🔗 Share this article ‘A Critical Scenario’: Hostilities on Iran Squeezes India's LPG Stock. People wait in lines to buy LPG tanks for home cooking in a major Indian city. The shockwaves of a conflict being fought nearly 1,864 miles away are now being felt in India's households. As aerial attacks on Iran disrupt energy shipments through the key maritime chokepoint, supplies of kitchen fuel are shrinking across India, compelling restaurants to cut menus, shorten hours and in some cases close completely. Social media is awash with video clips showing lines outside fuel suppliers across Indian urban and rural areas as worries over fuel supplies spread. Businesses appear the worst hit: the biggest crunch is in food service establishments. "The situation is dire. LPG simply is unavailable," says a spokesperson of the an industry group. Most eateries run either on business-grade gas tanks or pipeline-supplied fuel, and the scarcities are now being experienced across the country. "Many restaurants have closed - some in the capital, many in the southern states. People are switching to coal and wood and electronic appliances to keep their operations going." Localized Effects In a western metro, media reports say up to a fifth of hotels and restaurants are already fully or partly shut as commercial LPG supplies tighten. In the southern cities of Bangalore and Madras, some eateries say their cylinder inventory have depleted with scarce alternatives. "Coffee is the sole item we can prepare and no food items - it is extremely difficult. Operations will be impacted," says a business operator in Bengaluru. A restaurant in a southern city which has closed its doors due to a scarcity of cooking gas. Restaurant managers are rushing to adjust. "Offering lists are shrinking, some are opening only for dinner and opening only for dinner," an industry representative says, adding that closures are changing as supplies wax and wane. "Several establishments in Delhi were shut yesterday - a couple are back in business. It's a fluid situation." Retailers note a surge in sales of induction stoves, with some saying they are facing stockouts. Authority's View Yet, the officials maintains there is no shortage. India has more than 300 million household consumers and officials say stocks are being prioritized to households as tensions from the Middle East conflict impact energy markets. Approximately 60% of India's LPG is brought in from overseas, and about the vast majority of those consignments pass through the key maritime route, the strategic bottleneck now effectively closed by the war. The petroleum ministry says that it directed refineries to increase LPG output for domestic use, enhancing domestic production by about 25%. Non-domestic supply is being reserved for vital industries such as healthcare and education, while distribution will be "just and open". "Unnecessary hoarding and stockpiling has been caused by misinformation. The normal delivery cycle for household cylinders remains about two-and-a-half days," says a government spokesperson. Growing Panic Now the worry is moving beyond kitchens. On social media, a widely shared video from Chennai shows a long, snaking queue of two-wheelers outside a petrol pump. "The panic is real," the description reads. India brings in up to most of the oil it consumes, leaving it highly exposed to interruptions in global supplies. According to reports from energy specialists, concerns about India's broader fuel supplies may be overstated. India imports almost all of its crude oil. Around half of its oil purchases - about 2.5-2.7 million barrels a day - travel through the strait, largely from regional suppliers. Even if oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted, the gap could be partly compensated for by higher imports of discounted Russian crude, according to a sector expert. Based on maritime intelligence and expert analysis, additional Russian crude imports could reach around 1-1.2 million barrels a day, narrowing India's effective gap from exposure to the Strait of Hormuz to about a substantial volume of barrels a day. "A large quantity of Russian oil barrels are currently on the water in the Indian Ocean and, with only two major Asian economies as major buyers, those barrels remain a available backup," an analyst noted. Cooking Gas: The Critical Weakness The real vulnerability is LPG, experts note. India consumes roughly 1 million barrels a day, but produces only less than half domestically, importing the rest - the vast majority through Hormuz. Refineries can tweak operations to produce a bit more LPG, but even a limited rise would only increase domestic supply to about under half of demand, leaving the country heavily reliant on imports. In short: "Crude supply risk can be somewhat alleviated through alternative sourcing. Fuel availability remains largely sufficient. Cooking gas supply is the real variable to track in the coming weeks." What may be intensifying the panic on the ground is not just tight supply but patchy deliveries - and the familiar spectre of panic buying. An industry representative states opportunistic profiteering. "Retailers are misusing the situation - selling fuel on the black market and selling them at a premium. In one small town, I heard of cylinders being hoarded and sold to the highest bidder." For now, India's energy imports may be cushioned by global trade flows. But in restaurants across the country, the more immediate question is simple: how to get the next cylinder.
People wait in lines to buy LPG tanks for home cooking in a major Indian city. The shockwaves of a conflict being fought nearly 1,864 miles away are now being felt in India's households. As aerial attacks on Iran disrupt energy shipments through the key maritime chokepoint, supplies of kitchen fuel are shrinking across India, compelling restaurants to cut menus, shorten hours and in some cases close completely. Social media is awash with video clips showing lines outside fuel suppliers across Indian urban and rural areas as worries over fuel supplies spread. Businesses appear the worst hit: the biggest crunch is in food service establishments. "The situation is dire. LPG simply is unavailable," says a spokesperson of the an industry group. Most eateries run either on business-grade gas tanks or pipeline-supplied fuel, and the scarcities are now being experienced across the country. "Many restaurants have closed - some in the capital, many in the southern states. People are switching to coal and wood and electronic appliances to keep their operations going." Localized Effects In a western metro, media reports say up to a fifth of hotels and restaurants are already fully or partly shut as commercial LPG supplies tighten. In the southern cities of Bangalore and Madras, some eateries say their cylinder inventory have depleted with scarce alternatives. "Coffee is the sole item we can prepare and no food items - it is extremely difficult. Operations will be impacted," says a business operator in Bengaluru. A restaurant in a southern city which has closed its doors due to a scarcity of cooking gas. Restaurant managers are rushing to adjust. "Offering lists are shrinking, some are opening only for dinner and opening only for dinner," an industry representative says, adding that closures are changing as supplies wax and wane. "Several establishments in Delhi were shut yesterday - a couple are back in business. It's a fluid situation." Retailers note a surge in sales of induction stoves, with some saying they are facing stockouts. Authority's View Yet, the officials maintains there is no shortage. India has more than 300 million household consumers and officials say stocks are being prioritized to households as tensions from the Middle East conflict impact energy markets. Approximately 60% of India's LPG is brought in from overseas, and about the vast majority of those consignments pass through the key maritime route, the strategic bottleneck now effectively closed by the war. The petroleum ministry says that it directed refineries to increase LPG output for domestic use, enhancing domestic production by about 25%. Non-domestic supply is being reserved for vital industries such as healthcare and education, while distribution will be "just and open". "Unnecessary hoarding and stockpiling has been caused by misinformation. The normal delivery cycle for household cylinders remains about two-and-a-half days," says a government spokesperson. Growing Panic Now the worry is moving beyond kitchens. On social media, a widely shared video from Chennai shows a long, snaking queue of two-wheelers outside a petrol pump. "The panic is real," the description reads. India brings in up to most of the oil it consumes, leaving it highly exposed to interruptions in global supplies. According to reports from energy specialists, concerns about India's broader fuel supplies may be overstated. India imports almost all of its crude oil. Around half of its oil purchases - about 2.5-2.7 million barrels a day - travel through the strait, largely from regional suppliers. Even if oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz are disrupted, the gap could be partly compensated for by higher imports of discounted Russian crude, according to a sector expert. Based on maritime intelligence and expert analysis, additional Russian crude imports could reach around 1-1.2 million barrels a day, narrowing India's effective gap from exposure to the Strait of Hormuz to about a substantial volume of barrels a day. "A large quantity of Russian oil barrels are currently on the water in the Indian Ocean and, with only two major Asian economies as major buyers, those barrels remain a available backup," an analyst noted. Cooking Gas: The Critical Weakness The real vulnerability is LPG, experts note. India consumes roughly 1 million barrels a day, but produces only less than half domestically, importing the rest - the vast majority through Hormuz. Refineries can tweak operations to produce a bit more LPG, but even a limited rise would only increase domestic supply to about under half of demand, leaving the country heavily reliant on imports. In short: "Crude supply risk can be somewhat alleviated through alternative sourcing. Fuel availability remains largely sufficient. Cooking gas supply is the real variable to track in the coming weeks." What may be intensifying the panic on the ground is not just tight supply but patchy deliveries - and the familiar spectre of panic buying. An industry representative states opportunistic profiteering. "Retailers are misusing the situation - selling fuel on the black market and selling them at a premium. In one small town, I heard of cylinders being hoarded and sold to the highest bidder." For now, India's energy imports may be cushioned by global trade flows. But in restaurants across the country, the more immediate question is simple: how to get the next cylinder.