Natural gas futures soar

<p align="justify"> (Oklahoma City-AP) -- While parts of the U-S are battered by winter storms, the price of natural gas futures rose to nearly ten dollars per million British thermal units.<br><p align="justify">Yesterday's

Wednesday, December 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- While parts of the U-S are battered by winter storms, the price of natural gas futures rose to nearly ten dollars per million British thermal units.

Yesterday's spike lifted the price of natural gas to more than triple the price at the same time a year ago.

The increase also lifted the stock of several Oklahoma energy companies to new highs.

The price of Oklahoma City-based Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas was up nearly 16 percent and Chesapeake Energy and Helmerich and Payne also set new highs.