State officials told prices to remain high

Corporation Commissioner Ed Apple told a House panel Thursday that the price of natural gas is set on the national market and the commission and the Legislature do not have the power to reduce that price.

Gas prices have increased three fold this year. High demand caused by unusually cold weather and limited supply have been blamed for the increase.

Mike Bernard, spokesman for the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association of Oklahoma, said natural gas producers are making money for the first time in a long time.

"Remember, producers do not set the price of their product,"

he said. "It's set elsewhere and we simply sell it for what we can get for it."

Mickey Thompson, head of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association, said independent gas producers are profiting from the run-up in prices.

"It's too high for consumers, it's too high for producers, because we'll lose our market pretty quick to coal and to fuel oil and nuclear if the price of natural gas doesn't come down," he said.

He said the government needs to open land that has been off-limits to drilling for the past 15 years.

"I'm talking about the Rocky Mountains, the greatest untapped resource of natural gas in this country right now besides offshore." he said.

"Oklahoma companies would go get that gas in the Rocky Mountains and it would help Oklahoma."

Rep. Mike Mass, D-Hartshorne, said people in southeast Oklahoma understand there's an abundance of natural gas and question whether there's a gas shortage in the state.

Apple said there really isn't a shortage in Oklahoma.

"Today natural gas is a national commodity and we don't set the price in Oklahoma ... It's just that they're paying the national price and we're powerless," he said.