Wyoming Watches Natural Gas Prices Slide

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming continues to monitor slumping natural gas prices that officials say threaten to cost the state millions in lost tax revenues.

The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports (http://bit.ly/HTsiE1 ) that natural gas prices averaged $2.10 per thousand cubic feet at the Opal Hub in western Wyoming through the first few weeks of March. That’s down from $2.52 in February. This time last year, gas prices averaged nearly $3.80 per thousand cubic feet.

The current price is far below the $3.25 per thousand cubic feet average price that the state predicted in January for this year.

Bill Mai is budget and fiscal manager with the Legislative Service Office. He says every one-dollar decline in natural gas prices costs the state about $114 million a year in lost tax revenues.