Columbia Gas plans to raise rates - The cold winter is taking its toll on home heating consumers.

ydr.com By SEAN ADKINS Daily Record staff Thursday, February 27, 2003

Increased demand for natural gas brought on by frigid temperatures and an unstable open market are to blame for a Columbia Gas price jump.

Officials with Columbia Gas will spend the next month hammering out an increased price gas cost adjustment that will go into effect April 1, said Robert Boulware, company spokesman.

Since January, hits ranging from the threat of a U.S.-led war with Iraq to labor strikes in Venezuela have increased prices on the oil used to heat homes and businesses. When businesses and homeowners switch to avoid those higher prices, natural gas prices rise.

Compared to last winter, consumers on a national level will pay 28 percent more for natural gas and an additional 52 percent for home heating oil, according to the Energy Information Administration.

While Columbia Gas officials could not provide an exact number or percentage for the increase, the company will submit its quarterly adjustment to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on or before March 31.

That price adjustment will extend into June when the company will review prices on the open market.

Columbia Gas supplies its customers with natural gas from storage and fuel bought on the open gas market, Boulware said.

“At this point, production is not keeping up with demand,” he said. “This price increase is a direct pass-through from the market to the customer.”

The company serves about 82,000 customers in York County, 12,000 customers in Adams County and 100 in Franklin County.

Like Columbia Gas, Shipley Energy has been forced to face a harsh winter marred by a high demand for natural gas and home heating oil.

Since January, the company has experienced a nickel increase per week per gallon of home heating fuel, said Robert Iosue, vice president of marketing for the company.

Shipley Energy customers who heat their homes with oil have paid 50 percent more this year than last winter for their fuel, he said. For example, a fuel oil bill that was $100 last winter now hovers around $150.

“It’s just going through the roof,” Iosue said.

While natural gas prices are about three times what they were last year and the highest since 2001, customers can expect those jumps to level off as the weather improves.

Typically, a drop in natural gas demand occurs in the spring and summer and allows for the replenishing of reserves, Iosue said.

While the natural gas market is expected to improve, the gasoline market is still riding the wave of uncertainty.

For the last week, gasoline prices at Rutter’s Farm Stores have been jumping 2 to 3 cents only to slide back to a flat level within 24 hours, said Scott E. Hartman, president of the company.

“If we go to war, then prices will go up in the short term,” he said. “If the war is short, prices should drop significantly.”

Reach Sean Adkins at 771-2047 or sadkins@ydr.com.