This is a screenshot from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
While we have headlines like this from Los Angeles Times:
Propane shortage reaches emergency levels.
With frigid temperatures expected to continue, suppliers are rationing propane and officials are urging consumers to conserve it. Some accuse suppliers of price gouging.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-propane-shortage-20140126,0,2263871.story#ixzz2rc6TtinH
Bulldog sent us this from the Wisconsin State Journal:
Kind of suspect of them to be exporting in the middle of one of the coldest winters we have had in a long time. We should have first crack at it here before they start giving it to other countries. I keep a pretty good supply of it here and my camper always has two full tanks. I am going to go fill up a couple of my tanks this afternoon. I never do the propane exchanges. They don’t fill them up all the way. Always take your tanks and have them filled. I will check the prices compared to a couple of weeks ago.
Let us know what you find out, Bulldog.
just got off the phone with KOA locally. They had a delivery Friday and it went up .30 per gallon. It is now $20.50 for a 5 gallon refill. She said they told her the next delivery was probably going up as well.
This will probably start a run on propane the same way they did with ammo. I wonder if it is by design????
Just got off the phone with a local hardware store here in Louisiana. THey were offering a refill for 15.00 last week. They have now went up to 22.45. SHe said the driver told her the next delivery will be more as well. He told her that they didn’t used to be able to export it and for some reason now they can, so they are selling as much as they can over seas.
I am going to go fill all of mine up in minute.
There will be a run in the next few days in my opinion.
You all got me curious about the price of propane. I have a 172 gallon tank and use it for hot water and cooking (not heating to expensive). Anyway I just called my propane company here in Southern California and it’s an amazing $5.14 PER GALLON!!! As the late Chris Farley would say “Holy Shirmankeee.”
Had you pushed the listen button at the top of the page, at 12:00 Pacific time, you would be completely informed. I just got off the air and do not feel up to going over it all again.
You can hear what we had to say here: http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/the-word-from-the-trenches-january-27-2014/73968
Prices are up a full 20+ % here Bulldog, and they are going to get higher. 🙁 . Yea Bulldog, you are damned right sayin` we need first crack at any propane or other heating/auto/truckers fuel before any other country gets it.
Yea, I am afraid that here in Wi. that we are going to see a lot of people freezing to death this winter with the propane prices going up again – 20+ % because of propane shortages, yea right. Yea, and now there was another big explosion up in canada again saturday or sunday. This is all a part of the big plan of things to eliminate people by freezing to death. Yep, it is going to be brutal for sure. 🙁 Yea, even the small wood suppliers are jewing people on their wood. Yep, I have already gone through 120% more fire wood than last year and the price of fire wood is up atleast 50% if ya can even find fire wood as I have talked to some people and they have said that they cannot afford it if they can even find any for sale – they just do not have enough money to pay for it. I am lucky as I`ve got some woods in the back yard – reallydo not want to have to cut that though, which is th reason for buying it these last few years.
Heck Dan, I use firewood exclusively, as living off the grid, propane is the only other source for heat. I cut my own firewood to save money, and there’s plenty of dead timber close to me.
I only use the propane for the hot water heater and stove and oven. It’s almost $3.00 a gallon here now!
Yep, I have used wood as my heat and also for my cooking for the most part – cannot be beat 😉 . Still thinking about moveing perhaps to a place much like yours. Gotta sell my place first though. No realators involved though. Any offers over 55,000 any one ?
My two cents. Prior to going to FTTWR I called for a home tank refill. After reading the article, I got back on the phone and asked the lady if prices had gone up,”Oh, gosh yes,” was her reply. ” In the last 2 weeks 5 gal. tanks jumped 2 dollars, and propane for home refills has gone up 40 cents.” Even she sounded a bit shocked. Small tank refills are 17.00, and home tank refills are 2.80 per gal. This is in TX. Not as pricey as some of you folks in the North. Stay warm!
I got lucky. I just got back from a small time store that hasn’t had a refill in over a week. I paid 2.59/gallon, where as every place that has been refilled over the weekend wants between 4.10 and 4.59/gallon.
You can bet all of my propane tanks are now topped off!
That would mean that the price has went up between 1.51 and 2.00/gallon in a week!
There should be no shortage or price increase for this abundant resource. You can thank the greenmovement. (Agenda 21 or the UN). They are making it impossible to live in the (cold) rural settings. They want to depopulate the prairies.
The Bakken oil field contain a lot of C3. Page 6 of the following PDF shows 13% in the oil produced by Hess.
http://www.platts.com/IM.Platts.Content/ProductsServices/ConferenceandEvents/2013/pc318/presentations/Michael_Lutz.pdf
I heat with sticks, too. A face-cord went from $50 last year to $70 this year, and that keeps me warm for a week to ten days.
I hope you propane proponents stay warm. Good luck. I like wood because I can always get my hands on some of the stuff, even if it means burning the floorboards, but for propane, you always need cash.
JR,
We don’t use it for heating here. I mainly keep it for prepping. I always keep “a little” around just in case. It is a good fuel to have around when the SHTF.
Plus, I gotta grill some chicken 🙂
That`s what I say too JR .
If you have to BUY wood, its not the cheaper alternative
I cut, split haul and stack my own, all I pay for it is my time labor and equipment and that’s enough
anyone buying wood to heat with , it is not economical at all
This is a side manipulation of the energies sector/fuels used for heating and co-generation(JUST LIKE OBUMMER OUTLAWING COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS AND NOW ALL POWER BILLS ARE AT LEAST DOUBLED). the govt induces an artificial shortage and then bets on the shorts just like wall street did with the derivatives bubble. take heed on this phenomenon as this will become the norm with any consumer commodity which is used for basic living and survival. try and purchase large tanks(30 and 40 pounders) and have them filled in the summer when the demand for propane is low. this is just another sad symptom of truly scandalous criminals who infest our govt and commercial sectors.
When these SOBs have the power and the desire to use our necessities as tools of control, it is time to replace them! What is the old saying? Food as a weapon. The bastards in DC and their corporate buddies are quite possibly going to kill people by making the prices and availability of heating fuel what it is presently and they don’t care!
I watched that movie Assault on Wall Street last night. It seems kind of fitting for this scenario as well.
We have a wood burner as well as propane. My last top off was at $1.92 per gallon, didn’t get locked in on a fixed price again this year. I have two tanks, one for my home and the other for our tractor. Goodness, wonder how much it will be on my next top off. Sad.
Man am I glad we invaded Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Kuwait, and other middle eastern countries so we can keep our energy bills low.
had my 150 topped off today……price was $1.70 increase since last fillup (october) . I use it for HW and aux. heat……wood stove for primary
This is South Carolina…..so….price gouge all over it seems….moreso in some places than others…
Haaa!…we got a 80% chance of snow for the next 2 1/2 days…..rare over here and the collard green and “grits” state..