LITTLE ROCK — CenterPoint Energy’s 430,000 natural gas customers in Arkansas will pay about 9 percent less on their monthly bills beginning next month, the Houston-based utility said Tuesday.
A CenterPoint customer who had a $100 bill last winter will now have a monthly bill of about $91, excluding taxes.
The reason is because of the national decrease in wholesale natural gas prices, CenterPoint said.
Under Arkansas law, natural gas utilities are allowed to pass along increases and decreases in the cost of natural gas with no mark-up for profit. The cost of natural gas makes up 60 percent to 70 percent of a customer’sbill, CenterPoint said.
“We are happy to be able to pass this natural gas price decrease on to customers, particularly because natural gas usage typically increases in the winter months due to heating needs,” Walter Bryant, division vice presidentof gas operations in Arkansas, said in a prepared statement.
CenterPoint’s bills also decreased last winter because of lower natural gas prices, by about 20 percent. But severalyears before that, natural gas prices rose.
Natural gas utilities in Arkansas are required to report their winter rates by the last business day of October. Arkansas Oklahoma Gas, which has about 45,000 customers within 50 miles of Fort Smith, will report its rates later thisweek, said Michael Callan, the company’s president.
Efforts to reach a spokesman at Arkansas Western Gas - which serves about 155,000 customers in Northwest Arkansas, parts of northeast Arkansas and the Arkansas River valley - were unsuccessful.
Business, Pages 21 on 10/27/2010