentage of eligible customers participatingin the three utility customer choice programs has risen to 21%(34,644 residential and small commercial customers) on East OhioGas, 8% (30,979) on Cincinnati Gas & Electric and 17% (216,900)on Columbia Gas. In total, 24,127 commercial customers and 258,396residential customers are participating.

The May Nymex contract soared to unprecedented heights onTuesday, thanks to an 11.3 cent surge that left the contract at$2.522. May posted a high of $2.53, which is a source said is thetop of a long term technical trading formation. The fact that Maysettled so close to that high price is a bullish sign, he said, andfor that reason, he believes May has a good shot at moving to itsnext resistance level of $2.58 when trading resumes today.

Sources figured it was only a matter of time before this week’swinter storm-related price hikes started to fade, and the time wasThursday. Softening was only slight at most points, however, andseveral registered as flat. The biggest drops of more than a nickeltended to occur in the markets that had seen the biggest increasesearlier in the week, such as Northeast citygates and NorthernNatural-demarc.