With the futures screen lending little to no direction to thecash market, weather took over as the dominant influence Tuesday.Existing and expected chilly temperatures caused gains between 4and 10 cents in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent regions. Northeastpoints made the biggest moves of the day, with many jumping morethan 15 cents.

Utility buying was the reason for large gains in the Northeast,according to one source, but he did not feel too optimistic aboutthat trend continuing. “There was good buying interest again todayfrom utilities who appear to have elected to go into the monthshort. That means that relatively small changes in temperatureswill force them to either ramp up or turn back their volumes. Thenet result on prices is increased volatility. For that reason,warming temperatures expected this weekend could put more downwardpressure on cash prices,” he said. Transco Z6 (New York) jumpedinto the mid $3.20s after ending Monday in the low $3.00s and CNGfinished above $3.00, representing an increase of over 20 cents.

Temperatures reached the low 40s in the upper Midwest yesterday,and that was chilly enough for some furnaces to get fired up, onesource said. Temperatures even dipped into the high 30s inSoutheast Michigan after reaching the mid-60 degree level over lastweekend. Yet the large rally that usually accompanies such a swingin temperatures has not materialized, the source said. “Because theweather was mild earlier this week, the utilities with longpositions this month had to park their gas and pay for it. Now thatthe Midcontinent is getting a little weather, the utilities want toburn that parked gas first. The result is that they haven’t beenactive buyers out here.”

Rockies pipes seemed short according to one marketer, who quotedOpal in the high $2.50s and low $2.60s. He said the Midcontinentdemand might have driven up the value for Rockies gas. NorthwestDomestic gained a few cents yesterday after posting double digitlosses the two previous days. Sumas was also strong, improving fromthe mid $2.50’s on Monday to the low $2.60’s yesterday.

While many points increased yesterday, the West searched for adirection. “We saw the East running up and try to make the Westfollow. It just didn’t happen,” one western trader said. “Nobodycould get a feel for which way it wanted to go.” SouthernCalifornia Border prices dropped a penny, while PG&E Citygateprices rose slightly. Another western trader said PG&E’s risemay have been because of a small maintenance on the RedwoodPathway.

Intra Alberta prices have softened, according to one Canadianmarketer, due to more supply being tied into the Nova system. Manypeople were expecting this extra supply last month, she said, andthe lag has been a surprise to them. She quoted Intra Albertaprices in the low $C3.40s and high $C3.30s, which is down fromMonday’s average of $C3.51.

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