Gas pipelines and city gas: Correlation
Prices it moves with, and why
City gas and pipeline prices pass through the wholesale gas cost plus regulated network charges. In India and many other markets, regulators set transport tariffs and domestic gas prices, so retail prices lag wholesale swings by months.
Proxy US PPI: natural gas delivered to ultimate consumers index · monthly, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026There is no free public price for gas pipelines and city 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 linkGas pipelines and city gas and Biogas and biomethane
Monthly changes 0.15 little or none correlation 12-month changes 0.79 strong correlation Last 5 years 0.10 monthly changes Lead or lag +1 mo Biogas and biomethane tends to lead by 1 month (r 0.60) Price function, Jan 2006 to Sep 2026 Gas pipelines and city gas ≈ 178.6 × (Biogas and biomethane)0.16 R² 0.14 On this fit, a 10% higher biogas and biomethane price goes with a 1.5% higher gas pipelines and city gas price over the long run. Units: index and US$/mmbtu. The fit is loose, so treat the function as a rough guide.Chart: Gas pipelines and city gas and Biogas and biomethane 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: Gas pipelines and city gas price against Biogas and biomethane 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.The biomethane tile uses the US Henry Hub gas price as its proxy, the wholesale cost behind US delivered gas, and biomethane itself is injected into the same grids. Delivered prices smooth it: monthly moves correlate at 0.15 but yearly moves at 0.79.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsThe natural gas tile uses the European price, which shares global LNG shocks with US gas. Delivered US gas tracks it at 0.73 for yearly moves but only 0.09 for monthly moves, because regulated tariffs and storage smooth short swings.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsLNG imports supply city gas in Japan, India and Europe, and US LNG exports tie Henry Hub to world prices. The Japan LNG price correlates with the delivered gas proxy at 0.62 for yearly moves but only 0.18 for monthly moves.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsTransmission pipelines use steel line pipe, so steel affects the cost of new lines and therefore network charges. Yearly moves correlate at 0.68, partly because both prices follow general energy and industrial inflation.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsMost new low-pressure gas mains are polyethylene pipe, which is cheap and resists corrosion. The plastics proxy correlates at 0.62 for yearly moves, a link that partly reflects both prices responding to oil and gas costs.
little or none co-movement month to month · 249 months Show chartsGas networks may carry hydrogen blends or be converted to pure hydrogen, though steel embrittlement and lower energy per volume limit this. Hydrogen policy therefore affects the long-term value of gas pipeline assets.
little or none co-movement month to month · 208 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.