Neither

El Paso will will allow neither injections nor withdrawals whenit shuts in the Washington Ranch storage facility April 19-25 formaintenance. Saying the project will severely limit its flexibilityin controlling linepack, El Paso asked in advance for customercooperation in “balancing very closely” scheduled receipts anddeliveries.

Natural gas prices continued in their march of monotonyyesterday, as neither buyers nor sellers were able to tip the scalein their favor. Flatness ruled as a result, with many pricinglocations unchanged.

The futures market concluded the week on a quiet note Friday asneither bulls nor bears were able to influence a move in theirfavor. After a lower open the November contract quickly filtereddown, filling in the chart gap to $2.35. But the $2.35 level held,and the market was left to trend higher into the closing bell. TheNovember contract settled at $2.432, a 1.8-cent gain on the day.

Tuesdays are oftentimes a day of small prices changes at the NewYork Mercantile Exchange, and this Tuesday proved to be noexception. The spot August contract settled unchanged at $2.365yesterday, as many traders reportedly remained on the sidelines inanticipation of the next AGA storage report to be released laterthis evening.

The May Nymex contract nudged 0.4 cents lower to $2.475 Friday,amid a day when the contract could neither sustain a move belowtechnical support at $2.44 nor rise any higher than $2.498. Totalestimated volume came in at 46,216, much of which was the work oftraders covering positions before the weekend, a source said.