Columbia Gas customers who opt for the company's budget plan should have a little extra cash for gift-giving next month.

The company plans to reduce bills for budget customers by 20 percent in December, reflecting a drop in natural gas prices. The average budget bill will drop from $173 to $138, said spokesman George Stark.

"We're looking at costs, and that is not reflected (in current pricing)," he said.

When the company last reviewed its budget billing in July, the price of natural gas had just reached the peak of a six-month upswing, topping out 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.

Since then, prices plunged. Natural gas contracts recently have been trading for less than $7 per mmBTUs.

The change will affect 110,000 of the company's 412,000 customers.

Columbia will likely not be alone in reducing rates for its budget customers going forward.

Equitable Gas "adjusted down in October and we expect another adjustment down in January" for customers on its budget plan, spokesman Dave Spigelmyer said.

Dominion Peoples spokesman Elmore Lockley said that while the city's largest natural gas utility has no plans for an across-the-board reduction, individual budget customers may pay less.

"We take a look at a customers budget plan every other month," he said. "If the gas cost rate goes down, which this quarter it did, and their gas consumption is down then we make adjustments to that budget."