Piggybacking on the electricity rate cut from its bankruptcy settlement this month, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday that its retail natural gas utility bills will drop 33.8% in March due to a combination of expected lower demand and declining wholesale prices. The average bill of $68 in February will drop to $45.78 this month, the PG&E utility said.

“Natural gas prices have fallen considerably,” said the utility, citing the now “adequate supplies” to meet what is left of winter demand — both in the state and nationwide. “The natural gas market is recovering from high prices of early 2003, when storage levels throughout the country were not adequate to meet demands.”

Where the low storage levels and a colder-than-normal weather last March created high demand and prices, just the opposite seems to be in effect this month, according to PG&E’s utility. Average bills were $61.83 for March 2003, compared with the $45.78 forecast for this year in March.

For this (November through March) heating season, PG&E reported that per-therm gas costs rose steadily from $1.01/therm in November to $1.09/therm in January, then came down considerably to 91 cents/therm in February, and 77 cents/therm for this month.

“PG&E does not mark up the cost of buying natural gas and passes on the wholesale costs directly to customers,” said the utility, noting its customers have a choice of gas suppliers. “PG&E is the default supplier for residential and small commercial customers, but other options are available (see utility web site, www.pge.com/gaschoice).”

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