Weekly propane and heating oil prices
Source: EIA’s State Heating Oil and Propane Program (SHOPP). EIA surveys residential prices every Monday from early October to late March and publishes them on Wednesday after 1 p.m. Eastern. The site downloads the full weekly history for every state, region (PADD) and the U.S. after each release.
- Week-over-week change: this survey minus the previous one, if the previous survey is no more than 10 days earlier.
- Year-over-year change: against the survey of the previous season closest to the same day of the season (within 4 days). The season starts October 1.
- Season to date: against the first survey of the current season.
- 10-season range for this week: the price at the same point of each of the previous 10 seasons (closest survey within 4 days). We show the lowest, highest and median and say how many of those seasons were cheaper than now. A state needs at least 5 such seasons.
- When prices are usually lowest: for each of the last 10 complete seasons, the average price of each month October–March; we count which month was cheapest and take the median change from October.
- Rank: among states with a survey in the latest week.
All prices are nominal dollars, including taxes, for residential delivery. They are averages, not quotes.
Cost per million Btu and the winter estimate
Cost per million Btu delivered = price ÷ (heat content per unit ÷ 1,000,000) ÷ efficiency.
| Fuel | Heat content | Default efficiency | Price used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propane | 91,452 Btu/gal | 85% | Latest weekly state price; regional or U.S. average if the state is not surveyed |
| Heating oil | 138,500 Btu/gal | 85% | Same as propane |
| Natural gas | 1,036,000 Btu/Mcf | 90% | Last complete winter (Nov–Mar), weighted by gas delivered |
| Heat pump | 3,412 Btu/kWh | COP 2.5 | Residential electricity price, year to date (EIA Electric Power Monthly table 5.6.B) |
| Electric resistance | 3,412 Btu/kWh | 100% | Same as heat pump |
| Kerosene (calculator only) | 135,000 Btu/gal | 85% | Entered by the reader |
Heat contents are EIA’s published conversion factors. Natural gas is winter-weighted because the residential price per Mcf includes fixed customer charges, which inflate the summer figure when little gas is used.
Winter estimate. Heat to deliver (Btu) = normal heating degree days × floor area × heat-loss factor. The default house is 2,000 sq ft at 5 Btu per sq ft per degree day (3.5 for “tight, newer” and 7 for “older, drafty” in the calculator). Normal degree days are the 1991–2020 average of NOAA’s statewide, population-weighted monthly heating degree days (nClimDiv), computed by us from the monthly series. The District of Columbia uses Maryland’s series; Alaska and Hawaii have no statewide series, so their heating-cost pages carry the per-Btu comparison only and are kept out of search indexes.
The estimate covers space heating only. It is a rule of thumb for comparing fuels, not a prediction of a particular bill.
Average natural gas bill
For each month: residential gas delivered in the state ÷ number of residential customers = gas per customer; × the residential price = average bill. We sum the latest 12 consecutive months in which EIA reports all three numbers. Customer counts are annual; each month uses the latest count at or before its year.
Tank fills
Propane tanks are filled to 80% of their water capacity. For heating oil we assume 90% of the nominal tank size is usable. Gallons delivered = size × (fill limit − current gauge reading).
Which pages exist
A state gets a propane or heating oil page only if EIA surveyed it in the latest season and there are at least three seasons of history. Pages that would be thin, such as heating-cost pages without degree-day data, are marked noindex and left out of the sitemap.
Updates
A scheduled job downloads the source files, recomputes everything and rebuilds the site. If a source is unreachable, the last good copy is used. This build: November 4, 2026, data through the week of October 26, 2026.