If you’re cold this month, don’t fear cranking the heat up just a tad more. You can afford it.

Warmer weather and burgeoning stockpiles of natural gas have pushed prices this month down to their lowest point for gas this month of the year since 1996.

“A 20-year low is just remarkable,” said Chris Kozak, a spokesman for Columbia Gas of Ohio.

This month the utility’s price for its residential customers is 37 cents per hundred cubic feet. That is based on a Nymex market closing price of 24 cents per hundred cubic feet, plus 13 cents for a state-approved service fee.

The low price means the average residential natural gas bill for January will be $98.73, a decrease of $27.87 from the average expected bill of $126.60 in January, 2015. Last January, the rate charged by Columbia Gas was 46 cents per hundred cubic feet.

Overall, customer bills are nearly 40 percent below the average bill in 2008 and the lowest since 1996, when the rate was 30 cents per hundred cubic feet.

Mr. Kozak said the cost is being driven down by U.S. natural gas production, which is at a historic high. Last week storage levels of natural gas were at a record 4 trillion cubic feet.

Additionally, Columbia Gas said that, during the Nov. 30-Dec. 30 period average, temperatures in its service territory were 30 percent above normal.

“Our predictions also say the Jan.-March period has a 40 percent probability of being warmer than normal,” Mr. Kozak said.

Just 11 years ago when most natural gas came from wells in the Gulf of Mexico — and supplies were often threatened by hurricanes — the January rate for natural gas in Ohio was $1.34 per hundred cubic feet.

But now, the majority of natural gas comes from shale formations in the Appalachians in an area known as the Marcellus range.

Robert Stitt Black, president of the Waterville Gas Co., said usually low gas prices leads to lower production and eventually, higher prices. But that isn’t occurring right now.

“The fact is, they’re just producing a lot of gas, and these producers need to keep producing it to pay their debt obligations. The producers are in a tight spot,” he said.

Still, Mr. Black, a veteran of the natural gas industry, said even he is surprised at the record supply levels and low cost in the middle of winter. Last year, his company’s January price for natural gas was 39 cents per hundred cubic feet, and he thought that was the lowest it could go.

“It is surprising, but when you consider the temperatures we’ve had up until now, you can understand it. The fourth quarter in 2015 was the warmest on record,” he said. Gas was accumulated faster than it could be utilized, Mr. Black added.

“That’s good for the consumers. They can keep their thermostats a little higher if they want,” he said.

Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.

First Published January 13, 2016, 5:00 a.m.