The week’s trading wound to a close Friday with generally lesssoftness than had been expected. In relatively quiet activity, mostpoints were down a few cents with only occasional lapses of morethan a dime. A Midcontinent source who said Thursday he wouldn’t besurprised to see mid $1.30s pricing for the weekend, found insteadmost regional numbers averaging in the $1.50s Friday.

A few scattered upticks failed to exceed a nickel.

Some points experienced late run-ups, often in a short supplysqueeze situation. That was what caused one marketer to pay $2.10for a late package at the Southern California border after pricesthere had started in the $1.90 area.

Similarly, a buyer who was able to pick up a Chicago citygatevia ANR at $1.41 “right out of the gate” said he stepped back from the market immediately when prices rocketed up from there. “Therewere definitely willing buyers out there. Many people, includingmyself, believed the relatively warm temperatures (50s area)forecast for the Chicago area over the weekend would keep pricessofter, but we were wrong.”

One source had feared that with Salt Lake City enduringsub-freezing weather last week, the outage of a compressor atQuestar’s Eakin Station in Wyoming might cause gas supply problemsfor the city. However, a marketer said there was no problem becausethe curtailed Questar gas could be re-routed to SLC on Kern River.

He wasn’t sure if it meant overall January indexes will becoming down from December, but one trader reported tradingintra-Alberta for next month at C$2.27-28, more than C30 centsunder the December index of C$2.62.

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