For some Americans struggling to make ends meet, this coming winter may be even harsher.

A US Energy Information Administration energy outlook, released on Wednesday, projected that costs for average home heating will increase this coming winter more than any past winter: a 3% increase is projected for natural gas users, 7% for propane users and 8% for heating oil users. These estimates account for projections that this coming winter (October – March) will also be milder than previous winters and homeowners will therefore be using less energy overall.

Increasing stores of domestic natural gas are keeping winter natural gas heating prices low. According to the outlook, US natural gas inventories ended September 2011 at 3.4 trillion cubic feet(Tcf), about 2.6%, or 91 billion cubic feet (Bcf), below the 2010 end‐of‐September level, but the Department of Energy’s statistics and analysis body expects inventories to reach last year’s level by season’s end.

Industry insiders claim that the newly drilled Utica Shale will be an energy game changer for the natural gas markets. Read more: Utica Shale May Be Its Own Energy Game-Changer.

Read more from the EIA document by downloading it from the top right of this article.