Natural Gasoline
Mont Belvieu (OPIS) / CME
Pentanes plus, the heaviest NGL: half gasoline blendstock and half the diluent that lets Canadian bitumen flow through a pipe.
Pentanes plus, the heaviest NGL: half gasoline blendstock and half the diluent that lets Canadian bitumen flow through a pipe.
Top Producers
approximate share of world natural gasoline / pentanes-plus supply (indicative)
Main Uses
indicative split of natural gasoline demand by end use
Can it be a contract?
6 of 8 tests passed
- Written grade spec: passes. A published specification a buyer will accept sight-unseen.Published grade specification
- Fungible: passes. Any lot of the grade substitutes for any other.Any lot substitutes for another
- Dispatchable: passes. Available at the cadence the buyer needs. Storage is only one route to that; generation and continuous flow are others, which is why power trades without being storable.Available on demand from stock or flow
- Delivery point: passes. A point the trade already uses can stand for the market. A contract cannot invent a delivery location; it has to adopt one the physical flows already run through. The clearest proof that a point qualifies is a liquid basis market against it: every other US gas hub quotes as a spread to Henry Hub, every ISO node settles against its hub, and grades quote as differentials to Brent. Where a point has no basis market quoting off it, it is not really the delivery point.A delivery point the trade already uses
- Observable spot price: partly. Somebody publishes or assesses a price the trade recognises.Mont Belvieu assessment
- Many on both sides: partly. Enough independent buyers and sellers that no one party sets the price.Blenders and diluent buyers, a narrow set
- Volatility worth hedging: passes. Prices move enough that someone needs to transfer the risk.Moves enough to need hedging
- Enforceable venue: passes. Contracts can be written and enforced where both sides trust the courts. This is separate from the delivery point and often decides it: Russia and Saudi Arabia sit on enormous, long-established physical flows and no forward settles in either, because the flow test passes and the law test does not.Enforceable in a trusted jurisdiction
Forward market: Yes
Passes as a US hub market; the most crude-like of the NGLs.
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Also called
pentanes plus, C5+
structural
Largest use
diluent for Canadian oil-sands bitumen
as of 2026
Hub
Mont Belvieu, Texas (OPIS / Argus)
as of 2026
Pricing
cents per gallon, nearest to crude of the NGLs
as of 2026
Natural gasoline, also called pentanes plus or C5+, is the heaviest and least volatile cut of the NGL barrel, a light liquid that looks and behaves much like a very light crude or condensate. It is recovered from gas processing and condensate, and it has three main lives. The biggest and most distinctive is as a diluent: it is blended into thick Canadian oil-sands bitumen so the resulting "dilbit" will flow through pipelines. The second is gasoline blending, and the third is as a petrochemical feedstock cracked for ethylene.
This is, again, a US shale story with a hub at Mont Belvieu, Texas. The surge in shale NGLs made the US a big exporter of natural gasoline, and a major volume flows north to Canada as diluent, a trade that ties US gas-processing output to Canadian heavy-oil production. Because it is so close to crude in character, natural gasoline usually prices nearest to crude oil of any NGL, frequently around or even above the WTI level.
There are active US markets: physical natural gasoline trades against OPIS and Argus assessments at Mont Belvieu in cents per gallon, and CME lists a financially-settled OPIS Mont Belvieu natural gasoline swap future alongside propane and butane. It completes the tradeable NGL barrel of ethane, propane, butane, and natural gasoline.
How It Trades
| Venue | Mont Belvieu physical (OPIS, Argus); CME OPIS-settled swaps |
| Benchmark contract | OPIS Mont Belvieu natural gasoline; CME natural gasoline (OPIS) swap future |
| Contract size | CME swaps 42,000 gallons (1,000 barrels); physical in barrels |
| Price terms | US cents per gallon (close to crude, often near WTI) |
| Settlement | Physical at Mont Belvieu; CME contracts financially settled against OPIS |
| Typical curve | Tracks crude oil and Canadian diluent demand more than seasonal gasoline blending |
| Liquidity | An active US NGL market; the heaviest and most crude-like of the NGLs |
Supply and Demand
Top producers
- United States: the dominant producer from shale gas processing
- Canada and other gas-processing regions
- Condensate-rich gas fields worldwide
A by-product of gas processing and condensate; US supply rose sharply with shale.
Top consumers
- Canadian oil-sands producers (diluent for bitumen)
- Gasoline blenders
- Petrochemical crackers (ethylene feed)
- Export markets
Major uses
- Diluent to make Canadian bitumen pipelineable (the largest use)
- Gasoline blending
- Ethylene cracker feedstock
What Moves the Price
- Crude oil prices (natural gasoline prices nearest to crude of any NGL)
- Canadian oil-sands production and diluent demand
- US shale NGL production
- Gasoline blending economics
- Ethylene feedstock economics
Moments That Made the Market
2010s
Shale NGL growth makes the US a major natural gasoline exporter and Canada's diluent supplier.
Ongoing
Diluent demand ties US gas processing to Canadian heavy-oil pipeline flows.
What Changed Since the 2010 Era
- US natural gasoline became the diluent that moves Canadian bitumen.
- Mont Belvieu set the price for a newly abundant NGL.
- OPIS swaps made the heaviest NGL hedgeable.