In an attempt to address concerns that Wall Street firms likely maneuvered the oil price through financial trading, US' foremost regulator of commodity markets - the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) - Tuesday moved a step closer to issuing new rules for the purpose of restricting oil speculation.

At the first of the three hearings for considering proposals to curb the volatile swings in the prices of oil and gas, CFTC announced the need to look at the ways to prevent financial firms from building up such influential positions in the energy markets that they can affect the prices.

Emphasizing the need to restrain speculative trading and lessen oil price volatility, the CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said clearly that he preferred stringent volume limits on noncommercial traders - mostly financial institutions like banks, and hedge funds - that comprise a large chunk of trading in energy contracts.

Earlier this month, Gensler had announced that CFTC would mull over not only federal volume limits on speculative traders, but also tightening of current limits imposed by commodity exchanges.

Gensler said: "The CFTC is in the best position to apply limits across different exchanges, and we are most able to strike a balance between competing interests and the responsibility to protect the American public. I believe we must seriously consider setting strict position limits in the energy markets."