Slide in Natural Gas Prices Brings Bill Relief
Posted on: Saturday, 4 March 2006, 00:00 CST
By Elizabeth Souder, The Dallas Morning News
Mar. 3--Natural gas prices continue to slide, bringing North Texans a reprieve on their energy bills as spring begins.
For the past year, natural gas prices have been higher than the prior year. In March, prices will come much closer to the prior year's level.
And experts say prices could drop even more before the summer air conditioning season sets in. Still, most experts doubt the drop will be permanent as overall demand for natural gas in the U.S. continues to rise.
Atmos Energy will charge $6.59 per million cubic feet of gas in March, down from $8.02 in February, and getting closer to last year's price of $5.25.
In October, Atmos set an all-time high gas charge of $15.29 per mcf. The company charges the wholesale price of natural gas and doesn't make a profit on the fuel.
Some experts say prices will probably continue to drop so long as the weather remains mild.
"I wouldn't say it's as good as we're going to get," said Allen Mesch. "Our heating season's done, even though we may get some cold snaps."
Summer natural gas prices may rise a bit if the weather is abnormally hot and folks to turn up the air conditioning. That would boost the demand for power, prompting natural gas generators to boost production and raise demand for the fuel. Mr. Mesch said an active hurricane season could also spook natural gas markets, after Katrina damaged production last year.
The drop in natural gas prices will rein in Atmos bills, but whether electricity retailers respond remains to be seen. That's because the old monopoly electricity retailers, such as TXU Energy, recently received approval to raise the price-to-beat based on high natural gas prices during the autumn. Most competitors aren't charging substantially less than the price to beat
E-mail esouder@dallasnews.com
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Source: The Dallas Morning News
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