Texas propane prices

Texas produces more propane than any other state and burns very little of it at home. Mont Belvieu, the salt-cavern hub that prices US propane and loads most of its exports, sits just east of Houston. The retail market EIA surveys is a different thing entirely: ranch houses and small towns across the Hill Country, West Texas and the Panhandle, far enough from a gas main to run on a tank and far enough from the coast that the delivered price carries real freight.

The price above comes from EIA's State Heating Oil and Propane Program, which surveys a sample of retail dealers in Texas once a week and publishes the state average on Wednesday afternoon. It runs October through March only, so nothing new prints between April and September. EIA also surveys a wholesale price for Texas, plotted as the lower line. The distance between the two is the delivered-service stack, and it widens when the rack falls faster than dealers reprice. The Census Bureau's American Community Survey, on five-year estimates, puts propane as the main heating fuel in 2.9% of occupied Texas homes, below the national middle.

The regional numbers around this price are Gulf Coast propane prices and Gulf Coast propane stocks, the inventory that has to cover the winter. Estimate your fill cost with the propane usage calculator, which works from tank size, gauge reading and what the household burns.