Natural gas prices have been soaring in recent months in Europe and a group of European parliamentarians has asked the European Commission to investigate Gazprom's role in the price surge.

In a letter to the EU's executive Commission, dated Sept. 16, around 40 of the Parliament's 700 lawmakers said they suspected Russia's Gazprom had acted to push up gas prices.

"We call on the European Commission to urgently open an investigation into possible deliberate market manipulation by Gazprom and potential violation of EU competition rules," said the letter.

The European Commission confirmed its receipt of the letter and would reply in due course.

The lawmakers said they were suspicious of the company's "effort to pressure" Europe to agree a fast launch to its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which still has to clear regulatory hurdles that could take months to complete.  Gazprom said last week that it had completed construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, doubling its gas exporting capacity via the Baltic Sea.  Regulatory stumbling blocks still remain before Nord Stream 2 goes into operation.