The ongoing war in the Gulf countries has badly affected the global gas and oil supply. This geopolitical crisis had a direct impact on the supply of commercial LPG in India. But now the government has taken a big step to ease the supply. The Center has increased the allocation of commercial LPG to states and union territories to 70 percent.
Why was there a cut?
Actually, the Strait of Hormuz is a major route for energy supply across the world. Due to the war going on for the last four weeks, the movement through this sea route has been disrupted. In view of this global crisis, the Indian government had initially cut the supply of commercial gas. The clear priority of the government behind this was to ensure that the supply of domestic LPG is not affected under any circumstances and the stoves in common houses continue to burn without any interruption. Due to this strategic step, initially commercial establishments faced shortage of gas. The government believes that the current global situation is worrying, but work is being done on a war footing to keep the situation under complete control.
Who will get the gas?
Now, taking care of the situation, the total quota of commercial gas has been increased to 70 percent. Earlier on March 21, the government had decided to provide 20 percent additional gas to essential sectors, which included restaurants, dhabas, hotels, community kitchens and 5 kg FTL cylinders for migrant labourers. With this the total allocation had reached 50 percent.
According to Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, the main focus of the new 20 percent increase will be on labour-intensive industries like steel, automobile, textile, chemicals and plastics, which employ lakhs of people. Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Petroleum Ministry, has clarified in a letter to the states that priority in gas allocation will be given to those industries which require special heating and where natural gas cannot be used as an alternative. Additionally, states have also been urged to immediately avail the benefits of 10% reform-based quota on the basis of Ease of Doing Business.
Emphasis on Pipeline Gas (PNG)
This supply crisis has made it clear that for future energy needs, we will have to move rapidly towards PNG (Piped Natural Gas). The government is aggressively promoting PNG for commercial use and has appealed to states to expedite approvals for city gas distribution networks. So far, 27 states and union territories have issued orders for gas allocation as per the guidelines of the Centre. From March 14, 2026 till now, approximately 25,922 metric tons of gas has been lifted by commercial entities. It is also a matter of relief that all the refineries of the country are working at high capacity, due to which there is no shortage of petrol and diesel.
Does the country have sufficient gas reserves?
At this time, the biggest question in the minds of many people is whether there will be a shortage of gas in the coming days? The official figures are quite reassuring. India has increased its domestic refinery production by a huge 40 percent. The total daily requirement of the country is about 80 TMT, and now India is producing 50 TMT of LPG itself every day.
Due to increase in domestic production, our daily dependence on imports has reduced to only 30 TMT. This simply means that we are producing more gas ourselves than importing it. To fully secure the supply, 800 TMT LPG cargo from countries like USA, Russia and Australia is en route to 22 import terminals in India. The government has secured a supply backup of one month and further procurement process is also going on continuously.