Finding little if anything impressive in the way of newinfluences, cash prices in general decided to take it easy Monday.Other than some sizeable western increases, which consisted mainlyof regaining price territory lost on Friday, most quotes were flatto slightly higher. A moderately softer screen combined with hotweather and no sign of an Atlantic tropical storm gave the marketlittle guidance, a Midcontinent trader said. Storage activityseemed little changed from last week, he said.

In a producer’s view, Monday set the tone for the week. “PeopleI’m talking to seem to think we’ll pretty much hold around currentlevels, with no more than a couple of pennies’ movement in eitherdirection,” he said.

Several sources agreed that “sleepy” was an appropriateadjective for Monday’s trading, although one thought it might be acase of “everybody must be hung over and/or dehydrated,” referringto the intense heat that continues to dominate weather in thesouthern tier of states. A marketer, quoting Permian Basin deals inthe low $2.60s, was moving a lot of basin gas to Waha, where priceswere a little over a nickel higher, to take advantage of coolingdemand in intrastate Texas and the Midcontinent.

An aggregator who saw Kern River-Opal rise steadily from $2.27at the beginning to $2.32 near the end said the uptick was fueledby “a little hiccup” of supply disruption in the Rockies; also, itwas getting a little warmer in California. Opal supply was affectedby minor three-day outages from Granger and Shute Creek, and also aTuesday-only outage behind the Opal Plant, he said. Some peopleaffected by the behind-plant outage thought they might get theirgas turned back on today but couldn’t be sure of that, theaggregator said.

A couple of traders were seeing signs of winter price strength.A Midcontinent producer thought it interesting to be getting callsfrom people willing to pay index plus 1 on the Oklahoma intrastatesfor the November-March period. He also was hearing of buyinginterest at index plus 1.5 on ANR-Southwest for that time. “Thattells me there’s expectation of heavy demand this winter,” theproducer said.

A marketer cited newly surfacing supply concerns in reportingthat November-March basis continued to narrow for South Texas.Physical gas there was bid at minus 10.75 [Monday], making it a[minus] 10.5 market right now, she said.

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.