Well if it's propane I could see an issue. Propane can turn to liquid and freeze in the line especially near the regulator.
Exactly what I was thinking. Propane remains a liquid at 100 F at a pressure of 177 psig. And it doesn't need to freeze to cause problems. Gas regulators really hate ingesting liquids.
On the other hand, I am not aware of any city-wide distribution systems that use propane. If the natural gas supply line pressure is high enough, I suppose you might get JT cooling effects at high enough flow rates that would liquify a portion of the gas as it exits into the low pressure areas of the regulator and that might cause some equipment problems. Hence the homemade "preheater". This is common in the semiconductor industry where there are some gases (BCl3, NH3)) which need to be vaporized before they are introduced into the regulator assembly of a gas control cabinet.
All that said, I find the circumstances puzzling, especially if the gas feed is in fact natural gas. Convenience stores don't strike me as the kind of facility that would need to preheat their gas.