its domestic natural gas prices by an average of 2.99 percent, effective immediately, in a bid to reflect increased import costs for liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The price hike, the first in four months, will affect factory users and power plants, as well as city gas companies.

If based on a monthly consumption of 30 cubic meters of natural gas, each household user is estimated to face an additional expense of NT$12 per month on natural gas, according to CPC officials.

The officials continued that the CPC would suffer a loss of NT$10 billion a year from sales of natural gas, because its price has yet to fully reflect the increased LNG import costs. The cost of importing liquefied natural gas surged 23 percent from a year earlier in the first 10 months of 2006, according to the island’s energy bureau.

After the hike, the price for the fuel processed from imported LNG will reach NT$14.9359 (US$46 cents) a cubic meter for industrial users and NT$13.92 for city gas companies, the officials said.

LNG, which accounts for more than 90 percent of Taiwan’s gas demand, is gas cooled to liquid form so it can be transported by vessels over long distances to markets that aren’t connected by pipelines.

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