Dominion’s SCO natural gas price drops to 34-year historic low

Source: Akron Beacon Journal

The price of natural gas has tumbled to a 34-year historic low for residential customers who buy their gas through a Dominion East Ohio supplier.

Effective with bills on May 13, the monthly natural gas price for residential customers who have chosen Dominion’s Standard Choice Offer (SCO), or those who don’t choose their own supplier, will be $2.54 per thousand cubic feet (mcf).

The identical SCO and Standard Service Offer (SSO) price will be 7 cents/mcf or 2.7 percent lower than April’s rate of $2.61/mcf. They are also $2.68/mcf or 51.3 percent lower than last May’s price of $5.22/mcf.

But the new price is the lowest since May of 1981 when the Dominion price was $2.53/mcf for the price then called the Gas Cost Recovery rate, said spokesman Neil Durbin. The highest price was $14.55/mcf in July of 2008.

“You can see the market price impact of increasing domestic production from shale area in Ohio and neighboring states,” said Durbin.

In addition, the formula to determine the monthly SCO price came in at a historic low of 2 cents/mcf above the closing price on the third to last day of the previous month on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

That new formula began with April bills.

Under the company’s filing, the average SCO/SSO residential customer’s bill for the month of May 2015 would be $37.24, down $7.34, or 16.5 percent, from $44.58 in May 2014.

All Dominion East Ohio residential customers also pay a total monthly charge of $23.58 for such costs as pipeline infrastructure replacement and automated meter reading.