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March 23, 2001
Naperville, Ill. – Nicor Gas has filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission an April 2001 Gas Supply Charge (GSC) of 53 cents per therm. This is the charge applied to gas usage during April and marks the second consecutive month Nicor has posted a 25 percent decrease in their gas rates. Natural gas costs on bills may differ from the natural gas cost reported here because a billing period usually spans more than one calendar month. The natural gas cost for any 30-day billing period is an average based on the number of days in each of those months. The GSC represents the commodity costs Nicor Gas incurs and passes on to its customers without markup.
"We're pleased that gas prices across the country have dropped so quickly over the past two months," said Phil Cali, executive vice president of operations. "We attribute the decrease to lower consumer demand due to warmer weather and conservation efforts by all of our customer categories. These costs are still higher than recent years, however, we continue to think costs will remain high for the next couple of years."
In response to the higher winter bills, Nicor customers have participated in record numbers to new budget programs introduced by the company to help customers this winter. More than 101,000 customers signed up for the Customer Payment plan introduced in November, which allows customers to combine past due balances and future bills into a monthly budget program. And the new Budget Plan launched in early March already has more that 25,000 customers signed up, raising the total budget plan participation to more than 450,000.
Nicor Gas has created a special section of its Web site to provide customers with the current information on natural gas costs including how to sign up for the new Budget Plan. The "Natural Gas Cost" site can be found at Nicor's home page, www.nicor.com.
Nicor Gas serves nearly two million customers in a service territory that encompasses most of the northern third of Illinois excluding the city of Chicago. The company has provided reliable gas services for more than 45 years.
Nicor (NYSE: GAS) is a holding company. Its principle businesses are Nicor Gas, one of the nation's largest gas distribution companies, and Tropical Shipping, a containerized shipping business that operates between Florida and the Caribbean. Nicor also owns several energy related subsidiaries and is a partner in Nicor Energy, a provider of unregulated energy products and services. For more information, visit the Nicor Web site at www.nicor.com. | 
