Virtually

From a mixed performance the day before, the cash market went to a virtually united show of strength Tuesday. A large majority of the upticks were in double digits, but some — mostly in the Gulf Coast — were less than a dime.

While the trading community continued to stew over what virtually everyone agreed was an outlandishly low AGA storage injection figure, it sent cash prices diving Friday. Declines tended to be between about 15 and 35 cents, with those in the 20s most common. Many points were giving up nearly all the price territory they had gained the day before.

As expected, prices were falling virtually across the board Thursday as the screen turned in another negative performance and air conditioning load remained unseasonably light outside the western portion of the Southeast and in the Midcontinent and desert Southwest.

Virtually all eastern points, along with the Permian Basin/Waha market, yielded to weak weather fundamentals and expectations of another large advance in storage injections by dropping about a dime or slightly more Tuesday. However, a spreading West Coast heat wave kept Rockies/San Juan/Pacific Northwest numbers and those related to the Northern California market strongly on the rise.

This week’s price rally, for which virtually no one could discern any reasonable justification, was over Wednesday everywhere except in California. Most points retreated anywhere from about a dime to a quarter, with greater losses in the Rockies but only small ones in the cooling Pacific Northwest.

Cash prices rebounded virtually everywhere Monday except in California as traders returned from the long Good Friday/Easter weekend. Most gains were between about a dime and 15 cents, with the Rockies seeing mostly smaller ones that ranged from flat to up about a nickel, and points in the Northeast and Appalachia registering larger advances of about 20 cents or more.

It’s virtually certain that the Southern California border indexfor December will be record-setting. It had seemed likely when atrader reported physical border basis at plus 490 last Wednesday (seeDaily GPI, Nov. 27). But things werejust getting started then. The border basis bid-ask spread reachedplus 640-650 on a popular electronic trading service Monday, said awestern source.

Despite a trend toward milder weather in virtually all regions,the great majority of the swing market was seeing flat to slightlyhigher prices Wednesday. Considering the weather and little supportfrom a moderately higher Nymex screen, it must have been cash-outprices that kept late-December quotes from continuing to fall, onesource suggested.

Tatham Offshore said yesterday that four of its subsidiaries,including Rigco North America LLC, FPS III, FPS V and FPS VI, whichown virtually all the company’s operating assets, filed for reliefunder Chapter 11 in the US Bankruptcy Court for the SouthernDistrict of Texas earlier this week.