What is the Waha basis?

curl -H "Authorization: Token YOUR_KEY" \
  "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/prices/past_year?by_code=NATURAL_GAS_WAHA&interval=daily"
# repeat with by_code=NATURAL_GAS_HENRY_HUB_SPOT_USD; subtract on shared UTC as_of dates

How is the Waha basis calculated?

Take the Waha price and subtract the Henry Hub price for the same day. EIA defines basis the same way, as the difference between a regional price and the Henry Hub price. On 15 April 2026 Waha settled at −$9.52 and Henry Hub at $2.78, a basis of −$12.30, the widest in our series.

A negative basis means Permian gas sells for less than gas in Louisiana. A positive basis means the reverse, and at Waha it is rare: in Winter Storm Fern, Waha averaged $14.47 on 23 January 2026 (NGI) against Henry Hub's $5.06, a premium of $9.41. During Winter Storm Uri the premium reached $40.36 on 17 February 2021.

What moves it?

• Pipeline capacity. The basis widens when Permian pipelines are constrained and narrows as constraints ease (EIA). New capacity has narrowed it each time: the week Permian Highway entered service in January 2021, Waha traded 3¢ above Henry Hub (EIA).
• Maintenance. Pipeline outages cut capacity overnight. Maintenance events produced discounts of more than $5/MMBtu between September 2022 and January 2023 (EIA).
• Weather. Cold in Texas raises local demand and freezes production, which is when Waha trades above Henry Hub.
• Production growth. Permian gas comes up with oil, so supply keeps rising between pipeline additions and pushes the discount back out.

The Waha basis by year

OilPriceAPI daily series; basis computed on dates both hubs report. EIA's figures for the same periods differ slightly because they use NGI's index: EIA puts the 2019 average at −$1.66 and found Waha below zero on 42% of 2024 trading days, against our 104 of 248. The widest single day EIA reported in 2019 was 3 April, $8.42 below Henry Hub.

How the basis trades

ICE lists a Waha Basis Future (WAH): a monthly, cash-settled contract worth the Inside FERC Waha bidweek index minus the NYMEX Henry Hub futures settlement, 2,500 MMBtu per contract. In the physical market, a bidweek basis deal sets its price at the NYMEX final settlement plus or minus the negotiated basis (Platts methodology, 2020).

Using the data

Pull NATURAL_GAS_WAHA and NATURAL_GAS_HENRY_HUB_SPOT_USD daily history and subtract only on shared UTC as_of dates. EIA Henry Hub spot can arrive several days after Waha, so the latest two prints may refer to different days. For ranges beyond a year use /v1/prices?by_code=…&by_period[from]=…&by_period[to]=…. Responses are paged: read X-Total and X-Total-Pages and request each page. See also what is the Waha hub.