Mad gas price

johnfuller108

I can't find earlier references to this...

Why is it that the price of natural gas is so low - whereas our domestic gas bill went up about 100% in a year .... and, as far as I know, has yet to come down again??

Natural gas futures currently stand at their Sept 04 low level -
[http://charts3.barchart.com/chart.asp?vol=Y&jav=adv&grid=Y&org=stk&sym=NGV6&data=E&code=BSTK&evnt=adv]
.....and that doesn't even take inflation into account. That means, it is cheaper than it was 2 years ago!

It went up for about 6 months around last July, and our gas bills did too. But did they go down again afterwards with the natural gas price?? Nat gas has been low for about 8 months now...

Maybe they did; but I don't think so.

If not, what could be the reason?
Am I a conspiracy paranoid in wondering if the gas companies have formed a cartel?

John

Turning_into_scrooge

I can't understand why i'm paying #70 a month gas having only i boiler i gas cooker i gas fire and i gas radiator. I am poaying double what my brother pays with a full central heating system.

stugib

johnfuller108 wrote:

If not, what could be the reason?

Time lag. The reason they give IIRC is that they have to 'buy' their gas supplies months in advance, so we're still using the expensive gas they bought months ago. Hence, they were predicting a few months back that prices would start coming down again in January 07. They'd also claim that they didn't pass on the full amount of the increased price so are spreading the increased costs over a longer period of time.

As competition seems negligable I'd expect this will eventually need regulator intervention.

johnfuller108

Thanks for that answer. It sounds sort of reasonable, but I would expect it to come down quite a lot to get things level again.

Hopefully there are plenty of shart people on our case.....

john

Turning_into_scrooge

stugib wrote:

Time lag. The reason they give IIRC is that they have to 'buy' their gas supplies months in advance, so we're still using the expensive gas they bought months ago. Hence, they were predicting a few months back that prices would start coming down again in January 07. They'd also claim that they didn't pass on the full amount of the increased price so are spreading the increased costs over a longer period of time.

As competition seems negligable I'd expect this will eventually need regulator intervention.

The sooner the better as i know many people who cannot afford to have heating on anymore, these people need it due to health problems.

Trout69

Turning_into_scrooge wrote:

I can't understand why i'm paying #70 a month gas having only i boiler i gas cooker i gas fire and i gas radiator. I am poaying double what my brother pays with a full central heating system.

I had a problem last year...i was paying about £40 a month for gas, bare in mind i lived in a 1 bedroom cottage and was out from 0800am to 1800pm. I would put the heating on for a couple of hours an evening then go to bed. I had an open fire so very rarely had the heating on for longer than this....

I just couldnt understand how i was being charged such a vast amount. Fair do's i had a gas cooker, but im sure 30 mins to cook my dinner couldnt possibly cost me that much...

Regards

Donna

johnfuller108

Time lag. The reason they give IIRC is that they have to 'buy' their gas supplies months in advance, so we're still using the expensive gas they bought months ago. Hence, they were predicting a few months back that prices would start coming down again in January 07. They'd also claim that they didn't pass on the full amount of the increased price so are spreading the increased costs over a longer period of time.

As competition seems negligable I'd expect this will eventually need regulator intervention.


I heard today that gas is going up again!!!??