Guides
US propane, explained
How the numbers on this site actually work: inventories against the five-year band, the Mont Belvieu hub, PADDs, the winter price survey. Each guide is built on the same live data as the trackers, so the examples are real and current.
Prices and how they move
How propane is priced: from Mont Belvieu to your tank
Propane is priced in layers: a wholesale hub price set at Mont Belvieu Texas or Conway Kansas, then the cost of moving it by pipeline, rail and truck, then the retailer's delivery, tank, service and margin. That stack is why the price delivered to a home can run two to three times the hub price, and more when the hub is cheap.
Why propane prices rise in winter
Propane prices tend to rise in winter because heating demand is packed into October through March while propane is produced at a steady rate all year. Storage built over the summer bridges the gap, so the signal to watch is how fast that stored supply draws down, not any single weekly print.
Mont Belvieu TET vs non-TET propane: what the OPIS labels mean
TET and non-TET are not grades of propane. They are storage systems inside the Mont Belvieu hub, and OPIS publishes a daily price for each: TET for the original Texas Eastern storage, now Energy Transfer's and also called LST, and non-TET for Enterprise's storage.
The data behind the site
Understanding EIA propane data (what this site is built on)
This site runs on two EIA data streams: a weekly survey of residential and wholesale propane prices that runs only during the October-through-March heating season, and weekly propane inventories that run all year. Knowing which stream a number comes from, and when it updates, is the whole trick to reading the site.
Propane inventories and the 5-year average
Propane inventories measured against their five-year band are the clearest single read on how tight or comfortable the market is. When stocks sit above the band the market is well supplied; when they fall below it, supply is tight, and the rate of the move matters as much as the level.
The EIA Petroleum Status Report, explained
The Weekly Petroleum Status Report is the US Energy Information Administration's weekly accounting of the petroleum system, released Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern and covering the week ended the prior Friday. For propane it carries the four series that matter: stocks, production, imports and exports, and product supplied, EIA's proxy for demand.
Geography and supply
What are PADDs?
A PADD is a Petroleum Administration for Defense District, one of five regions the US government has used to group states for petroleum data since World War II. PADD 1 is the East Coast, PADD 2 the Midwest, PADD 3 the Gulf Coast, PADD 4 the Rocky Mountains and PADD 5 the West Coast.
The US propane market, explained
The US propane market runs on four moving parts: production, mostly a byproduct of natural gas processing rather than something drilled for on purpose, the Mont Belvieu storage hub that prices the whole country, a storage cycle that builds all summer to cover a winter heating season, and exports, which have made the US the world's dominant propane supplier since 2010 and put a floor under the domestic price.
Propane at home
How much propane does a home use?
A whole-home propane household, one that heats, makes hot water and cooks with propane, typically burns somewhere between 800 and 1,200 gallons a year, most of it in the heating months. Space heat is the big driver, so a cold-climate home can use far more and a cooking-only home far less.
How do propane pre-buy programs work?
A propane pre-buy is a contract where you pay a dealer up front for a set number of gallons at a price fixed when you sign, then take delivery of those gallons through the heating season. In EIA's weekly survey, the US residential price averaged more in January and February than in the first October week in each of the five seasons from 2021-22 through 2025-26.
Propane vs heat pump: which costs less to run?
A heat pump costs less to run than a propane furnace whenever its efficiency, the heat it delivers per unit of electricity, beats a break-even set by your electricity and propane prices. At EIA's national averages for March 30, 2026 propane and January-June 2026 electricity, that break-even is about 1.7, which an ENERGY STAR heat pump clears over a standard season, while ENERGY STAR's cold-climate minimum at 5°F, a COP of 1.75, only roughly matches it.
Is there a difference in propane quality?
For home heating, very little: US propane is made to published industry specifications that cap what else can be in the tank besides propane, so one dealer's gallon burns much like another's. Where quality does differ, it is in the grade a use calls for (HD-5 is the tighter grade specified for vehicles), in contamination and in the service around the fuel.