- Blog

Do You Realize? - The Inside Story of the Wholesale and Retail Propane Markets

In 2024, more than 9 billion gallons of propane were delivered to U.S. consumer markets, primarily for residential heating and cooking, with substantial volumes supporting the commercial, industrial, agricultural and transportation sectors. It is a physically complicated business because, unlike electricity and natural gas, which are delivered through wires and pipelines, respectively, the vast majority of the propane used by U.S. consumers is delivered by some combination of pipelines, rail cars and, ultimately, trucks. How does that complicated supply chain work in real life? In today’s RBN blog, we begin a detailed look at the U.S. propane market. 

- Blog

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet - Ethane Exports Driving Surge in Production and Infrastructure

Author Todd Root

What’s the fastest-growing U.S. hydrocarbon? You guessed it — ethane. Since 2016, ethane production has grown at almost 2.5 times the rate of crude oil or natural gas and 1.5X that of other natural gas liquids (NGLs). And there’s a lot more upside potential where that came from. It’s entirely demand-pull, meaning that U.S. ethane production growth is being driven by increasing domestic and export demand for the petrochemical feedstock. Shell’s new steam cracker in Pennsylvania is online, CP Chem and Qatar Energy are planning a new cracker in Orange, TX, and other projects are in the works. On the exports front, both Enterprise and Energy Transfer announced export-terminal-expansion projects in 2022. All this new ethane demand needs supply, and fortunately the U.S. has the barrels, not only from ever-increasing NGL production, but also from ethane that today is being rejected and sold as natural gas. And the markets will need new pipes, fractionators, and ships to get that ethane to market. With today’s RBN blog, we begin a series to explore what these developments mean for U.S. ethane market players.

- Blog

It Takes Two, Part 4 - Rising Export Demand Will Reduce U.S. Ethane Rejection and Goose Prices

Author Housley Carr

For the past few years, demand for U.S.-sourced ethane has been on the rise as petrochemical companies in the U.S. and abroad developed new, ethane-only steam crackers and retrofitted existing crackers to allow more ethane to be used as feedstock. U.S. NGL production was increasing too, of course, alongside growth in crude oil-focused plays like the Permian and “wet” gas plays like the Marcellus/Utica. But recently, drilling-and-completion activity has slowed to a crawl and NGL production has been leveling off, which means that less of the ethane that comes out of the ground with oil and gas will be “rejected” into natural gas and more will be separated out at fractionation plants. Today, we conclude a series on ethane exports with a look at U.S. NGL production, ethane supply and demand, ethane exports, and ethane prices.