Why prices are moving
Above normalWhy are propane prices falling right now?
$0.685/gal at Mont Belvieu as of Aug 25, 2026. The US wholesale benchmark has risen the past 4 weeks.
Data through Aug 25, 2026 · source last checked Aug 26, 2026 · page revised Aug 26, 2026
Cite
- Spot
About this data
- Source
- EIA daily spot price
- Series
- Mont Belvieu propane spot price
- Basis
- FOB Mont Belvieu
- Geography
- Mont Belvieu, TX
- Unit
- $/gal
- Calculation
- Daily (business days)
- Last observation
- Aug 25, 2026
- Update frequency
- Daily
The Mont Belvieu spot price has risen, up 2.4 cents (+3.6%) over the past 4 weeks (since Jul 28, 2026). US propane inventories are 18.6% above their same-week 5-yr median (EIA weekly). The market is in the build season, when inventories are normally rebuilt for the coming winter.
Propane prices are not falling right now. The Mont Belvieu benchmark has risen and is up 2.4 cents (+3.6%) over the past 4 weeks (since Jul 28, 2026). For the current picture, see Why are propane prices rising right now?.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $0.685/gal | $0.723/gal | -5.3% |
| vs 4 weeks ago | $0.685/gal | $0.678/gal | +1.0% |
| Year over year | $0.685/gal | $0.678/gal | +1.0% |
| vs 5-yr median | $0.685/gal | $0.775/gal | -11.6% |
What makes propane prices fall
The same structure that pushes propane prices up works in reverse to bring them down, and because propane supply does not respond to propane demand (it is a byproduct of oil and gas production), falling stretches can run long: production keeps arriving whether or not anyone needs heat.
Crude oil is the most common leader. Propane trades alongside the other natural gas liquids, and a declining crude market usually pulls the Mont Belvieu hub down with it, regardless of season.
Inventory builds are the supply-side release valve. From roughly April through September the market rebuilds stocks for the next winter, and when production runs ahead of exports and domestic demand, the build runs fat. Stocks sitting above their five-year band read as an ample cushion, and prices tend to ease without any single dramatic event behind it.
Mild weather is the demand-side counterpart. A warm stretch in deep winter cuts heating-degree-day demand, slows the inventory draw, and lets the market loosen in what is normally its tightest season. A winter that ends early does the same thing to the whole back half of the heating season.
Export lulls remove the floor. When overseas buying slows, whether from soft Asian petrochemical demand or a closed shipping arbitrage, the Gulf Coast barrels that would have loaded onto export cargoes stay home, supply backs up in domestic storage, and the hub softens.
The shoulder seasons are the calendar's own downward pull. Propane demand troughs between the end of the heating season and the start of the next one, with only crop drying in the fall to interrupt the lull, so a price that eases into April is often demand returning to its seasonal floor rather than a new development.
Retail falls slower than wholesale. Dealers price deliveries off inventory bought weeks earlier, so a falling hub reaches the residential tank gradually, and the survey price (published October through March) can still be easing after the hub has already turned. The rising twin of this page covers the same factors running the other way.