The "heating season" is upon us and natural gas prices will be higher in October than this month. But price spikes this winter are not likely because gas supplies are still higher than a year ago and new wells continue to be drilled.
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Consumers who buy natural gas through Columbia Gas of Ohio or Dominion East Ohio will see monthly rates rise between 9 percent and 12 percent in October, the result of rising wholesale prices.
The price of the Dominion standard choice offer will be $3.62 per 1,000 cubic feet, beginning on Oct. 10 -- up 39 cents from the September price of $3.23 per Mcf.
Columbia's October standard choice offer price is 45.5 cents per 100 cubic feet, up from 41.6 cents per Ccf. The new rate began Thursday.
Columbia determines its monthly variable standard choice offer price by adding 15.3 cents to the wholesale price per Ccf set on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Dominion adds 60 cents to the price per Mcf set on the NYMEX.
Those variable rates are still below the 12-month, fixed-price contracts offered by independent gas suppliers.
For consumers who live in Dominion territory, fixed prices range from $4.75 per Mcf to $5.49 per Mcf, with cancellation fees as high as $150 on some contracts.
In Columbia's delivery area, the fixed-price contracts range from 55 cents per Ccf to 69 cents per Ccf, with similar cancellation fees.
Neither of the rates by utilities include delivery-related fees or taxes.
The October price increases reflect a last-minute rise in wholesale prices this week amid speculation by gas traders that the oversupply of the fuel is lessening - though storage levels reported Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration were still 9 percent above last year and 8.6 percent above the five-year average for this date.
Wholesale prices are not expected to head much above $4 per Mcf (40 cents per Ccf) this winter because at that price gas producers will dispatch more drilling rigs into gas fields or hook up wells to the gas pipeline system that have been drilled but uncompleted because gas prices earlier this year were at 10-year lows.
Electric power utilities, which now burn about 36 percent of all of the gas consumed, are expected to switch back to coal if gas prices rise much above current levels, EIA analysts predicted this month.
