Nitrogen gas: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
Nitrogen gas is separated from air with electricity, either in large plants or small on-site units. It is used to blanket chemicals, freeze foods, make electronics and service oil wells. The series is a broad US industrial gases index proxy.
Proxy US PPI: industrial gases index (BLS base period) · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026There is no free public price for nitrogen gas itself, so this tab uses the closest public series as a stand-in. Read the numbers as an indication, not as the price of this exact item.
What its price moves with
Selected linkNitrogen gas and Oxygen
Monthly changes 0.39 weak correlation 12-month changes 0.55 moderate correlation Last 5 years 0.52 monthly changes Lead or lag none No clear lead or lag Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Nitrogen gas ≈ 5.15 × (Oxygen)0.67 R² 0.94 On this fit, a 10% higher oxygen price goes with a 6.6% higher nitrogen gas price over the long run. Units: index (BLS base period) and index (BLS base period).Chart: Nitrogen gas and Oxygen prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, log scale
Both prices rebased to 100 at Jan 2006, on a log scale so equal percentage moves look the same size.Chart: Nitrogen gas price against Oxygen price, monthly, log scales, with fitted line
Each dot is one month; paler dots are older (2006), darker dots recent (2026); the ringed dot is the latest month. The dashed line is the fitted price function. Both axes are logarithmic.Nitrogen and oxygen are made together in air separation units, so costs are shared. Monthly moves correlate at 0.39, yearly moves at 0.55 and the last five years at 0.52.
weak co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsArgon is recovered from the same plants. The argon and hydrogen index correlates with the proxy at 0.46 for monthly moves but only 0.05 for yearly moves, as hydrogen pricing differs.
moderate co-movement month to month · 208 months Show chartsHelium is a different gas from natural gas fields, but its index is part of the broad industrial gases index used as the proxy here. That overlap, not economics, explains most of the close match: monthly moves correlate at 0.79.
strong co-movement month to month · 207 months Show chartsElectricity is the main cost of making nitrogen. The proxy is US industrial power; monthly moves correlate at 0.05 and yearly moves at 0.39, because industrial gas contracts adjust slowly to power costs.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsNitrogen is pumped into oil and gas wells for fracturing and to keep pressure. The WTI proxy shows little link: monthly moves correlate at 0.04 and yearly moves at 0.30.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsHow to read these numbers
Correlation of monthly changes (the number in the coloured pill) compares how much each price moved, month by month, since 2006 or the first month both series exist. It runs from −1 to +1: near +1 the two usually rise and fall in the same months, near 0 there is no link, and a negative number means they tend to move in opposite directions. Above 0.7 is strong, 0.4 to 0.7 moderate, 0.2 to 0.4 weak.
12-month changes compare year-on-year moves, which shows whether two prices share the same cycles even when the month-to-month noise differs.
Price function is a straight-line fit of the two prices on logarithmic scales: price ≈ k × (partner price)β. β is how much this price moves, in per cent, for a 1% move in the partner over the whole period, and R² is the share of the variation the fit explains. Two prices that both drift up with inflation can fit well without any real link, so read it together with the monthly correlation.
Lead or lag checks whether the monthly correlation is clearly higher when one price is shifted by 1 to 6 months.
Correlation is not cause. The reasons on each card explain the economic link; the numbers show how strongly it has shown up in prices. Proxy series are US producer price indexes or related prices and can blur the real link.
Data: World Bank Commodity Price Data (Pink Sheet), October 2026; US Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price indexes, IMF primary commodity prices and US EIA prices via FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, retrieved November 2026. Calculations by this site.