5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Mar 24, 2026 10:40 PM IST
Even as the West Asia war has created a serious energy crisis across the world, measures taken by the government such as enhanced refinery output, extended LPG booking intervals, prioritisation of household consumers, and promotion of alternative fuels have contributed significantly in managing the LPG crisis so far, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw said Tuesday. Separately, the Petroleum Ministry said that while LPG supply to the country has been hit due to the war—given India’s high dependence on West Asia for the fuel—a number of cargoes have been lined up to augment supplies.
The effective halt in vessel movements through the Strait of Hormuz due to the West Asia war has hit India’s energy supplies, particularly those of LPG, given that India depends on imports to meet around 60 per cent of the fuel’s needs and 90 per cent of those imports came through the critical maritime chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz. This means that around 54 per cent of India’s LPG supplies are effectively disrupted, which has forced the government to heavily cut supplies to commercial and industrial consumers in an effort to ensure uninterrupted supplies to crores of households that use the fuel for cooking.
Apart from prioritising LPG supplies to households over commercial and industrial consumers, the government ordered refiners to maximise LPG production, and directed them to divert propane, butane, and other streams from petrochemical manufacturing to LPG production. These measures have led to an increase of 40 per cent in domestic LPG production vis-à-vis pre-West Asia conflict levels. The government has also increased waiting times between cylinder bookings by households from 21 days to 25 days in urban areas and 45 days in rural areas to check hoarding behaviour and manage demand and supply. It has also activated alternative fuel streams like kerosene, fuel oil, biomass, and even coal for commercial consumers to help them cover their LPG shortfall.
The government has also been appealing to consumers to switch to piped natural gas (PNG) if it is available in their vicinity to take some pressure off of LPG supplies. Some CGD companies have also announced incentives like some volumes of free gas and waiver of connection charges to encourage consumers to sign up for PNG connections. The Centre has also urged states to help expedite PNG network expansion, and has even offered additional commercial LPG allocation if they take certain specific measures in this regard.
Vaishnaw said that in the first three weeks of March, city gas distribution (CGD) companies have activated over 3.5 lakh PNG connections—domestic as well as commercial—and can activate another 15 lakh over the next 10 days. “This should further reduce the average demand for domestic LPG and it should come down to around 50 lakh cylinders a day,” Vaishnaw said. Data shows that panic bookings for LPG cylinders by households has reduced, with daily booking levels now around the pre-conflict average of 55.7 lakh cylinders a day. Vaishnaw said that the average daily demand had come down to 55 lakh per day (as on March 19) from a peak of 89 lakh that it hit on March 13.
To further increase PNG adoption and reduce the pressure on LPG demand, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) on Monday directed CGD entities to prioritise PNG connections for residential schools, colleges, hostels, community kitchens, and anganwadi kitchens, within five days where pipelines are available, Petroleum Ministry Joint Secretary Sujata Sharma said Tuesday. Over 7,500 domestic and commercial PNG connections were issued or activated on Monday alone.
Although natural gas supplies to India have also been hit due to the Strait of Hormuz’s closure, the situation is not as concerning as in the case of LPG. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has hit roughly 30% of India’s natural gas supplies, as against 54% of the country’s LPG flows. Also, in the most vulnerable segment of household consumers, India has a huge LPG consumer base with 33.3 crore domestic connections. Households with PNG connections are far fewer at about 1.5 crore.
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Sharma said that while the supply of LPG has been affected by the prevailing geopolitical situation, a large number of cargoes have been “lined up” to ensure continued availability of the fuel, but did not provide further details on the number of such cargoes and the LPG volumes they are carrying. India has been making efforts to source LPG from non-West Asia geographies, particularly North America. She added that the fact that commercial LPG allocation has increased from 20% to 50% of requirement, while domestic supplies are being maintained at pre-war levels, goes to show that the supply situation has been improving.
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