How it can affect your account
ONG advised all its customers on Sunday that the price of natural gas is increasing. This, coupled with the historical usage rates, could eventually affect customers’ bills immediately and over a longer period of time.
Shortridge pointed out that it could not make a profit on the gas it sells to its customers.
However, the price it pays for the fuel over an average period of time is passed on to customers through periodic rate adjustments reviewed and authorized by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission’s Public Utilities Division. These authorizations are carried out as part of tariff matters filed by the utilities, which are approved by elected commissioners every year or so.
Over the past few years, fuel cost adjustments have usually been sought on a semi-annual basis, as natural gas prices have been relatively stable.
After an event like this that took place in 2000, natural gas utilities adjusted their fuel costs monthly until the markets came to an end, an agency spokesman said Sunday.