Not even a burst of activity in what has so far been a quiet 2002 Atlantic hurricane season was able to support prices Monday. Except for mild upticks in California and the holiday-limited intra-Alberta market, along with a smidgen of flatness in the Northeast, most points fell between about a nickel and 30 cents. The larger declines tended to cluster in the Rockies, but Transco Zone 6-New York City continued to descend from last week’s stratospheric heights with a plunge of more than 40 cents to land it back in place with other Northeast quotes in the $3.20s.

The prospect is for even greater losses Tuesday. Natural gas futures set the pattern for cash with a dive of nearly 20 cents, which was accompanied by similar weakness in Nymex’s heating oil and crude oil trading pits. Even more important was a major drop in air conditioning load Monday in the Upper Midwest and an approaching cold front that would accomplish the same feat in the Northeast Tuesday. The cold front was also due to bring some heat relief into the northerly levels of the South.

Although Northeast and Mid-Atlantic electric utilities continued to struggle with severe hot weather for the ninth consecutive day (see story in Power Market Today ), their ordeal will largely be over Tuesday. That was reflected in steep plunges for next-day power prices in virtually all eastern pools except for Entergy’s in the South, where the drop was more moderate.

The federal Minerals Management Service in New Orleans had no offshore production shut-ins reported to it as a result of Tropical Storm Bertha, MMS spokesman Barney Congdon said. As the storm formed Sunday, it was pretty close to shore already, he said. A spokeswoman for Texas Eastern confirmed that pipeline had experienced no loss of production, saying Bertha essentially had formed and moved on too quickly for offshore operators to do anything about it.

As of Monday afternoon Bertha had been downgraded to a tropical depression and was north-northwest of New Orleans, moving northwestward over South Louisiana. Forecasters were keeping an eye on a system east of the Carolinas that would be designated Cristobal if it reaches tropical storm status.

A Gulf Coast marketer reported a fairly tight supply situation at Mobile Bay, noting that Gulfstream, Transco and FGT all were drawing gas from there. Transco Station 85 was relatively strong, falling by slightly less than a nickel and being the only Gulf production point still averaging more than $3, he said.

An eastern utility buyer welcomed being able to acquire cheaper gas and said he was using the opportunity Monday to try and set up fall and winter term deals. “Based on the screen being so weak, I would expect cash to keep going lower Tuesday,” he added.

Except for triple-digit highs remaining in the desert Southwest, much of the West was considerably cooler than it had been last week, a couple of traders agreed.

Activity at Canadian points was subdued due to many traders north of the border taking partial or full days off for the Civic Holiday. A lot of deals had been made on the previous Friday to run through Tuesday. However, a marketer reported intra-Alberta prices for next-day flow rising about a nickel into the mid C$2.70s Monday.

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