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Taking a break from following crude’s recent mad dash higher, May natural gas futures on Friday shrugged off June crude’s enormous gains to explore slightly lower levels. Reaching a low of $7.830 on the session, prompt-month natural gas went on to settle at $7.981, down 8.3 cents on the day, but 84.6 cents higher than the previous week’s close, which occurred Thursday, April 13 in observation of Good Friday.

Natural gas futures continued to explore the upside Wednesday as crude again posted new all-time highs. After trading as low as $7.870 and as high as $8.280, May natural gas ended up finishing the regular session at $8.192, up 18.4 cents on the day, bringing the three-day total gain to $1.057.

A host of state regulators, industry executives and analysts, and association representatives are scheduled to appear at FERC’s annual “State of Natural Gas” conference Wednesday to explore the status of Gulf Coast energy facilities in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as other pipeline infrastructure-related issues.

Despite continued stagnation in terms of shut-in returns from the Gulf of Mexico, October natural gas futures continued to explore lower on Tuesday, testing support lines and settling below $11 for the first time since Hurricane Katrina hit at $10.763, down 26.8 cents from Monday.

FERC last Wednesday held off on releasing a much-anticipated final transmission pricing policy statement in order to further explore and flesh out issues related to passive ownership and independence.

Picking up where last week ended, July natural gas futures continued to explore higher on Monday, breaking through the $7.02 high point from last week to notch a new high of $7.24.

Virginia’s leading electric utilities disclosed last Thursday that they have formed a consortium to explore the development of an approximately $1 billion coal-fired electric power station in southwestern Virginia.

After absorbing the sizeable 230 Bcf natural gas storage report pull on Thursday without spiking, March natural gas futures used Friday to explore lower in search of support. Keeping within a tight 15-cent range, the newly minted prompt month hit a low of $6.15 in morning trading before settling at $6.259, down 9.3 cents on the day and less than a cent lower than the previous Friday’s settle.

Failing to make up their mind on direction Tuesday, traders pushed February natural gas to a low on the day of $6.245 as of 11:30 a.m. (EST) before changing directions to explore higher.