Pennsylvania propane prices

Pennsylvania is a propane exporter. Marcellus and Utica gas processing produce far more natural gas liquids than the state burns, and the Mariner East pipelines carry propane, ethane and butane across Pennsylvania to Marcus Hook on the Delaware River, where cargoes load for overseas buyers. In-state demand is rural: the northern tier, the ridge and valley counties and the farm country, all outside the systems that serve Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Local production plus export pull makes the Pennsylvania price behave differently from its neighbors' in a tight winter.

This is a surveyed average rather than a quote. EIA polls a sample of Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania, 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 5.1% of occupied Pennsylvania homes, around the middle of the state rankings.

The regional numbers around this price are Central Atlantic propane prices and Central 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 Pennsylvania survey price.