The Centre has moved to prioritise cooking gas supplies for households and curb hoarding by mandating a 25-day lock-in period for booking LPG cylinders, even as India secures additional LPG cargoes from global suppliers to safeguard domestic availability.
Officials said the government has begun sourcing LPGfrom the international portfolios of global companies, including the UAE’sAdnoc (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and Algeria’s state-run oil and gas firm Sonatrach, while cargo deliveries from Australia, Algeria, Canada and the United States are already underway.
“The priority for LPG supply in this situation is domestic consumers. Further, in order to curb hoarding of cooking gas, a 25-day lock-in period has been implemented,” said a senior official aware of the development.
New LPG booking system for households
Under the revised system, households will be able to book a new LPG cylinder only after 25 days of the previous booking, compared with the earlier lock-in period of 15 days that was later increased to 21 days, officials said.
The petroleum ministry has also issued a revised order directing refiners to maximise LPG production by diverting feedstock streams away from petrochemicals and other non-essential products.
Under the March 9 order, the government instructed all refining and petrochemical complexes to prioritise LPG production for domestic consumption.
The directive states that “all domestic/SEZ oil refining companies, including petrochemical complexes operating in India shall maximize and ensure that the entire production of C3 and C4 streams, including propane, butane, propylene, butenes… is utilised for production of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) pool and make it available to the three public sector OMCs viz. IOCL, HPCL and BPCL only.”
What does the order direct refiners to do?
The order also directs refiners not to divert these streams for manufacturing petrochemical products or other downstream derivatives, and requires public sector oil marketing companies to ensure LPG is “supplied/marketed solely to consumers of domestic LPG only.”
Officials said the measures effectively prioritise household consumption over industrial and commercial users such as ceramics manufacturers, hotels and restaurants, which could face supply constraints if shortages intensify.
India is among the world’s largest LPG importers and relies heavily on overseas supplies. The country imported $12.47 billion worth of LPG in FY25, while imports in the current financial year had already reached $11.25 billion by January.
According to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), India imported 18.79 million metric tonnes of LPG during April-January FY26, compared with 17.2 million tonnes during the same period of the previous fiscal. In FY26, LPG consumption stood at around 28 million tonnes, reflecting strong demand in a country where cooking gas has become the dominant household fuel.
Domestic production remains significantly lower than demand. India produced around 12.8 million tonnes of LPG in FY25, while it consumed 31.3 million tonnes of LPG, with the bulk used by households.
The latest measures are aimed at safeguarding supplies for over 33 crore domestic LPG consumers, including more than 10.5 crore beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, as the government seeks to prevent shortages amid tightening global energy markets. |
