By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter
Natural gas bills for Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) are set to drop this month after CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday cut prices of gas for power generation, as a result of the easing tensions between the US and Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.CPC is cutting liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices for power generators by 4.72 percent this month to NT$19.5246 (US$0.61) per cubic meter, the state-run company said in a statement.Last month, CPC held LNG prices for power generators unchanged after raising prices by 50.92 percent in April and May as conflicts in the Middle East escalated.
CPC Corp, Taiwan’s third liquefied natural gas terminal storage tank in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District is pictured in an undated photograph.
CPC yesterday kept natural gas prices for households, the service sector and industrial users unchanged this month to help stabilize overall consumer prices and ease pressure on families and small businesses, it said.“The tensions in the Middle East have eased, and international oil and gas prices have fallen. However, progress in US-Iran negotiations remains to be seen,” the company said in the statement.
The price cuts should be welcome for Taipower, which reported a pretax loss of NT$14.4 billion for the first five months of this year yesterday due to high fuel costs, even though its electricity sales increased compared to the same period last year.The state utility’s accumulated losses stood at NT$351.1 billion at the end of last year and widened to NT$367.2 billion by the end of May, it said.Taipower charges higher electricity rates for residential and commercial users from June 1 to Sept. 30, which is expected to improve the company’s financial conditions over the three months.If fuel prices stabilize and CPC cuts natural gas prices again in the months ahead, pressure on Taipower’s electricity rate hikes would likely ease further.A government-convened electricity price review committee is to meet at the end of September to decide on electricity rates for the period between October and March next year.
