Stayed

As a producer had predicted Thursday, most weekend prices stayed fairly close to flat Friday in a mixed market. The conspicuous exceptions were Northeast citygates, which all rose by more than 30 cents as a Nor’easter bore down on the region.

Price declines stayed rather moderate for the most part Wednesday, and heavy cooling load in much of the Southwest kept several Rockies, San Juan Basin and Southern California border points in the vicinity of flat. But outside of the western heat, the cash market was losing virtually all of its remaining vestiges of support.

A federal district judge in Washington, DC, has stayed a prior decision ordering the Bush administration to turn over by Tuesday additional documents and records of a number of federal agencies who sat on the task force that crafted the national energy strategy three years ago.

Some Midcontinent/Midwest points stayed flat Friday as a cold front was in the process of greatly enlarging its presence in the region, but the rest of the market saw varying degrees of decline ranging from less than a nickel to more than 40 cents.

Flat numbers reigned across much of the market Tuesday, as a majority of points stayed within about a nickel up or down from unchanged. The gains tended to outweigh the losses, however, and most of the larger upticks occurred in the Rockies. Not coincidentally, the West remained the only market area experiencing severe summer heat.

At least a few traders likely were surprised to see how relatively firm prices stayed Tuesday. A few Gulf Coast points fell 1-3 cents or so, but otherwise, quotes ranged from flat to up as much as a quarter in the Rockies. Gains of a nickel or less tended to dominate the market.

Except for declines at several of the highest-priced westernpoints, the cash market stayed in an upbeat mood Friday. Gainsranged from about a dime to more than 30 cents, with most between20 and 30 cents. Malin joined the three primary Pacific Northwestpoints (Sumas, Stanfield and Kingsgate) in falling from their loftyheights.

The possibility of a market-based solution to California’snatural gas industry restructuring stayed alive yesterday when moretime was allowed by state regulators for about 75 parties to hammerout a settlement. Without a deadline extension from the CPUC, hopesof a market-based solution to the state’s future gas unbundlingwould have been abandoned in favor of another round of regulatoryhearings. The settlement process now has until Oct. 27 to come upwith a broad-based agreement. The previous deadline was Sept. 6.