State prices
Near normalNorth Carolina propane prices
Current residential price: $3.638/gal, wholesale $1.235/gal. EIA weekly survey (October-March).
Data through Oct 26, 2026 · source last checked Oct 31, 2026 · page revised Oct 29, 2026
Cite
- Residential
- Wholesale
About this data
- Source
- EIA State Heating Oil and Propane Program survey
- Series
- Residential retail propane price
- Basis
- Residential, retail
- Geography
- North Carolina
- Unit
- $/gal
- Calculation
- Weekly survey, Oct-Mar heating season
- Last observation
- Oct 26, 2026
- Update frequency
- Weekly, Oct-Mar
Now $3.638/gal, 9.7% above the 5-yr median.
Residential propane in North Carolina stood at $3.638/gal on October 26, up 4.4 cents on the week and running 9.7% above the 5-year median. The wholesale benchmark priced at $1.235/gal the same day.
| Period | Current | Prior | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week over week | $3.638/gal | $3.595/gal | +1.2% |
| Year over year | $3.638/gal | $3.316/gal | +9.7% |
| vs 5-yr median | $3.638/gal | $3.316/gal | +9.7% |
| Heating season | Weeks | Average | Low (week) | High (week) | Wholesale average | vs Lower Atlantic average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 (so far) | 4 | $3.585/gal | $3.550/gal (Oct 5) | $3.638/gal (Oct 26) | $1.131/gal | -4.4 cents |
| 2025-26 | 26 | $3.358/gal | $3.286/gal (Oct 20) | $3.450/gal (Mar 30) | $0.839/gal | -6.4 cents |
| 2024-25 | 26 | $3.391/gal | $3.298/gal (Oct 28) | $3.493/gal (Jan 27) | $1.023/gal | -7.7 cents |
| 2023-24 | 26 | $3.297/gal | $3.186/gal (Oct 23) | $3.410/gal (Feb 19) | $0.908/gal | -8.0 cents |
| 2022-23 | 26 | $3.345/gal | $3.279/gal (Mar 27) | $3.428/gal (Oct 3) | $0.986/gal | -3.4 cents |
| 2021-22 | 26 | $3.391/gal | $3.282/gal (Oct 4) | $3.604/gal (Mar 7) | $1.417/gal | -6.8 cents |
Each season runs October through March. The average is the simple mean of that season's weekly readings, and the low and high name their survey week. The last column is North Carolina's residential price minus the Lower Atlantic residential average over the same weeks, per gallon.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Homes heating with propane | 257,374 |
| Share of occupied homes | 6.0% |
| Occupied homes (all fuels) | 4,282,345 |
| National rank by propane share | #22 of 51 |
Previous weeks
Week of Mar 30, 2026
North Carolina residential propane stood at $3.450/gal in the Mar 30 survey, up 1.7 cents on the week. The price sits 1.7% above the 4-year median, up 1.0 cent year-over-year.
About North Carolina propane prices
North Carolina sits at the end of the Dixie pipeline, the line that carries Gulf Coast propane across the Southeast and terminates near Apex. A direct pipeline connection is unusual for an East Coast state, and it is the main reason supply here is steadier than in New England. Demand mixes rural home heating in the Piedmont and the mountains with poultry and turkey houses and the propane-fired barns that cure the state's flue-cured tobacco.
This is a surveyed average rather than a quote. EIA polls a sample of North Carolina propane dealers weekly through the October to March heating season and publishes the state figure Wednesday afternoon; the series then goes quiet until October. EIA also surveys a wholesale price for North Carolina, 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 6.0% of occupied North Carolina homes, around the middle of the state rankings.
The regional numbers around this price are Lower Atlantic propane prices and Lower Atlantic propane stocks, the inventory that has to cover the winter. A price per gallon is not a delivery ticket. The propane usage calculator estimates gallons burned and what a fill costs at the current North Carolina survey price.
Common questions
What is the current propane price in North Carolina?
North Carolina's residential propane price is $3.638/gal as of Oct 26, 2026, the latest reading in EIA's weekly heating-season survey, with the wholesale (rack) price at $1.235/gal on Oct 26, 2026. The chart above carries the full history and the table shows the week-over-week move.
When is propane most expensive in North Carolina?
In EIA's weekly survey, which runs October through March, North Carolina's residential price set its season high in March in two of the last five heating seasons, October in one, January in one and February in one. The season low came in October in four of the last five heating seasons and March in one. From low to high the price moved an average of 21.1 cents a season, and the table above lists each season's high and low week. The regional wrinkle is that Lower Atlantic winters are milder, so the seasonal rise is usually shallower here, though poultry brooders and tobacco curing pull volume in the fall ahead of any real cold. Why propane prices rise in winter has the mechanics.
How does the North Carolina propane price compare with the Lower Atlantic average?
North Carolina's residential propane price averaged below the Lower Atlantic average in each of the last five heating seasons, by between 3.4 cents and 8.0 cents a gallon. In the Oct 26, 2026 survey North Carolina was at $3.638/gal against $3.699/gal for the Lower Atlantic average. The seasons table above gives the gap season by season, and Lower Atlantic propane prices carries the district's own chart.
What is the difference between the residential and wholesale price on this page?
The residential price is what a North Carolina household pays for a delivered gallon: the dealer's own cost plus trucking, tank service and margin. The wholesale price is that dealer cost at the rack, before any of it. The gap between the two is the delivered-service stack, and how propane is priced walks through each layer of it.