Propane supply remains down, prices remain up

While gas prices have been up and down lately, one fuel has yet to take its annual summer swoon. Iowa D-N-R energy data analyst Jennifer Moehlmann says propane is selling at 94 cents-a-gallon — about 21-percent above last year’s price at this time. She says that’s unusual, as the price of propane usually drops in the summer, and that’s whey they encourage people to fill their tanks this time of year. Moehlmann says the simple economics of supply and demand are keeping the propane price up. She says the supply is only about 70 percent of last year’s level, as we used a lot of propane last winter. She says Canada, which supplies a lot of our propane, also had a cold winter, so they haven’t been supplying the U-S as fast as in the past. Moehlmann says the normal summer price drop probably won’t happen this year. She says if you plan to “summer fill,” you aren’t going to save much money. Moehlmann says the higher price of propane could end up being a problem for farmers who use it in the fall to dry grain. She says we need to hope for a short or non crop-drying season. She says two years ago farmers didn’t need to dry crops, but last year they did and that was another factor in pulling down the gas supply.