With little to go on in the way of guidance, cash prices muddledaround in an essentially flat performance. There were scattered upsand downs, but no point moved by more than a nickel in eitherdirection and most changes were minuscule.

A big chunk of Midcontinent production got taken off the marketfor an indefinite period after a heat exchanger exploded Thursdayand shut down Amoco’s big Hugoton Jayhawk Plant in Grant County,KS. No one was injured in the blast. The plant had been processingabout 400 MMcf/d at the time, of which 281 MMcf/d was Amoco equitygas and the rest third-party. Amoco also shut its associated fieldproduction, a spokesman said. Crews were en route from Houston andDenver Thursday. The plant is expected to remain shut down at leastinto the weekend, but there was no prognosis on when it mightreturn to service, the spokesman said.

Even though the Nymex screen dropped less than 2 cents, aSouthwest trader said, just its weakening at all caused a slide inSan Juan-Blanco prices. He did an early Blanco deal at $1.92 butreported two other late ones on either side of $1.80.

A marketer decided to index his Sonat deals early on because hedidn’t “like the possibility of the screen running up on me.”

A Gulf Coast source said this week’s short-lived mini-bullmarket might have already run out of steam, but he still seesplenty of upside potential for next week. It may be the hottestperiod of the year for a lot of regions, he said.

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