Aug. 5--Northwest Natural Gas Co. on Tuesday said it will likely cut 50 to 100 employees from its Oregon and Southwest Washington work force before the end of the year, mostly among those that serve new customers.

The company, which employs more than 1,100 workers, hasn't yet determined how the 26 employees in its Clark County service center will be affected by the cuts, said spokeswoman Kim Heiting.

The news came during a quarterly earnings conference call reporting that the company had a net income of $3.1 million in the quarter ending June 30, or 12 cents per share, down slightly from the $3.3 million in the same quarter last year. Net income for the first six months of 2009 increased 9 percent to $50.4 million from $46.5 million for the same period last year.

Natural gas prices have fallen from about $13 per decatherm last July to about $4 this July. The savings allowed NW Natural to refund $35 million to customers in June.

Washington customers will also benefit from a 10 to 15 percent rate reduction that the utility plans to request in August and expects to implement in November. A NW Natural customer with an average monthly bill of $90.55 for 62 therms will save $14 to $18 each month on heating. Oregon's rate reduction has already been approved.

Despite the company's higher profits, NW Natural has seen a 67 percent decrease in the number of new customers requesting service over the same time last year as a result of general declines in home construction and development, Heiting said. The utility has had a consistent 3 percent annual growth in new customers for more than 20 years as its service area expanded with population growth in the Pacific Northwest.

"We built our staffing in areas around new customer addition in construction, engineering, sales and marketing services to support 20,000 new customers a year," Heiting said. "But in the last year, we've seen a steep decline" in new customers.

As a result, NW Natural has eliminated 175 positions through attrition over the past 12 months. The company will take the same approach in the next downsizing to retain as many employees within other areas of the company as possible before announcing layoffs, said Heiting.

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