About
About The Fill Line
Public propane data, read the way the trade reads it, with no forecast attached.
What this is
The Fill Line is a weekly brief plus a set of always-current data pages on the US propane market: residential and wholesale prices by state and region, inventories against their five-year band, the Mont Belvieu spot, and the weekly supply picture of production, exports, imports and demand. It is built for the people who have to act on the numbers: retailers and marketers, co-op energy managers, commercial buyers, and households with a big tank and a pre-buy decision every summer.
Who writes it
The Fill Line is published by Alex Willen. The data pages are generated from the public record on a fixed schedule; the weekly brief reads what moved and writes it up in plain English. Every hard number on every page traces back to the agency that published it.
Where the numbers come from
Prices come from the US Energy Information Administration's weekly heating-season survey (the State Heating Oil and Propane Program). Inventories, production, exports, imports and product supplied come from EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The Mont Belvieu spot is EIA's daily series. Heating degree days come from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. Nothing here is estimated, interpolated, or sourced from a private data vendor.
How often it updates
The weekly EIA data lands Wednesdays; the pipeline pulls it and one brief goes out a week. The spot series updates daily. Every data page carries a visible "Last updated" date so you know exactly how fresh the reading is before you use it.
What we will and will not do
We report public data and attribute every hard number to its source. We do not forecast prices, stocks or exports, and we never tell a reader when to lock a contract, pre-buy, fill a tank or hedge. Where we cite EIA's Short-Term Energy Outlook, it is reported as EIA's forecast, with attribution. We are not investment, hedging or purchasing advice; decisions are yours to make with your own counsel and the primary data.
New here? Start with how to read this, or see the exact math behind every comparison on the methodology page.