Beginning February 11, a massive Arctic cold front began moving down into the middle of the country.  Natural gas producing regions in the midcontinent experienced record cold temperatures which resulted in the freeze-off of gas wells and major disruption of gas supplies to the market regions here in the upper Midwest.  The result was the bid up of natural gas prices on the spot market.  St. Croix Gas purchases a mix of natural gas supplies to meet the demands of our customers, including spot gas to meet peak demand requirements on cold days.  Roughly 30% of our gas supply was impacted by these price spikes.

Natural gas prices on the spot market were under $3.00 per 1000 cubic feet at the beginning of February and peaked at over $230.00 from February 13 through February 16 before beginning to fall back down.  As a result of these price increases, we saw a major jump in the overall price of gas we had to purchase so far for February.  The good news is that supply of natural gas in the marketplace is improving daily and prices have dropped significantly from their highs.  The bad news is that the price spikes will result in much higher gas bills for the month of February and will also impact the amount budget customers will see on their bills.  The February gas rate is posted on our website.

The rates you see on your February bill, though very high compared to what everyone is used to, will only recover a portion of the costs we incurred for the month.  We are working with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to come up with a plan to recover the remaining costs over several months to ease the burden these high prices could put on everyone’s budget.  For this reason, everyone should expect their gas rates to remain elevated for the next 4-8 months.