Georgia Natural Gas is offering a special fixed rate of 74.9 cents per therm for retail customers signing up for its 12-Month Fixed Rate Plan during October. In addition, GNG’s variable market price for October is 74.9 cents per therm, a 9% decrease from a month ago and the lowest market price currently available, the company said. GNG said lower wholesale prices in response to rising storage inventories allowed the company to offer lower fixed rates.

City Gas Company of Florida, a division of NUI Corp., received regulatory approval to increase base rates by $2.9 million, an interim step in the utility’s pending request to increase base rates by $10.5 million overall. The interim rates will take effect with meter readings beginning Nov. 6. The monthly bill for an average residential customer using 18 therms of gas per month will increase by $1.46, from $28.72 to $30.18, or about 5.1% exclusive of taxes. However, customers will see bills in November that are actually lower overall than they were before the rate ruling because the utility was able to purchase gas at lower prices since June. As a result, even with the interim base rate increase, a typical residential customer using 18 therms of gas will see a November bill that is actually $2.16 less than five months earlier, a decrease of 6.7%. The company filed for the base rate increase in August, citing significantly rising pension, health care and insurance costs, as well as higher accounting and required corporate governance expenses. Both the continuing sluggishness of the economy and higher gas supply costs also negatively impacted the company’s earnings and growth, as existing customers burn less gas and prospective customers often choose alternate fuels. The company also plans additional infrastructure investments. After spending $9 million on expansion and systems improvement in 2003, it plans to spend about $12.6 million in 2004. A decision on the remaining $7.6 million of the requested increase is expected Jan, 7, 2004. City Gas serves more than 100,000 customers in six Florida counties.

Lexington, KY-based Daugherty Resources completed a 10-mile extension of its gas gathering system and the installation of 1,200 horsepower of new compression to serve the eastern section of its Kay Jay Field in Knox and Bell Counties, KY. The system connects to a Delta Natural Gas 12-inch pipeline and increases Daugherty’s daily transportation capacity by 5 MMcf. Currently the company is flowing 3.5 MMcf/d through the new system and plans to increase the flow during the month of October. The company’s daily net gas production has increased 65% to 1.7 MMcf/d and is expected to increase to 2 MMcf/d during the month of October.

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