Washington (Platts)--4Oct2012/1143 am EDT/1543 GMT

US gas customers may see their average winter heating bills increase by 7% compared to last year due to colder weather, though total winter heating bills will still be among the lowest in the past decade, the American Gas Association said Thursday.

"The total bill probably will be a little bit higher this year than it was last year, mainly because weather is going to not be the warmest it has ever been," Bruce McDowell, the director of policy analysis at AGA, said at a press briefing.

The upcoming winter is expected to be 14% colder than last year, according to the group, which represents local distribution companies. This weather change will offset an expected 2% decrease in gas prices and a 4% increase in conservation.

"Because you have more use per customer, that means the bills are going to go up," McDowell said. "But prices, we expect to be not moving much at all," he said.

"If [gas prices] move, there should be a downward effect on that because the price was cheap when they were putting it into storage, when they were doing their financial planning in terms of hedging," he added.

AGA also surveyed its members and found that there were not rate changes that would make bills go up significantly, McDowell said.

--Kate Winston, catherine_winston@platts.com

--Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com

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