Permian Producers Will Pay You to Haul Their Natural Gas Away [Video]

Imagine a sign by the egg case at your local H-E-B: “Take a dozen home. Please. We’ll pay you $4 per carton. No limit per customer.”

Sound outlandish? Maybe, but this is essentially what has happened with natural gas in West Texas in recent days. Last weekend, the price for gas at the Waha Hub, a major pipeline junction near Fort Stockton, was -$3 per thousand cubic feet. That’s negative three dollars. If you sent gas to Waha, you had to pay someone to take it off your hands.

You may now be saying to yourself, “I’d like some of that gas. I use natural gas to cook dinner every night. Can I get paid to burn gas?” The answer to your question is: Not unless you own a pipeline between West Texas and your house.

By the time gas gets to a pipeline hub that feeds cities and towns and a gas …