Utility to Pay $7.07 Average Credit

Southern Californians will receive a larger than expected credit on their June gas bills, Southern California Gas Co. said Thursday.

In April, the gas company announced that it would pass on to its 4 million customers the $63 million received from its suppliers as a result of a series of federal court actions that retroactively changed the formula for determining the price of natural gas based on the fuel’s heating content.

Since then, a spokesman said, the company has accumulated another $13.6 million in refunds--a total of $76.6 million--from its gas suppliers.

The increase will mean that residential customers will receive an average credit of $7.07 on their June bills rather than $5.40. However, the precise amount of the credit will be determined by the customer’s gas consumption from May, 1984, to last month.

Refunds for commercial and industrial customers will be based on consumption from October, 1981, through July, 1983.

Because of the court actions, which altered a pricing formula developed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, SoCal Gas has been receiving refunds for overcharges from its natural gas suppliers--charges that the company, in turn, had passed on to its customers. Gas producers have since been recalculating rates for the affected periods and making refunds to distributors such as SoCal Gas.