Not all local homeowners are benefitting from the fourth-quarter rate decreases recently announced by Pittsburgh's three natural gas utilities. Those on budget plans or with extended contracts still might find themselves paying rates based on near-record wholesale prices for the commodity.

Tom Haberman was one of those. Mr. Haberman, 61, of Carrick, said that he was paying Columbia Gas $162 a month on their budget plan until August, when he received a notification that his budget payment was being increased to $242 a month, a 49 percent increase.

"It was shocking. Shocking!" he said.

He called Columbia, and negotiated a reduction to $218 -- still significantly more than his previous monthly bill, and arguably contrary to the central idea of budget plans, which is to remove the shock factor from one's monthly gas bill by evening out monthly payments rather than have them fluctuate by season.

Mr. Haberman was far from alone. All of Columbia's 110,000 customers statewide on the budget plan have been affected by an adjustment made in July that brought significant increases in monthly bills, said company spokesman George Stark.

Mr. Stark said that the increase was based on a couple of factors. First, the wholesale price of natural gas rose steeply during the first half of the year. When budget plans were being recalculated in July, the wholesale price of natural gas was above $13 per million British Thermal Units (mmBTUs), a price that has only been exceeded during the record-setting run-up after Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma.

Second, with at least two months of hurricane season remaining, followed by the likely onset of cold weather, the expectation was that the price of natural gas would continue to rise.

Nearly as soon as Columbia made its July adjustment, the wholesale price of natural gas began dropping like a stone. In recent days, contracts for natural gas have traded for $7 to $8 per mmBTUs.

On Wednesday, for customers who are not on the budget plan, the company set a "gas cost recovery rate" the rate that it adjusts quarterly to comply with state law that says it may neither make nor lose money on natural gas, at $13.14 per mcf. That is an 18 percent decrease from the previous quarter's rate of $15.94.

Are Columbia's budget customers stuck indefinitely with an approximately 50 percent increase in their bills, while their nonbudget neighbors benefit from a price decrease?

No, says Mr. Stark.

He said that Columbia reviews budget plan accounts in November, January and February, and "if the trend holds, budget payments are likely to drop" in November, a month in which they usually go up.

The company "is doing everything we can" to bring budget customers' billing more in line with market costs for gas for November, he said.

"We're trying to bring some predictability or stability to customers," he said, "but what scares me is the volatile nature of gas costs ... it's the volatility that got us in July."

Mr. Haberman has opted out of volatility by switching natural gas suppliers. He has signed on for a two-year contract with Dominion Peoples Plus, with a rate of $10.99 per mcf.

"I'm assuming my monthly bill will be lower," he said. "It better be."