Montana propane prices

Montana carries one of the highest propane heating shares in the country and some of its longest delivery routes. Refineries at Billings and Laurel and gas processing in the eastern part of the state put some supply in state, but reaching a ranch in the northeast corner still means a long haul on winter roads. Cold arrives early here and stays, which makes a dealer's fall fill schedule matter more than any single week's price.

EIA builds this number by calling retail dealers in Montana each week of the October to March heating season and averaging what they report, published Wednesday afternoon. The survey stops for the summer and picks back up in October. EIA publishes no wholesale price for Montana, so the chart carries the residential line alone. The wholesale series runs at the regional level instead, on the Rocky Mountain price page. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, on five-year estimates, puts propane as the main heating fuel in 13.0% of occupied Montana homes, well above the national middle. That is a large block of homes to keep supplied through a cold January.

For context beyond one state, Montana sits in the Rocky Mountain district: regional prices and Rockies and West Coast propane stocks. The propane usage calculator will estimate your fill cost at this price: gallons per burner-hour from an appliance's rating, gallons a year, and how long a tank of a given size lasts between deliveries.