Gulf Coast LPG terminaling fees have spiked to 30 c/gal, a level not seen since late 2024, and a direct consequence of the Iran war.
For most of the past five years, Gulf Coast spot LPG terminaling fees meandered well below their long-run average of roughly 8 c/gallon (left graph, red dashed line), with only occasional spikes — most notably a brief surge toward 30 c/gallon in late 2024, before collapsing back to the 4–5 c/gallon range through most of 2025.
Now fees have rocketed back to 30 c/gallon almost overnight according to OPIS. The U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran at the end of February triggered an effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint through which roughly 40% of global LPG supply flows. With Middle East cargoes stranded, several VLGCs (Very Large Gas Carriers, the industry’s LPG workhorse vessel) loaded from the Persian Gulf and are drifting at sea, unable to transit the strait. Consequently, Asian buyers are desperately competing for U.S. Gulf Coast supplies. That sudden stampede to U.S. export terminals is exactly what the spiking daily fee line and the highlighted data point in the right-hand graph are showing: The global market is repricing American LPG in real time as the world scrambles for supply alternatives.
