Overall

Overall prices for the weekend softened in Friday’s trading, butsome sizeable rebounds were occurring towards mid-morning as cashfollowed the screen back up after having previously followed itlower, several traders said.

The uphill run of the overall market was still going for themost part Wednesday, but at a considerably slower pace than the daybefore as several areas anticipated at least a brief reprieve fromsevere winter weather.

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.

In sharp contrast to falling prices in all other areas,Northeast citygates were moving higher Tuesday. By far the mostdazzling performance came from Transco deliveries into New YorkCity that spiked by about a dollar above $4, much as they had onNov. 30. Unlike the end of November, when Transco Zone 6-NYC quotespeaked at $4.75, Tuesday’s top end hit $5.05.

While nearly all the production-area points held steady withchanges of no more than a penny or two in both directions, it wasdelivered prices in the Northeast, Midwest and California that gavethe cash market a taste of volatility Thursday. Northeast citygatesrepeated as the day’s big losers with declines from about 35-38cents (Transco Zone 6-NYC and Texas Eastern M-3) to more than 50cents (Iroquois Zone 2 and Algonquin citygate) as the regionexperiences a very slow warming trend from its early-week chill.Ranges were very large as prices fell steadily while tradingproceeded, one source said.

Flat pricing dominated the cash market again Thursday, butregion-specific variations also continued. While numbers saw littlechange in the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent/Midwest and Southwest,Northeast deliveries took a dive and Rockies pipes saw gains ofabout a nickel or so. The Rockies and Northeast price movements,though divergent, were based on the same influences: changingweather. The East Coast is entering a warm-up period; meanwhile,recent record-setting warmth in the Rockies was a thing of the pastas a stormy cool front moved through the region toward the Plainsstates.

Most of the overall swing market was mildly higher Tuesday, withwestern-especially Rockies-points tending to exhibit the most pricestrength with gains of up to a dime. A few PG&E citygate quotessurpassed $3, marking the first time that area has been hit (inU.S. dollars) since Transco Zone 6-NYC topped out at $3.02 forSept. 15 flows.

The overall cash market drifted lower Friday, with quotesranging from essentially flat into Northwest for both domestic andCanadian gas to nearly 15 cents lower at the PG&E citygate. Thegeneral softness primarily was a function of the usual weekenddropoff in gas load, sources said.

Despite flatness at a few mostly western points, the overallmarket pushed higher by around a nickel or so Tuesday. Electricgeneration stresses had faded in the Northeast, but early screensupport and rising air conditioning load in the South-and to amilder extent in the Midwest-combined for the cash gains.