With extensive trading scandals in the North American natural gas businessin recent years, the credibility of price reporting has suffered immensely. Regionalgas pricing indexes, the standard used nationwide in the US in gas trades worthbillions of dollars each year, have been called into question after several firmsadmitted employees lied about gas trading activity and tried to manipulate prices.

Producers often sign contracts to sell their natural gas to a buyer for the priceof a specific