MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource Inc., announced today a decrease in its gas cost adjustment (GCA) for February 2000.

This adjustment, which was approved subject to refund by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), represents a 2.1 percent decrease in a typical residential customer's bill from January 2000 and a 1.4 percent increase when compared with February 1999. NIPSCO's business and commercial gas customers will see similar impacts on their February billing statements.

For example, a typical NIPSCO residential customer using 200 therms of natural gas during February should expect a $2.40 decrease in their February billing statement, when compared to last month and a $1.58 increase when compared to February last year.

The decrease in February's GCA is primarily due to weakening demands attributed to expected above normal temperatures for February, and sufficient storage inventories nationally.

NIPSCO is committed to providing its customers with reliable natural gas supplies at the lowest possible cost. To do this, NIPSCO continuously seeks to improve its purchase contracts and its storage and transmission costs in an effort to ensure the most competitive price for its customers and ease the effect of market price fluctuations on their monthly billing statements.