For a third straight month, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Francisco, reported Thursday that natural gas prices have settled into their “historical averages,” as the utility’s retail natural gas prices through the end of March this year are about 60% below last year’s record levels. In March, the PG&E utility announced that the average residential bill for natural gas will be $39.23, a 59% drop from March 2001 when the average residential bill was $95.06.

The utility noted that its commodity cost (per therm) so far this year is 26 cents, compared to $1.04/therm for the same period last year. In the years 1998-2000 the commodity cost on average varied between 20 and 32 cents/therm.

“Customer conservation is key in managing both electric and gas costs” at the retail level, PG&E said in an announcement on retail gas costs, noting that a relatively cold winter for the northern half of California has resulted in increased natural gas consumption for its nearly 4 million customers.

“But weather trends indicate March will be a mild month, therefore, natural gas bills should be close to the average cost ($39.23),” the utility announcement said. The average cost over the past five years, leaving out last year, is $41.37/month in March, according to the utility.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.