West

Geographic price tendencies shifted going into the weekend.Western markets, which had been resisting the week’s overallsoftness earlier due to heavy cooling load andsupply/transportation problems, were being routed Friday,particularly at the California border. Meanwhile Eastern pricesfell by a nickel or less in most cases, with Appalachian pipes andNortheast/Midwest citygates flat or close to it.

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.

EEX Corp. agreed to trade substantially all of its Permian Basinproperties in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico for the shallowwater properties located off the coast of Texas and Louisiana ofEnergen Resources Corp., the oil and gas subsidiary of EnergenCorp. In addition to the shelf properties, EEX will receive $9million in cash. “This trade is another step in our strategy toexit the onshore business and focus on offshore Gulf of Mexico.These new properties will improve near-term production of naturalgas and will contribute to improving our cost structure by loweringper unit production costs while eliminating overhead costs relatedto onshore properties,” said Tom Hamilton, EEX CEO.

Hot weather appeared to be the primary driver of gas pricesMonday. When you’ve got it, as regions from the Rockies westwarddid, quotes went up by about a nickel at many points; when youdon’t have it, as the relatively balmy Midwest and Northeast marketareas didn’t, prices were flat to down as much as 7 cents.

A continuation of intense heat in the Eastern U.S. lentfundamental support to gas markets in the region Friday, keepingcash prices flat to slightly higher or lower for the weekend.Again, though, it was a case of “not so” in the San Juan Basin,Rockies and California. Although east-of-California markets sawhigh temperatures approaching or surpassing 100 degrees, a dearthof demand from the Golden State and the unrealized threat of an OFOon El Paso caused gas to back up into the San Juan-Blanco pool,resulting in a steep dive of nearly 30 cents. One source, whopicked up an early Blanco package at $1.78, about a dime down fromThursday, paid only $1.59 near the end of trading.

Growth in southeast Texas drilling operations prompted DukeEnergy Field Services to build a new gas processing plant in WestBeaumont, TX, which went on line last week. The plant has capacityof 100 MMcf/d.

The screen was hot and the weather was hotter almost everywhereexcept on the West Coast. Put them together and you get Mondaytrading dominated by double-digit price increases at all pointsexcept the Rockies and Canadian markets.

The relatively small declines in Eastern markets Fridaysurprised some traders. Although down another 2-5 cents overall,pipes in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent were rebounding late tolevels essentially flat from Thursday. The weakness in Thursdayafternoon’s Access futures trading pushed prices down early Friday,a marketer said, “then things came back up when the Merc showed alittle strength.” Although the screen eventually shed its gains towind up basically unchanged, that occurred too late to impact cashtrading.

Weekend prices were down by as much as a dime or so almostacross the board Friday. Although the screen’s almost imperceptibledrop provided no further impetus for cash softening, the decreaseswere widely expected as cold areas started warming and warm areasstarted cooling.