Even though natural gas market prices have dropped, Columbia Gas customers are still paying for the price hike that happened this past summer.

About 50% of the gas used during the winter comes from storage. Columbia Gas purchases gas for the winter during the summer months.
Usually, gas prices are lowest during the summer because there is a decreased demand.

The summer of 2008 was unusual because gas prices were extremely high when gas companies began stocking up. Therefore, customers will still be paying for the high-priced, already purchased gas instead of the current market price.

Columbia Gas offers a budget billing plan to help alleviate high winter heating costs. The plan spreads out customers payments over a 12-month span to create a fairly fixed monthly bill.