The Port of Houston is on track to export over 10 million barrels of propane a month by the end of this summer. The Port of Houston's export volume is rising month over month by 800,000 barrels of propane to reach that volume. Already, the rate of export from that port alone has gone up from 6.1 Million to 6.8 million barrels in the last month. Meanwhile, most pipeline destinations in our area, from Ohio to New York State, have no propane available: the pipeline is empty, despite a stated current inventory of over 50 Million barrels of propane in the large salt domes at Mount Belvieu, Texas, where the pipeline begins. (That "50 million barrels," though, is not propane, it is raw make, that has to divided into its parts by fractionation. The fractionators have been running full tilt, but just cannot keep up.) 

To make the situation all the more puzzling is the fact that propane prices are the lowest they have been in years. Could it be that the exporters have tied up supply for years to come? Add to this that the major propane dealers, the biggest players in the industry, never run out of refinery slop, the odds and ends that their pals in the refining industry all but give away to them every day. The refineries team up with the majors to sell to the homeowner their waste product at exorbitant prices, so the refineries do not have to spend a fortune disposing of their "slop" as hazardous waste. (More on this in the next newsletter.)

Today's propane market is in shambles: it combines such short supply that the pipeline has almost no supply east of Indiana, while the price is as low as it has ever been. The folks running the pipeline say there is no supply because of "transit time." What they mean is that all the propane that used to come up the pipe for your home heat, is now pumped onto tankers for export at the Port of Houston. And the reason that all of America's propane is going abroad is that the exporters have been sold the berthing rights at American ports for years to come while they cash in on this bonanza - while Americans are often left with refinery slop. When will it end? When a world price for propane is set, and Americans will be paying the same high price for the propane we make here!

Contact Thrifty Propane today at 800-879-3152 or Visit us on the Web: www.thriftypropane.com