Upticks

All sources were on the same page Tuesday regarding what waspushing cash prices upward. “Blame the screen,” they chorused,because there weren’t any fundamentals around at which to point.Just about every point was up between 10 and 15 cents, except forintra-Alberta increases of a little over a nickel.

East-West price tendencies remained at odds Monday. WhileEastern points ranged from flat to down as much as a nickel, theWest mostly was registering increases. Gains were particularlystrong in the California market, where Malin was up by nearly 15cents after PG&E had ended its weekend high-inventory OFO.

Lacking any impetus from fundamentals or a sedate futuresscreen, the vast majority of points settled down for a level ridein a quiet market Wednesday. The few increases of any size occurredin the Rockies and California and were attributed to supplyconstraints and continuing heavy air conditioning load.

Cash prices across the board followed through on Monday’s Nymexrise by gaining a dime (or more in some cases) yesterday, andexcept for the Alberta market, nobody had any plausible fundamentalreason to explain the changes. Ranges continued to tighten fromlast Friday’s and Monday’s wide-open spaces, a marketer said. Hethinks the market will continue to be range-bound “until we getsome cooling load.” Supply and demand are currently well balancedand storage inventories are far ahead of last year’s, so he doesn’texpect the gas market to heat up until the weather does, “and thatmay not happen until June [futures] is off the board.”

Despite Tuesday’s overall price losses, the rising trend astrading progressed carried over into Wednesday and resulted inmoderate to strong rebounds. Increases mostly were in the range of5-10 cents and tended to cancel out the Tuesday declines.

Cash prices returned to a climbing mode Friday, and in theprocess won more converts to believing in a fundamentally stronggas market this spring and summer. Although Western gains tended tolag a bit behind, most increases were between a nickel and a dime.Most of the double-digit gains occurred in the Gulf Coast,Appalachian and Northeast market areas.

The overall price trend was up again Tuesday, but the market washardly a model of consistency. Some points, such as the Northernand Southern California borders and PG&E citygates, barelymanaged to maintain flatness or eke out small gains, while otherssuch as Waha and Northeast citygates continued to surge upward byas much as a dime or more. A marketer reporting Transco Zone 6(NYC) topping $2.60 said she hadn’t expected to see those kind ofnumbers again until next fall at the earliest.