DTE Energy's natural gas utility MichCon has announced that it will drop the price of natural gas from $7.50 per thousand cubic feet to $7 per thousand cubic feet, effective January 1, 2008.
MichCon said that it was able to reduce its natural gas rate, called the gas cost recovery factor, because wholesale gas prices have fallen recently, and because the company entered the heating season with a significant supply of natural gas already in storage.
For a typical residential customer, the price decrease will result in a savings of about $35 over the remainder of the heating season. Even with the price reduction, MichCon recognizes that heating bills still may be a challenge for some customers, particularly senior citizens and households with limited incomes.
Jerry Norcia, president and COO of MichCon, said: With winter’s coldest months still ahead of us, we’re extremely happy to be able to reduce our natural gas price and pass the savings on to our customers. Because we’re able to store large quantities of natural gas, we can take advantage of seasonal pricing, and acquire gas when demand is down and prices are lower.