Rocky Mountain Area Natural Gas Daily Price Review – July 2025

Brian Jeffries

The charts below depict the daily cash price for natural gas at Opal and at the Cheyenne Hub for each day in July 2025. Also shown are prices at some key locations downstream from Wyoming going to the west and going to the midcontinent region and the price for Waha, TX which represents the Permian Basin. The average daily spot price in Southwest Wyoming at Opal and the average daily spot prices in Southeast Wyoming and at the Cheyenne hub were essentially the same. The substantially lower price for Canadian supplies from Alberta (through Kingsgate, ID, the purple line on the first chart) and from British Columbia (through Sumas, WA, the orange line on the first chart) are evident. The low prices for imported gas at Sumas have caused Northwest Pipeline Company to flow southbound all month and in so doing, deliver Canadian gas into the Opal area for further disposition.

Tallgrass Energy has announced a potential project to move gas from the Permian Basin up to the Rockies Express Pipeline (REX). REX carries gas out of Wyoming and Colorado for subsequent delivery to the Western US via Kern River Transmission Company and Ruby Pipeline Company and carries gas out of Wyoming and Colorado directly to the Midwest US. The allure of this potential project to producers in the Permian Basin is the significantly higher price enjoyed by natural gas produced in Wyoming and Colorado than flows into REX compared to the prevailing prices in the Permian Basin. Because REX can flow in either an easterly or westerly direction, the gas delivered by this proposed pipeline into REX would compete with gas produced in Wyoming for markets in the Western US, markets within Wyoming (such as proposed data centers) and to markets in the Midwest US.

The second chart includes lines for the difference between Opal (Rockies gas) and Sumas (British Columbia gas) and for the difference between Opal and Kingsgate (Alberta gas) and for the difference between Opal and the Permian Basin. A negative value in the orange, purple and dashed grey lines depicts the extent to which British Columbia gas, Alberta gas and Permian gas respectively, were cheaper than Rockies gas in the daily market during July 2025.