BOISE — Intermountain Gas Company customers are poised to see a price decrease in natural gas if a pending request is approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

An annual purchased gas cost adjustment application, provided to align what customers pay with the wholesale cost of gas, was submitted to the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, or IPUC, last week.

If approved, residential, small commercial and large-volume customers will see a decrease. Transport customers, who purchase their own natural gas wholesale but use Intermountain Gas infrastructure for transport, will see an increase.

The average decrease across all customers would be 3.49 percent for a total of $11,055,662 and would go into effect Oct. 1. The changes are primarily due to a decrease in the estimated market price of gas and transportation costs for the coming year, according to a release from the company.

Mark Snider, a spokesperson for Intermountain Gas, said the company does not earn a profit on the cost of natural gas; the cost is instead passed through straight to customers. "If the cost we had forecast for natural gas is less than what it actually was, we lower the rates and the cost of the gas to the consumer," Snider said.

Under the submitted request, a typical residential customer would see a monthly decrease of $1.46, or 3.25 percent, while commercial customers would see an average monthly decrease of $8.22, or 4.25 percent. The decrease is most significant for large-volume customers, who would see an average monthly decrease of $1,549.99, or 11.32 percent.

Transport customer increases depend on their classification. T-3 customers, who have interruptible transportation, will see monthly increases of $102.92, or 1.75 percent. T-4 customers with guaranteed, continuous delivery will have monthly costs rise by $159.01, or 3.27 percent.

The pending application is viewable on the IPUC website.