Office: 8013245495

QUESTAR GAS REQUESTS RATE INCREASE

SALT LAKE CITY  Questar Gas has filed an ammended application to the Wyoming Public Service Commission (PSC) to approve a $7 million increase in its Wyoming natural gas rates. If approved, the typical customer's annual bill will increase 29 percent or $19 a month. This change is requested to go into effect Jan. 1, 2001.

 The request is part of Questar's semiannual gascostadjustment or "passon" filing. Such filings enable the company to adjust rates each year to reflect changes in gassupply costs. These costs are passed on to the customer on a dollarfordollar basis with no markup.

 The increase is directly related to the sharp increase in natural gas prices that is occurring on a national level as a result of strong demand for natural gas  including the generation of electricity. Because of this situation, wellhead prices are up 200 percent since this time last year. And although natural gas producers are responding by increasing drilling efforts to provide more gas supplies, significant price relief isn't expected this winter.

 Over the past 15 years, Questar Gas has been able to keep rates relatively stable. In large part, this has been due to the fact that nearly half the natural gas Questar Gas provides customers comes from companyowned wells and is delivered to customers at "costofservice" pricing, which is considerably lower and more stable than for gas purchased from outside suppliers. Purchasedgas costs are now above $7 per decatherm (Dth), compared to $2.59 per Dth for company production. The availability of this lowcost companyowned production saved customers about $9 million in this filing. Customers should be aware that unusually cold weather this year has also contributed to higher gas bills. The weather, which is about 3540 percent colder than a year ago, has customers turning up their thermostats, using more gas.