Soaring natural gas prices in the US have led to calls, from corporates and politiciansalike, for a Senate hearing into the reasons for exorbitant costs. Accordingly,the Senate Judiciary Committee says it will investigate the jump in prices.

Traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) say the price for naturalgas, at a nine-month high of around $7 per thousand cubic feet last month, wasdue to colder weather in the Northeast and Midwest.

But Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin