SHARON, PA. Rates drop 3.1 percent as market price of natural gas decreases

Some of the savings will be lost in a separate rate increase issue in January.
SHARON, Pa. -- National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. customers saw their gas rates go down today.
The average residential customer's monthly bill dropped from $107.99 to $104.64, a 3.1 percent decrease, said Nancy Taylor, National Fuel's senior manager of corporate communications.
"This decrease is the direct result of recent decreases in the market price of natural gas," Taylor said.
Despite earlier predictions of a nationwide increase in gas costs, the price has actually gone down, and that savings is being passed along to customers, she said.
Utility companies are allowed to adjust their gas cost rates, which reflect the cost they pay to buy natural gas for their customers, four times a year.
Service costs
Although National Fuel customers are seeing a 3.1 percent decrease now, their rates will go back up by 1.34 percent Jan. 15, reflecting an increase in company service costs, a rate separate from gas costs.
The company had sought a 6.8 percent increase in service rates, which reflect the cost of actually delivering gas to consumers, but it reached a settlement agreement with those involved in the rate case to accept the 1.34 percent figure.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility commission must approve the new rate.
Although the gas-cost rate has fluctuated over the years, this is the first time since 1995 that National Fuel has increased service cost rates, Taylor said.
The company has about 214,000 customers in 14 northwestern Pennsylvania counties, including 30,000 in Mercer County. The company has no customers in Lawrence County.