Natural gas prices are soaring in the U.S.

Europe Sun Saturday 13th December, 2003

Natural gas prices have surged nearly 50 percent since Thanksgiving despite any obvious causes, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The frenzied climb in prices has led to calls for investigations by politicians and executives of gas-dependent industries into whether traders have manipulated natural gas markets.

Companies in the chemical, fertilizer and ammonia industries that depend on natural gas as an essential ingredient for their products have been among the most vocal in their complaints about gas prices, which have soared to their highest level since February.

We're extremely alarmed by the events of the last several days, said Peter R. Huntsman, the chief executive of the Huntsman companies, a large manufacturer of chemical products. If what is happening with natural gas would happen with crude oil, we'd have declared war on OPEC by now.

Natural gas, which has remained relatively expensive over the last year, rose 9 percent in the futures markets on Friday, to $7.22 per million BTUs, compared with $4.93 at the end of November.

Several traders and analysts suggested that trading strategies at large hedge funds and other financial firms were behind much of the swift run-up in prices, the Times said.