Kansas Propane Price 2026: Cost Per Gallon, Suppliers & Delivery

Kansas residential propane runs $1.98/gal in 2026, roughly 26% below the national average and 4% below the Midwest regional norm. Conway, Kansas sits on top of one of two North American underground propane storage hubs, which is the structural reason Kansas is among the cheapest residential propane markets in the country. This is the no-spin breakdown: real fill-cost math, the LIEAP application window, the State Fire Marshal dealer search, and where Kansas sits versus its Midwest neighbours.

Latest EIA residential propane price

Source: EIA Kansas residential propane price survey. Current data is the final release of the 2025/26 heating season (week ending 30 March 2026). EIA pauses weekly publication April-September; next release expected October 2026. Refreshed 26 May 2026.

Kansas Propane Pricing Snapshot (2026)

Kansas residential avg

$1.98/gal

EIA 2026 SHOPP weekly survey, full-service residential delivery

vs national average

-26%

National avg $2.67/gal. KS pays $0.70 less per gallon.

vs Midwest region avg

-4%

Region avg $2.07/gal. KS runs below the regional norm thanks to the Conway storage hub.

Annual fuel cost (1,000 gal)

$1977

Typical KS propane-heat household uses 800-1,200 gal/year

500-gallon refill (400 usable)

$791

Most common residential tank size in KS

Best time to fill

May to Aug

Off-season pre-buy and cap-price contracts typically save 10-20%

Kansas is one of the cheapest US residential propane markets, sitting alongside Iowa, Nebraska, and the Dakotas in the cheap-Midwest cluster. The structural advantage is geographic: Conway, Kansas hosts one of only two North American underground propane storage hubs, with around 21 million barrels of salt-cavern capacity operated by Williams Companies. Kansas retailers source from a hub that is in-state rather than 1,000+ miles away.

Why Kansas Propane Prices Sit Where They Do

Kansas consistently sits in the bottom decile of US residential propane prices. The drivers are structural and geographic, not seasonal, which means the discount versus national average is durable and unlikely to compress without a major shift in regional infrastructure.

1. Conway storage hub on home soil. Conway, Kansas (McPherson County, about 50 miles north of Wichita) sits over a bedded salt formation deposited 250 million years ago. Williams Companies operates more than 140 underground salt caverns there with roughly 21 million barrels of NGL storage capacity. Conway is one of only two propane price benchmark hubs in North America, alongside Mont Belvieu, Texas. Kansas retailers source at the wholesale benchmark with effectively zero long-haul transport cost.

2. PADD 2 short-haul supply. Kansas is in EIA PADD 2 (Midwest), with major natural gas processing in Oklahoma, the Anadarko Basin, and the Texas Panhandle feeding propane production a few hundred miles south of the state. There is no rail-to-truck terminal margin in the supply chain because Conway is itself the terminal. The PADD 2 average wholesale residential propane price for the latest week was $$2.184/gal, and Kansas tracks that closely.

3. Year-round agricultural demand. Kansas burns large agricultural propane volumes outside the residential heating season: wheat, milo, and grain sorghum drying at harvest; irrigation engine fuel on western Kansas centre-pivot systems where natural gas hookups are absent; Flint Hills cattle operations; and weed-control flaming. That base load supports route economics for residential suppliers, keeping per-gallon overhead low even in the summer off-season.

4. Natural gas dominates urban heating. The Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City metros mostly heat with piped natural gas, leaving residential propane concentrated in rural counties west and central, plus pockets of eastern Kansas. The customer base is geographically dispersed but route-dense in farm country, so Kansas retailers can serve smaller villages economically, something that does not work in lower-density Northeast markets where propane retail prices run double.

Kansas Propane Fill Costs by Tank Size (at $1.98/gal)

Propane tanks fill to 80% of stated capacity (the "80% rule") to allow for thermal expansion. Below is what each fill costs at the Kansas 2026 average. Real-world quotes vary 10-15% above or below the EIA average depending on supplier, contract type, and delivery frequency.

Tank size	Usable gallons (80%)	Fill cost at $1.98/gal	vs national ($2.67/gal)
100 gal	80 gal	$158	-$56
250 gal	200 gal	$395	-$139
500 gal	400 gal	$791	-$279
1000 gal	800 gal	$1582	-$558

Compare to the national refill cost guide or check pricing in other states.

How to Find a Licensed Propane Supplier in Kansas

Kansas splits propane oversight between two state agencies. The State Fire Marshal handles dealer and installer certification and LP-Gas Code (NFPA 58) enforcement. The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Weights and Measures licenses the LPG service companies that test propane retail dispensers and bobtail meters for accuracy. Cross-check both lists before you buy.

Kansas State Fire Marshal, LP-Gas Section: licensing requirements, dealer / installer / mechanic certification search, and forms at firemarshal.ks.gov/186/Propane. Verify a quoting dealer's State Fire Marshal license number before signing.
Kansas Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures: LPG service company directory and complaints at agriculture.ks.gov/divisions-programs/weights-and-measures. If you suspect a meter is short-filling, this is the agency that inspects and prosecutes. Phone: 785-564-6681.
Propane Marketers Association of Kansas (PMAK): state trade association with about 200 members at pmak.org. Useful starting point for residential and agricultural dealer search.
National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) member directory at npga.org as a national backup.

Always get two or three written quotes that itemise per-gallon price, delivery fee, tank rental (if applicable), minimum-delivery surcharge, and any monthly tank fee. Per-gallon spreads of $0.20-$0.40 within the same Kansas county are common, even with statewide prices already low. Pre-buy and cap-price contracts signed in May-August routinely beat winter spot prices by 10-20%.

Tier-1 Kansas supplier list coming. A hand-curated list of named Kansas propane suppliers (with HQ, coverage area, and notes on contract types) is in our editorial pipeline. We publish supplier lists only once each name has been verified against the official Kansas State Fire Marshal licensed-dealer list and the supplier's active service-area page. We do not generate supplier names from training data; that is a hallucination risk we treat seriously.

Kansas Heating Season, Annual Use & LIEAP Assistance

Kansas's residential heating season runs roughly five months, late October through March, with peak demand in January and February when sub-zero overnight lows hit western Kansas. Spring (April-May) and fall (October-November) shoulder seasons see modest space-heating demand on cold nights, while June-August is essentially water-heating, cooking, and pool-heat only for propane households.

Typical Kansas propane-heat households consume 800-1,200 gallons per year, depending on house size, insulation, and how much of the load is propane versus electric. A 2,200 sqft farmhouse in central Kansas with propane handling space heat, water heat, range, and dryer averages 1,000-1,100 gallons. A propane-only-for-cooking-and-water-heating household, with electric or natural gas for space heat, runs 150-300 gallons annually. Western Kansas farmhouses with poor insulation can push past 1,500 gallons in cold winters.

Translated to dollars at the 2026 Kansas average: a 1,000 gallon household pays $1977 per year for fuel alone, before tank rental fees, delivery surcharges, or service contracts. That is about $697 less than a comparable household in a national-average market and roughly $1803 less than a Connecticut household at the more expensive end of the country.

LIEAP assistance for income-qualified Kansas households. The Kansas Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP), administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), pays a one-time annual benefit toward winter heating costs including propane. Eligibility is set at or below 150% of the federal poverty level. Important: the application window is narrow. The 2026 program ran 20 January through 5 p.m. on 31 March 2026, then closed. Apply at lieap.dcf.ks.gov, by paper at any DCF service center, or by calling 1-888-369-4777. If you missed 2026, mark late January 2027.

Tornado-season top-up is the second biggest tactical move. Kansas sits in the heart of Tornado Alley with peak severe-weather season April-June. Standby propane generators are common in rural Kansas, and demand for emergency generator fills spikes after multi-day grid outages. Going into April with a tank above 70% capacity is the practical baseline. Same logic applies before the January-February ice-storm window. Avoid will-call refills during active storm warnings, bobtail trucks deprioritise non-emergency fills when generator demand surges.

Kansas vs Other Midwest States (2026)

State	Price/gal	500-gal refill (400 usable)	vs national ($2.67)
Nebraska	$1.64	$657	-39%
Iowa	$1.66	$664	-38%
North Dakota	$1.70	$680	-36%
South Dakota	$1.84	$736	-31%
Kansas (this page)	$1.98	$791	-26%
Illinois	$2.03	$810	-24%
Minnesota	$2.06	$822	-23%
Wisconsin	$2.07	$826	-23%
Missouri	$2.21	$884	-17%
Michigan	$2.37	$948	-11%
Indiana	$2.63	$1054	-1%
Ohio	$2.69	$1078	+1%

Kansas sits in the cheap-Midwest cluster alongside Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and the Dakotas, all close to PADD 2 production and the Conway storage hub. Higher-priced Midwest states (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana) reflect longer transport distances, denser urban customer bases that are more reliant on natural gas, and weaker per-route economics. The full Midwest region averages $2.07/gal, which itself sits below the $2.67 national mark.

Kansas Propane FAQ

Why is propane so cheap in Kansas?

Two structural reasons. First, Conway, Kansas is one of only two North American underground propane storage hubs (the other is Mont Belvieu, Texas). Williams Companies operates more than 140 salt caverns at Conway with around 21 million barrels of natural gas liquids storage capacity, and Conway functions as a published price benchmark for the central US propane market. Kansas retailers therefore sit on top of the cheapest possible supply, with effectively zero long-haul transport cost. Second, Kansas is in PADD 2 (Midwest), close to high-volume natural gas processing in Oklahoma and the Anadarko Basin, so wholesale propane only travels short distances before reaching state retailers. The 2026 EIA average for Kansas is $1.98/gal compared to $2.67/gal nationally and $2.07/gal across the Midwest region, which puts Kansas roughly 26% below the US average and one of the cheapest residential propane markets in the country.

Am I eligible for LIEAP, the Kansas heating-fuel assistance program?

LIEAP (Low Income Energy Assistance Program) is administered by the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and pays a one-time annual benefit toward winter heating costs, including propane. Eligibility is generally set at or below 150% of the federal poverty level, with adults responsible for the home's heating costs at the address. The benefit is paid directly to your propane supplier or utility. Important Kansas-specific catch: the application window is narrow. The 2026 program ran 20 January through 5 p.m. on 31 March 2026 and then closed. There is no rolling year-round intake. Apply at lieap.dcf.ks.gov, by paper at any DCF service center, or by calling 1-888-369-4777. If you missed the 2026 window, mark your calendar for late January 2027 and apply in the first week to avoid March-end backlogs.

How do I find a licensed propane dealer in Kansas?

Kansas splits propane oversight between two state agencies, and you should cross-check both. The Kansas State Fire Marshal handles LP-Gas Code enforcement (NFPA 58), dealer and installer certification, and the licensed-dealer search at firemarshal.ks.gov/186/Propane. The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Weights and Measures licenses the LPG service companies that test and certify retail propane dispensers and bobtail meters for accuracy, with the LPG Service Company List at agriculture.ks.gov. Buying from anyone outside both lists is a safety and consumer-protection risk. Also worth searching: the Propane Marketers Association of Kansas (PMAK) at pmak.org, the state trade body with about 200 member companies. National backup directory is npga.org. Always get two or three written quotes and check the dealer's State Fire Marshal license number before signing.

What is the Conway, Kansas propane storage hub and why does it matter for my fill price?

Conway, Kansas (about 50 miles north of Wichita, in McPherson County) sits over a 250-million-year-old bedded salt formation. Beginning in the 1950s, NGL storage operators excavated underground caverns by injecting fresh water to dissolve the salt, creating sealed pressure-tight storage chambers. Today Williams Companies operates more than 140 caverns at Conway with around 21 million barrels of NGL storage capacity (propane, butane, isobutane, ethane, natural gasoline). Mont Belvieu, Texas is the larger US hub at over 240 million barrels, but Conway is the only meaningful storage hub in the central US and publishes its own propane benchmark price. For Kansas residential customers, the practical effect is that wholesale propane is locally abundant, supply chain length to a Kansas retailer is measured in tens of miles rather than hundreds, and there is no rail-to-truck terminal margin layered into your per-gallon price. This is the single biggest reason Kansas runs 4% below the Midwest regional average of $2.07/gal.

Is propane used heavily for agriculture in Kansas?

Yes, Kansas is one of the largest agricultural propane markets in the country, and that off-season demand helps stabilise residential pricing too. The biggest agricultural uses are: grain drying for hard red winter wheat (Kansas is the #1 US wheat-producing state) and for grain sorghum and milo, both of which need propane-fired dryers in wet harvests; irrigation engine fuel on centre-pivot systems across western Kansas where natural gas hookups are absent; cattle feedlot heating, branding, and weed-control flaming across the Flint Hills and southwest Kansas; and frost-protection burners in fruit and vegetable operations in eastern Kansas. Year-round agricultural demand gives Kansas suppliers strong route economics, which keeps residential per-gallon margins competitive even outside the heating season.

Are propane prices the same across Kansas, or is rural western Kansas different?

Statewide pricing is unusually flat in Kansas because the Conway hub sits geographically in the centre of the state, so no Kansas zip code is more than about 250 miles from primary storage. Rural western Kansas (Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal, Goodland) does see slightly higher per-gallon retail rates than south-central Kansas (McPherson, Hutchinson, Wichita) because of longer truck-route distances and lower customer density per route, but the spread is typically only $0.10-$0.20/gal, much narrower than in states without a state-internal storage hub. Western Kansas is also where propane matters most as a residential fuel: natural gas distribution thins out west of the Wichita-Salina line, and propane is the dominant heating fuel for many rural households. The Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City metros mostly heat with natural gas and use propane for cooking, water heating, generators, and outdoor appliances.

Should I top up my tank before tornado season in Kansas?

Yes, and not just for tornadoes. Kansas sits in the heart of Tornado Alley with peak severe-weather season running roughly April through June. A propane standby generator is the most common backup power source for rural Kansas homes, and demand for emergency generator fills spikes during multi-day grid outages after spring storms. Going into April with a tank above 70% capacity is the practical baseline. The same applies to ice-storm risk in January and February. Fill in late summer or early autumn at the seasonal price low (May through August off-season pre-buy windows are when most Kansas suppliers run cap-price contracts) so you arrive at winter and storm season already topped up. Avoid will-call refills during active storm warnings: bobtail trucks deprioritise non-emergency fills when generator demand surges.